Welcome!

This is my first blog entry. I recently became an academic vagabond. For the past three years, I have labored as a non-tenure track assistant professor of history (my chosen field), only to be told my contract has not been renewed at a point in the year when finding a Fall position proved to be difficult. Despite a mad effort at securing a position, I am now certain I will spend the next year liberated from American academic institutions. I do not feel that I have been victimized in this regard. I have never been comfortable with the tenure system due to its elitist assumption that people with terminal degrees and comfortable college or university positions deserve more job security than a custodian, landscaper, or steel worker. Also, I now believe being fired was a hard-to-digest blessing. Unlike some of my more brave comrades, I am unable to turn my back on academia. I have no doubt that I will compete in the academic job market next year but in the meantime, I will explore other options and make the best of my unemployment. I intend to live in Taiwan for the next year combining research (two book projects) with survival and reflection. The purpose of this blog will be to document and share whatever insights I have during this journey.

This blog will have three weekly entries, if life allows me such luxury. Once a week, I will comment on American writers as I systematically work through the Library of America. I do not intend to provide book reviews of established canon, nor do I presume to make new contributions to our understanding of these texts. I lack the expertise in the field and do not have the desire to engage the scholarship in a vain attempt to prove my originality. Instead, I will comment on what strikes my fancy. I will allow my readers to decide on the merit. You may expect one volume of the series to be considered per week.

Once a week, I will blog on my research, interests, and current events. I intend to explore the works of Richard Wagner in the coming weeks. I expect I have much to say on opera and anarchism.

Finally, I will provide weekly updates on my life in Taiwan and my ongoing reflection on academia.

Welcome to my blog.