When you have to grade 40 essays before the impending grade submission deadline, pick up Christmas presents, and figure out how you're getting home for the holidays all in one day:
When did students stop indenting paragraphs? Is it just my students doing it to spite me or is this a widespread grammatical epidemic? Is this an act of resistance against the tyranny of the "tab" key?
If you're incredibly bored: To ensure that I keep reflecting on my teaching over the summer, I've started a substack to write about my random pedagogical musings: open.substack.com/pub/pjzaboro...
Life Updates: I defended my dissertation (Messengers and Messaging in Medieval Literature) and I've accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Instruction in the University of Iowa English Department, beginning in the fall. I'm excited to continue working in a department and city that I love.
It's Vortigern. Kind of a confusing guy who may have been a real historical warlord, but also shows up in some King Arthur stories, so nobody is really sure (as far as I know).
I've noticed that deceptive difficulty in a lot of job ads recently...
How's your end of semester going? Mine:
(BL Royal 20 A II, f. 3 at The British Library)
The testimony of Eleanor Rykener - the earliest surviving record of a trans person in the English language. She began living as a woman in the 1390s, working as a seamstress & sex worker, until her arrest and imprisonment by the Mayor of London. She may have later escaped prison in 1399.
