Welcome to the personal home page of
PhD in English Literature, Spring 2010, U of Arkansas, Fayetteville
MA in English Literature, Spring 2006, U of Arkansas, Fayetteville
BA cum laude in Classical Studies, Spring 2004, U of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Over time Bao came to understand that teaching too was a kind of reincarnation,
in that years passed, and students came and went, new young people all the time,but
always the same age, taking the same class; the class under the oak trees, reincarnated.
He began to enjoy that aspect of it. He would start the first class by saying, "Look,
here we are again." They never knew what to make of it; same response, every time.
-- Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt
principio, I am a caucasoid male Homo sapiens
currently residing in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I was born and to some
extent raised in Little Rock, Arkansas (that Rome on the Arkansas, that
London of the West), though I moved to Fayetteville a billion years ago
and have now made it something like a home. I received my doctorate in
English from the University of Arkansas in May of 2010. I wrote a
lovely dissertation that was well-received by my committee, and which I
now can't get published for love or money. Apparently what plays well
in the provinces doesn't wow 'em over in the big cities. For more
information, click any of the bios, which haven't been updated in years
(Fanboy Bio ¦ Truthful
bio).
For those who were wondering, yes, I did get all of
my degrees from the University of Arkansas. However, I see not that as
a deficiency but an asset. Because I did not have to deal with the
stress of moving and the (comparatively) crushing poverty and
depression that would have accompanied that move to any of the places
that offered me a place for my PhD, I was more free to focus on
research and teaching. I think I've gotten pretty good at both, that
one comment about me "just standing there and staring" on
ratemyprofessor.com notwithstanding. And yes, I still (as of 2011/2012)
work at the University of Arkansas--but hey, it's a tough economy. I'm
glad to be employed.
Speaking of, right now I'm teaching
three sections of ENGL 1013 (Composition II) and one section of ENGL
1213 (Introduction to Literature). If you are my student and have found
this page while looking for your assignments, GO NO FURTHER. They are here.
Philosophically and politically, I'm a Pacifist, Utopian Socialist, and Marxist (the latter two with caveats). My own heroes include, alongside the majority of my family, Grizz
Hayhurst, Utah Phillips, Dick Feynman, Robert
Heinlein, and Ernst Bloch
(link in German as the English entry is a bit shit); these men form the
core of my philosophical views (in what proportion depends on how I'm
feeling at the time). I'm aware that it may seem odd for a Marxist to
profess to like Heinlein, who was, if we're pigeonholing, at best a
Capitalist Libertarian, but he was also the first strong individualist
I'd encountered and still who I return to for doses of absolute
pragmatism. Hey, it could have been worse: it could have been Ayn Rand.
As far as religion goes, well, as Sarah said to Abraham, risum fecit mihi deus. My ethics are bound up in my politics, and I try to do right by others; to quote what was told to me as an old Irish saying, "You're no better than anybody else, and nobody's better than you." That's the start of it, really.
What, you do(n't) like me? Tell me about it!.
And of course ...
These materials are not endorsed, approved, sponsored, fetishized,
enjoyed, put on toast, fed to the cat at tea, or provided by, with, in, of,
near,
which, or on behalf of the University of Arkansas,
Fayetteville
(or its heirs or assigns). Their loss, I suppose.