The English PhD discourse is basically a Rorschach test. You see how few people understand what goes into a doctorate. You see how few people think about the humanities as a key to being human. It's really sad to see people reduce all education to its market value. I don't want
Joshua McManaway
8,872 posts
Asst Prof of the Practice @McGrathND. Historian of Christianity. Academic Director, "Take a Second Look." BA Classics: ECU. MA and PhD @NotreDame.
- I'm in a season of life where I'm thinking more and more about the spaces where I spend my time. The university spent millions of dollars renovating spaces in our library to look like sterile, modern, fluorescent, We Work, Apple store sorts of places. The students study instead
- Replying to @jrmcmanawayin the lobby of the hotel on campus because it is dark, decorated with pictures and books, and has a fireplace. Maybe we should invest more in that and less in places that look like fertile ground for another dot com bust.
- Replying to @jrmcmanawayFor contrast, here's a pic I took a few weeks ago in a reading room in the Vatican library. Imagine the big thoughts you could have here.
- Replying to @jrmcmanawaymarket determining what it means to be human. I want to understand literature, history, philosophy, art, etc, because it helps me to understand the world in which I live.
- Replying to @KarisRidesI doubt she wrote her dissertation to impress any of us.
- Replying to @KarisRidesCambridge thought it was worth a PhD from Cambridge.
- Replying to @KarisRidesI think it's interesting. Sorry to hear about the guys who couldn't find funding for their research.
- I love reading commentaries on the Apocalypse that say something like, "In the Greco-Roman context, the sea turning into blood would have been seen as an ominous sign." Like...yes...that is true in every context.
- Replying to @renault_captain and @irgarnerWhat would be a worthwhile topic for you? Do not all fields have their specialized languages that seem opaque to outsiders?
- It sounds like she already has other projects in the works. In the humanities, it is not uncommon that one would write something quite different from their dissertation on their path to tenure. I have a book on the creed coming out. I wrote my diss on Nestorianism.
- I teach History of the Papacy here at @NotreDame and there's one thing I know for sure: nobody knows who the next Pope will be. The history of conclaves is a history of surprises and unintended consequences.
- The more relevant Latin theological phrase is not ordo amoris, but libido dominandi - the lust for domination, a favorite phrase of St. Augustine's. Political spite, glee over the despair of others, "owning" others, trolling others, etc, are all born out of this impulse.
- Replying to @FlooMugatiWhat's the title of the paper? I would love to read it.


