Author Archives: Robert Basil
Joan Didion
Farewell, nonpareil, with some tears. Your clarity shocked, delighted, and taught me.
More on rigour
Over at the Teaching and Learning Commons, my colleague Jennifer Hardwick places the concept of rigour in the context of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) : The Oxford English Dictionary defines “rigour” as “the fact of being careful and paying great … Continue reading
Heroines Revisited
I saw the first photographs from Lincoln Clarkes’ monumental series “Heroines” the day after his initial exhibition closed. That was the day I met Lincoln as well. The curator at Vancouver’s Helen Pitt Gallery hadn’t taken the show down yet, … Continue reading
Retraction Watch
A student recently alerted me to this splendid website and resource. It’s endlessly useful and interesting – a gift to researchers of all stripes, including students, teachers, scientists, and journalists. Some praise: “The seamier side of academia, lying, cheating and … Continue reading
Pedagogy
Rigour seems to mean two different practices: The thoroughgoing-ness of the curriculum (here rigour is expected of the professor in terms preparation *and delivery*) and the exactingness of assessment (where the onus is on the student, at the mercy of … Continue reading
Bryan Garner
I’ve put Bryan Garner’s website on our list of essential resources. Garner is a stratospherically erudite lexicographer, writer, and lawyer – and teacher.
Get smart
To welcome humbling moments is part of good mental hygiene. There is, at any rate, no way around these experiences when you teach social and digital media to university students. On that note: Here is another amazing Overdrive Interactive graphic; … Continue reading
The Melville School of Business
My academic neighbourhood at Kwantlen Polytechnic University has a new name, after philanthropists George and Sylvia Melville gifted $8 million to the school. I am so pleased, particularly with the initiatives this gift will fund. George Melville, cofounder of Boston … Continue reading
Smart luck
Teena Seelig, a professor in management science and engineering at Stanford, has been studying “luck” for two decades, according to Diana Aguilera’s article in Stanford Magazine. The professor provides some superb, lucid recommendations. My favourite: Show Appreciation. “When someone does … Continue reading
Gratitude
I have been enjoying getting to know the work of translator/poet/essayist Michael Hoffman. Without an active sense of mischief, he says, translators can easily become bitter people. “Nobody sees what you are doing, and the minute you do something, people … Continue reading
