(During February, I plan to post once each day or so on this blog as I read and think through the texts on my PhD prelim exam reading list. I take the exams during the first two weeks of March. You can read about the reading list here. The post topics will vary, with some… Continue reading Stance of the American legal system toward ‘rhetoric’: Intro
Below is the text of my prepared remarks for a roundtable at the Modern Language Association convention in January 2013. (This version is slightly longer than the one to be delivered live, due to time constraints of live delivery). Here’s the blurb for the session from the program: Session 22/”Expanding Access: Building Bridges within Digital… Continue reading Expanding Access: Building Bridges within DH
Juarrero, A. (1999). Narrative explanation and the dynamics of action (Chapter 14). Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System (pp. 217–244). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (You may find it helpful to review the reviews I wrote of Chapter 9 and Chapter 13 of this book before tackling the current chapter. Not that… Continue reading Juarrero, Dynamics in Action, Chapter 14
Juarrero, A. (1999). Threading an agent’s control loop through the environment (Chapter 13). Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System (pp. 195–213). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. This chapter can be summed up with the question, “How do we decide to do what we intend to do?” (p. 196). Juarerro rules out AI… Continue reading Juarrero, Dynamics in Action, Chapter 13
This is the first of three chapters of Juarrero’s book about which I’ve written summaries/reviews. The first two (Chapters 9 and 13) really just open the doors to the last (Chapter 14), which I find interesting for my own work. Juarrero, A. (1999). Constraints as causes: the intersection of information theory and complex systems dynamics… Continue reading Juarrero, Dynamics in Action, Chapter 9
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