Author Archives: Robert Basil

The social media landscapes

My favourite class to teach, back in the day, was an advanced digital media class at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. No other class I’ve ever taught required such continual professional development, though, and it would take me many months of preparation … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How to write

I love my old friend Jonathan Mayhew’s prose. His blog, Stupid Motivational Tricks (Scholarly Writing and How to Get it Done), is often very charming (and it is always illuminating). Read this bit on the use of “scare quotes.” The … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Feedback loops

The original focus of University of Washington’s Professor Kate Starbird’s research was Crisis Informatics, “the study of how information-communication technologies are used during crisis events, including natural disasters (like earthquakes and hurricanes) and man-made disasters (such as shooting events and … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Our Work Is Everywhere

Portland, Oregon artist Syan Rose’s book ‘Our Work is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer & Trans Resistance,’ is breath-taking and profound. I went through it slowly over the course of three days, letting these voices and insights try … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment

I wish I had written this.

Back in the day a journalist for the Norfolk Pilot newspaper got his copy back from his editor with this note: “Sorry it’s so short but a certain amount of muck, spleen, libel, hogwash, garbage, neologism, prurience, presumption, assumption, half-assumption, … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

design + ways

My Kwantlen colleague Arley Cruther‘s essay “An Incomplete History of My Teaching Body” is breathtaking, beautiful and profound. Just published in a collection called “Voices of Practice: Narrative Scholarship from the Margin,” Arley’s piece starts this way: My summer pandemic … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It will be so good to get back in the classroom.

I will not be able to hide my tears.

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

When in doubt …

… draw a distinction, says Jay Rosen.

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

J. Hillis Miller

Professor Miller was a genial man whose ardent advocacy of the “deconstruction” movement in literary and cultural criticism was notable for his uncommonly graceful prose style. His early book “Poets of Reality” was a revelation to me my first year … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

You got to dance with who brung you

A year or two ago a colleague who teaches business classes at my university suggested allowing students – whose term projects focused on opportunities in nations where English was not the predominant tongue – prepare their final reports/portfolios/presentations in Cantonese, … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment