I’ve updated the design of this site. My goal was to get a template I liked better than the one that I had. I’m prepping for this to be my regular website for research and teaching, something I’ll want to have quite spiffed up before I go on the academic job market. The photo image… Continue reading Updated design, fired up new Twitter account

Another reading from Ling8920 Tager-Flusberg, H. (2000). Language and understanding minds: connections in autism. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism and developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 1–45). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tager-Flusberg noted that recent research had identified links among autism, impairment in pragmatic… Continue reading Tager-Flusberg. Language and understanding minds: connections in autism

Analytical summary of an article from my Ling 8920 class, which focuses on cognition and language, particularly on language deficiencies. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind” ? Cognition, 21(1), 37–46. The authors note that mental retardation cannot be the cause of autistic subjects’ inability… Continue reading Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith. Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?

I have 18 students in an 8:00 a.m. class who have been dutifully (if a bit groggily and yawningly) showing up three times a week to work on their writing. The course is not just about writing, though. It’s titled “Writing and Academic Inquiry,” and my goal has been to work with them on their… Continue reading Reflections on “robo-grading” and my first month teaching first-year writing

Well, the 2012-2013 school year has started, and I’m in it up to my eyeballs. (You can see my report on last year here.) But it’s pretty exciting stuff. I’ve got two classes this fall, PhD qualifying exams in the spring, and two new “course preps” this year. I’m also continuing my research activities. More… Continue reading Looking forward to 2012-13 school year

Last year went very well, though not exactly as I predicted at its outset. I took three classes a semester last year, up from the 2-per of the previous year. This meant that I dropped my activity in my law firm from about 2/3 time to about 1/2 time. That proved not to be a… Continue reading Looking back on 2011-2012 school year

  (Updated Aug 19 to add picture and correct typos!) Below is the bibliography of the 150 or so books, book chapters, and articles I’m studying for my PhD qualifying exams in spring 2013. I need to pass these exams to be permitted to write my dissertation. The texts are actually divided into four groups,… Continue reading My qualifying examination reading list

… and why even (or especially) flat-earth fundamentalists should not be threatened by it On January 13, 2012, on the 23rd anniversary of our first date—which was also a Friday the 13th—Bob and I got married in New York City. This union has little legal significance: Minnesota does not recognize it, and if some folks… Continue reading Why I got gay-married in NYC…