Ashok Karra - Encouragement

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "I worked for chaff and earning Wheat" (J 1269)

The question for us is our devotion to the worthless.

american politics

Intro to Texas Government: What does it mean to be Texan? What does it mean to be an American?

I want to start with the question that's the heart of the course: What does it mean to be Texan?

american politics

bell hooks' Definition of Love and our Present Political Moment

If we're going to have a better politics, someone has to stand for something real.

poetry

Graham Foust, "The Only Poem"

I'm staring at Foust's last lines of "The Only Poem:" Even in danger, / you're a writer, liar.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "There is no Frigate like a Book"

...how to respond to someone determined to tell you everything you're reading is worthless?

poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "A Chair in Snow"

I thought I should share Jane Hirshfield's "A Chair in Snow" because it so beautifully illustrates the weight of the season.

education

Remarks for Sigma Kappa Delta's Friendsgiving

...the question for us this holiday season is how to be genuinely grateful.

emily dickinson

Emily Dickinson, "The power to be true to You" (464)

Dickinson does not inch toward the cosmic.

american politics

On Attending the 2024 Northeastern Political Science Association Conference

You are owed an explanation about conferences.

philosophy

Political Philosophy and the Question of Genre

I feel I might be reinventing the wheel.

american politics

Post-Election Reading List

The readings below are not meant to be anti-Trump or anti-GOP. They are attempts to inform people's expectations.

education

The Classroom and Election 2024

It isn't just that some want to steal classrooms from us.

education

Four Ideas About Leadership

I never thought I'd talk about leadership in the way business schools or youth pastors do.

education

A few short remarks to open "Monstrous Musings," Odessa College's Poetry and Storytelling Night

I think what's hitting me most nowadays is neglect.

poetry

Five Short Meditations on Rae Armantrout's "Djinn"

Armantrout's first stanza, about the terrain ghosts create, brings into relief the strange world-building of lying.

poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "I sat in the sun"

Jane Hirshfield opens the sacredness of the everyday in "I sat in the sun."

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 8: Sample Final Exam

Much has been said about the public's addiction to cable news or TikTok.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 7: Normative Ethics

Education is your responsibility to your community.

american politics

A few remarks on class in America, or on the importance of subtext

Part of the problem with explaining social class and wealth to you is that I'm not entirely sure how it all works.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 6: Plato's "Apology"

The examined life is a radical proposition, and I can't tell you that everyone will be happier if they aim for it.

philosophy

On Nietzsche's Bees

Do you need to be conscious of history to know yourself?

philosophy

Lecture 5: Closing "Antigone," Opening Plato's "Apology of Socrates"

We are unable to use the law to gain a larger vision of what is right.

american politics

I just donated to the Haitian Community Help and Support Center

Society does not actually depend on the loud guy at the council meeting saying he pays taxes, no one else does, therefore no one else should get anything but him.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 4: Writing the Midterm

...I can believe that "everything is water" from my own life.

poetry

Elisa Gabbert, "In Nature"

Elisa Gabbert's "In Nature," for me, remarks upon a scholarly problem, if not a philosophical one.