Academic diary : : or why higher education still matters / / Les Back.

• Superior document: Goldsmiths Press
• VerfasserIn: Back, Les, 1962-
• Place / Publishing House: London, [England] : : Goldsmiths Press,, 2016.; Cambridge, Massachusetts : : The MIT Press,, [date of distribution not identified]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Goldsmiths Press
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (273 pages)

Sharp and witty observations of academic life that range from the local to the global, from PowerPoint to the halls of power. Is a university education still relevant? What are the forces that threaten it? Should academics ever be allowed near Twitter? In Academic Diary, Les Back has chronicled three decades of his academic career, turning his sharp and often satirical eye to the everyday aspects of life on campus and the larger forces that are reshaping it. Presented as a collection of entries from a single academic year, the diary moves from the local to the global, from PowerPoint to the halls of power. With entries like “Ivory Towers” and “The Library Angel,” these smart, humorous, and sometimes absurd campus tales not only demystify the opaque rituals of scholarship but also offer a personal perspective on the far-reaching issues of university life. Commenting on topics that range from the impact of commercialization and fee increases to measurement and auditing research, the diary offers a critical analysis of higher education today. At the same time, it is a passionate argument for the life of the mind, the importance of collaborative thinking, and the reasons that scholarship and writing are still vital for making sense of our troubled and divided world.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Academic Time -- Autumn Term -- 10 September: Graduation -- 15 September: Everyone Has a Teacher Story -- 17 September: Letter to a New Student -- 20 September: Welcome Week -- 25 September: Goldsmiths and its District -- 27 September: Ratology -- 28 September: Students Not Suspects -- 7 October: Open Day -- 12 October: Stuart Hall Lessons -- 25 October: Teaching -- 31 October: The Uses of Literacy Today -- 5 November: Death by PowerPoint -- 8 November: The Value in Academic Writing -- 20 November: Research Expenses -- 27 November: Extra Curricular -- 29 November: College Green -- 3 December: Meeting John Berger -- 9 December: An Education of Sorts -- 10 December: Class Mobility -- 17 December: Bourdieu Behind Bars -- 29 December: New Year's Honours -- Spring Term -- 10 January: The Diary Disease -- 16 January: Remembering Paul -- 18 January: Recognition -- 25 January: Holding the Fort -- 5 February: Academic Uses and Abuses of Twitter -- 12 February: Generosity as a Strategy for Survival -- 26 February: Professionals and Amateurs -- 7 March: Reading and Remembering -- 10 March: Campus Watch -- 15 March: Writing Routines and the Torture of Starting -- 21 March: That Special Pen -- 1 April: Viral Warning -- 10 April: Ivory Towers -- 16 April: Conference Etiquette -- 19 April: Academic Rights -- 20 April: Casts of Minds -- 27 April: The Devil You Know -- 2 May: Supervision -- 9 May: Thinking Together -- 16 May: The Doublethink of Open Access -- 20 May: Against Intellectual Suicide -- The Summer -- 7 June: Silence Please - Exam in Progress -- 9 June: The Exam Board -- 14 June: On the Occasion of Retirement -- 20 June: The Writer's Desk -- 30 June: The Library Angel -- 4 July: The PhD Viva -- 17 July: Writing and Scholastic Style -- 24 July: 'And What Do You Do for a Living . . .?' -- 19 August: Primo Levi's House.

31 August: Lost Notebook -- Afterword:How the Diary Came to Be Written in the First Place -- Tips, Leads and Follow-Ups -- Universities in changing times -- Campus fictions -- Students, learning and teaching -- On writing and writers -- Intellectual life and its purpose -- Heroes and heroines -- Music as a hinterland.