The essays in this book examine various forms of popular culture and the ways in which they represent, shape, and are constrained by notions about and issues within higher education. From an exploration of rap music to an analysis of how the academy presents and markets itself on the World Wide Web, the essays focus attention on higher education issues that are bound up in the workings and effects of popular culture.

The essays in this book examine various forms of popular culture and the ways in which they represent, shape, and are constrained by notions about and issues within higher education. From an exploration of rap music to an analysis of how the academy presents and markets itself on the World Wide Web, the essays focus attention on higher education issues that are bound up in the workings and effects of popular culture.

A number of years ago I began a project to derme and evaluate the impact of Buffon's Histoire naturelle on the science of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. My attention, however, was soon diverted by the striking difference between the highly literary natural history of Buffon and the duller, but more rigor ous, zoology of his successors, and I began to try to understand this transformation of natural history into a set of separate scientific disciplines (geology, botany, ornithology, entomology, ichthyology, etc. ). Historical literature on the emergence of the biological sciences in the early nineteenth century is, unfortunately, scant. ! Indeed the entire issue of the emergence of scientific disciplines in general is poorly documented. A recent collection of articles on the subject states: One reason for this is, of course, that scientific development is a highly com plex process. Consequently, there has been a tendency for those engaged in its empirical study to select for close attention one strand or a small number of strands from the complicated web of social and intellectual factors at work. Many historians, for example, have dealt primarily with the internal development of scientific knowledge within given fields of inquiry. Sociologists, in contrast, have tended to concentrate on the social processes associated with the activities of scientists; but at the same time 2 they have largely ignored the intellectual content of science.

Why Teaching Matters is an introductory guide to core elements of teaching, getting to the heart of what teaching is, and why it matters. Paul Farber and Dini Metro-Roland introduce the following 8 elements which encompass the many issues, themes and social complexities of teaching: - Conveying Care - Enacting Authority - Cultivating Virtue - Interpreting Subject matter - Rendering Judgment - Articulating Purpose - Establishing a Sense of Place - Engaging Presence The focus on the elements of practice frames discussion of teaching as an essential human activity and highlights the kinds of significant issues that teachers face, including technology, social inequality, and the management and evaluation of their work. As a philosophical guide, it introduces and draws upon a range of thinkers, including Nel Noddings, Hannah Arendt, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Danielle Allen, and James Baldwin whose work informs a deeper understanding of teaching. The theoretical discussions are grounded with examples and anecdotes from the classroom so that theory is always connected with practice, and questions for further inquiry appear at the end of each chapter. Intended for students of education and for new and experienced teachers alike, as well as anyone interested in the impact of teaching, Why Teaching Matters explores the inherent complexity and challenges of teaching, offering a comprehensive account of the many ways in which teaching matters.

During the course of American history, scientific theories have been used to legitimate racial ideas that in turn have been important in creating and interpreting the law. Race and Science collects essays from leading voices in law, history, history of science, botany, and the social sciences, resulting in a rich and comprehensive multidisciplinary exploration of the roots of and the scientific challenges to racial essentialism.
The notion that someone's racial identity and characteristics define everything of importance about them has become deeply embedded in American culture, society, and science. These essays illuminate the roots of this belief and present case studies that explore how and why natural and social scientists have challenged these racist views. Race and Science will be of interest to historians, social scientists, educators, and scientists, and others interested in racism as a phenomenon in American culture.