If you’ve read my penultimate entry, you’ll know that last week I invited Frances Widdowson to Lethbridge, as the first post-Covid “Guest of Dishonour” at our Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner series on Saturday, then to give two guest lectures,… Read More ›
academic freedom
THE WIDDOWSON AFFAIR
As many Canadians will know – but I’m not sure the story has hit the international wires – I invited a certain Dr. Frances Widdowson to give a talk at the University of Lethbridge on February 1st, on a topic… Read More ›
THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY
For most of human history – and in most parts of the world to this day – there were institutions that work like this: We tell people – priests or commissars – what to tell others, who are then sent… Read More ›
Guest Post by Pamela Lindsay. Higher Ed’s Big Research-Excellence Adventure. Or, What is research excellence and what has it to do with EDI?
Please note. My next biblio, on Diversity, won’t be published for a few weeks — lest I overwhelm Viminitz’s blog. I’ll upload that biblio as a PDF, which will be an in an easier format to read and save. The… Read More ›
THE MANDATORY EDI LETTER
What I’ve been discovering is that the woke-ness one espouses in public, and the opinion of it one holds in private, are often two very different things. Why is this? Others may not put it as eloquently as did my… Read More ›
Guest Post. Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Why would I lie on my mandatory diversity pledge?
Universities Canada principles on equity, diversity and inclusion, October 26, 2017 “Universities Canada make an explicit public commitment to seven principles [on equity, diversity, and inclusion],” available here. (accessed 11 February 2022) “A Guide to Preparing Your Diversity Statement,” Algonquin… Read More ›
SAFE SPACES (Repost, 26/02/2020)
I’m not sure that academia attracts heresy. Rather I suspect it’s tenure that generates it. In fact since we’re all, by definition, catholic, without the threat of hell – or in our case unemployment – we’d probably all think unclean… Read More ›
OF DISCOMFORT AND VULNERABILITY
I think if I were Jewish – which, come to think of it, I am – I’d be far more comforted being assured the Holocaust didn’t happen than being constantly reminded that it did. So I’m not sure how so… Read More ›
CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND THE COULEES
Back in 2003 the University of Lethbridge declined to honour its guarantees of confidentiality, and so for the last 17 years I haven’t served on any University-related committee involving that guarantee. In 2016 academic freedom was placed under constructive suspension… Read More ›
Guest Post. Saturday Morning Pam-toons. A Speakeasy in the Age of Prohibition
What fascinates me about Speakeasies was the mingling between and relative equality of rich, poor, women, men, black and white. These illicit clubs helped with the momentum and success of civil rights movements. The current Prohibition with its categories of prohibited… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 