What Can’t You Say in Kansas? An Experiment in Civil Disobedience

Governor Appointed Regents who set KU’s administrative policy seem to think that avoiding bad press on Twitter is more important than preserving academic freedom – graffiti, University of Kansas If you’re an employee of a university overseen by the Kansas Board of Regents, all speech expressed through social media (Facebook, Twitter, blog, any website) can

Emily’s Library, Part 7: 31 Good Books for Small Humans

Welcome to another installment in my ongoing list of the Best Books for Young Readers.  Admittedly, any such list will reflect the list-maker’s (in this case, my) idiosyncracies. But, since people often ask me about great books for small humans, I’ve been creating the “ideal” library for my nearly three-year-old niece, Emily, and writing about

Kansas Board of Regents, Freedom of Speech, and Bad Faith

When the Kansas Board of Regents announced its new social media policy on December 18, I thought it must have made a mistake. After all, this Board of Regents had seemed an ally of higher education in Kansas. Unlike previous Boards, this one had – for instance – been asking the Kansas Legislature to fund the state

Distinguished Professors from KSU and KU: Open Letter to the Kansas Board of Regents

Dear Kansas Board of Regents, As University Distinguished Professors at Kansas State University and Distinguished Professors at the University of Kansas, we write to express our continued concern about the new social media policy. We appreciate that the Board has invited representatives from the universities to review the policy, and to offer recommendations for amendments to said

Children’s Literature and Comics/Graphic Novels at MLA 2014

With thanks to Craig Svonkin for assembling the children’s literature panels list and Charles Hatfield for assembling the comics panels list, here’s a list of panel sessions on either children’s literature or comics/graphic novels at the Modern Language Association Conference in Chicago, 9-12 January 2014.  Is there anything missing here?  Drop me a line, and I’ll