I have never been a willing cat owner. As long as I can remember, our family cat-pets have always been involuntary additions, unwanted and dropped off. When there aren’t any no-kill shelters to take them in, and no voluntary kitty … Continue reading →
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Am I Biologically Fit for History?
Apparently it’s been too long, and I’ve forgotten how to blog. That, or my brain isn’t functioning at the appropriate evolutionary level, or my neurons are somehow messed up which, actually, wouldn’t be surprising. So, instead I’ll offer these words … Continue reading →
Writing History in a Necessarily Gendered World, and Singing French Songs
One of my favorite songs begins, “J’ai un problème d’intégration.” It was stuck in my head as I read through Scott’s “Symptomatic Politics.” The artist, Anis Kachohi, is (funnily enough) of partially Moroccan descent–rather appropriate, given the readings, and rather … Continue reading →
Landscape for a Good Woman, or Why It’s Better to Just be an Orphan
I do not think I remember ever reading anything quite like Carolyn Kay Steedman’s Landscape for a Good Woman. It made me think so many questions as I went along. Is this a gendered reading? Is it an analysis of … Continue reading →
“…la fou soulage, guide, guérit:” Translations and Language in History
“Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” or “This is not a pipe.” Right? Two completely different statements strung together with two completely different intents by markedly different individuals. And, yet, here we are thinking that they offer the same meaning. Reading … Continue reading →
“…in accordance with the traditions of cat lore:” An Untrained Historian’s View of Cultural Anthropology
I have long nursed a soft spot for ethnographies, which has led me to the false belief that I enjoy anthropology. As an undergrad, I took an introductory anthropology course. From what I recall, there was a lot of talk … Continue reading →
How Marxism Made Me an Optimist
The theme of this weekend, for me at least, seems to be “willful disobedience.” So, while I fully understand that the purpose of this week’s readings was to teach me to put the historian E.P. Thompson’s writings within the framework … Continue reading →
“Expanding and Blurring:” What Becomes History in a Digital Age?
The first blog post I composed for History 5104 was just a few weeks ago, and it was an extremely stressful experience for me. Not only was I worried about whether or not I’d satisfactorily completed my assignment, I was … Continue reading →
Storytelling and the Purpose of History
I don’t frequently get angry, but when I do it’s typically self-righteous anger. That’s exactly what I found myself filled with as I read the Cronon article, and I couldn’t get past it. As someone who has been involved in … Continue reading →
On Compromised Sources and Knowing Nothing
As week two of grad school gets fully underway, I definitely shouldn’t be taking up time to write this. This is just for fun, though I’m not altogether sure when “fun” and “writing a blog post about history” became the … Continue reading →
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