Charles Downie
Statement taken from the 29 year-old Charles Downie after killing his brother during an argument in 1884. In the latter part of the 19th century, the majority same-sex homicides occurred in saloons or right outside of saloons on the street. Despite the locations, most academics point to the working-class norms of violence and aggression in males and not the use of alcohol in these disputes.
Chicago Times, September 6th, 1884.
Evolutionary psychologist (this is off to a bad start) and University of New Mexico professor, Geoffrey Miller gave some unsolicited advice to PhD applicants. He has since deleted the tweet and apologized, but the internet is forever and we all have the screen captures to prove it.
Is this how we represent ourselves in academia? Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident and academics are not immune from being ignorant assholes.
Follow the link to read more about the story.
Ha, if you haven’t gone through your account with a fine-tooth comb, go ahead and get that done before your name gets out there.
By PhD
Visualizing Punishment by Sarah Shannon and Chris Uggen
Four decades ago, the United States launched a grand policy experiment. The nation began locking up an unprecedented share of its citizens, increasing its rate of incarceration by more than 400% over the period.
I had a chance to see Sarah Shannon’s job talk at my university this past year. She did a great job, and this article gets to some of the points that she was forced to omit because of time restraints.
Check out the article for more graphic representations of incarceration rates.
Giant used book fair on campus the other day. This was my first stop.
You might hear that research is me-search. What we perceive as the most important areas in our chosen field are also seen as the most important issues in our personal lives. So what does that say about you?
“The doctors could address my symptoms. But they didn’t much care about my vanishing sense of self…
I couldn’t bear the thought of socializing; one night I jumped out of the car as my husband and I were driving to a party.”
Alphonse Bertillon, the chief of criminal identification for the Paris police department, developed the mug shot format and other photographic procedures used by police to register criminals. Although the images in this extraordinary album of forensic photographs were made by or under the direction of Bertillon, it was probably assembled by a private investigator or secretary who worked at the Paris prefecture. Photographs of the pale bodies of murder victims are assembled with views of the rooms where the murders took place, close-ups of objects that served as clues, and mug shots of criminals and suspects. Made as part of an archive rather than as art, these postmortem portraits, recorded in the deadpan style of a police report, nonetheless retain an unsettling potency.
