Sleep in Academia: Sleep Tight Posted on September 16, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorStep One: We admitted that we were powerless over academia’s sleep-deprivation culture, that our lives had become unmanageable. If we want better sleep, then there are two aspects. First, there are the physiological solutions, many of which will seem both obvious and impractical. Second, there is the task of making these possible by Jobby-Jobbing Our Job.
Theology of Mission in the Classroom: Embodied Cultural Contestations? Posted on April 25, 2014 by Robert SalerWhat does theologizing about mission mean for the seminary classroom? I would suggest that it means that discussions of theology and mission need to take a cue from history courses and emphasize that culture, like the history of the church, is not a peaceful stream of predictable events but a contested series of contingencies, complex theologies, and variegated worldviews. We must “complicate” talk of culture in the classroom with the same rigor with which we complicate the theological discourses native to our seminaries.
Sleep in Academia: Waking up to the Problem Posted on March 28, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorCome closer, I have a confession to make. Lean in so I can whisper: I get enough sleep. It’s a lonely admission. Like the newly sobor alcoholic fidgeting silently at the edge of the Monday-morning water-cooler crowd (“I got sooooo wasted this weekend!”), I stand wistfully unwelcome among the ranks of the mock-serious humble-braggers of sleep deprivation (“I know…”beat “I need more sleep.” snort! guffaw!). Sleep deprivation is generally considered today to be like the weather: worth complaining about as a friendship-building exercise, but not a problem seriously considered solvable…
The Instructor’s Double Standard Posted on December 9, 2013 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorTeachers have a lot of power over students in the classroom. Typically, we write the syllabus, decide the rules, make rulings on infractions. In turn, we are accountable to our institutions, as instructors and also regarding our many non-teaching obligations. In conversations, I frequently brush up against the reality of The Instructor’s Double Standard, here defined as any instance when an instructor holds students to a standard to which she does not hold herself, or to which she is not held by the institution…