B. James Burger

Warehousing once. Then horticulture. Now fumbling toward a history PhD studying beaver decimation @ UB. Watching the humanities slowly sink. I like breakfast.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@Tyler_A_Harper I think you're right about smaller schools requiring teaching experience, but there are so few jobs at all, at big or small schools, that the OP is right. Grad school teaching training is fairly useless outside of academia. Maybe the discussion should be about other skills?

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@NativeAmText @AHAhistorians It wasn't all that long ago that historians were in an uproar over how terrible the AHA was. The opportunity to make dinner reservations and look at a big book fair seems to have easily quieted that clamor.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

If there is one thing that historians love more than critical assessments of the past, it is excitedly creating dinner plans for the AHA conference. Honestly, it is incredible how a conference can make many historians forget an entire year of intense criticism.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@erin_bartram Will the people who need to hear it even be at your roundtable?

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@NativeAmText Great news. I thought, though, that many of those who were forced out of the Genesee Valley ended up in Tonawanda.

[Michael Leroy Oberg @NativeAmText]

A significant development. #LandBack https://t.co/WNr9TZJub8

[Paul Fairie @paulisci]

A Brief History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

🧵

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

The thick middle part of my dissertation will actually be a hollowed out space where I hide the drugs I'll need to get over the fact that I spent six years of my middle-aged life pursuing a PhD.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

I don't worry about the humanities job market because I know I can take my PhD to Wood Pulp Valley and get a gig with any of the hundreds of History start-ups that currently exist there.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

How long until the special historian Mastodon server only allows ten-percent of grad students to join?

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

Self-care is one of those concepts that is, on its face, a nice idea. Yes, people should take care to avoid exploitation. But, in practice in academia, it is just another way for admins, directors, and tenured faculty to do even less and push work on much less secure workers.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@R_Adams__ I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at your existential bent.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@genezubovich @bmrosenstein @ubhistorygha Don't make those kind of promises in WNY.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

@jnthnwwlsn The sheer age difference has to be a big point of departure. The focus is often on "traditional" 18-22 yo students, but we shouldn't forget that many "non-traditional" college students are much older and possess incredibly diverse living situations. And there are a lot of them.

[Dig: A History Podcast @dig_history]

Few things:
1. History that matters IS THE PROFESSION.
2. We've got new designs in the swag store b/c @aearls was feeling feisty today.
3. Our @TeePublic account manager said we could run a promo - so RT this & we'll enter you to win a product of your choice from our store.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

I don't receive enough fucks in my stipend to give any away toward what anyone at the AHA has to say about anything.

[Jeremy Monjo @JeremyMonjo]

Venture Bros was such a worldbeater show because it would take on these big standard Gen X gambits -- "What if the TV characters from our childhood were kind of messed?" -- but pulled it off with such precise wit it never felt hoary

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

Archives are overrated.

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

There is an article waiting to be written called "Americans in the 19th Century Were Utterly Incurious Ghouls."

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

The 19th and early 20th c were a time of archaeological chaos. I've been trying to make sense of the absolute clusterfuck that is the archaeological record of Seneca settlement history and I want to travel back in time and beat the shit out of those "archaeologists."

[B. James Burger @BJamesBurger1]

Also, the sheer number of people who had skull collections, bone collections, and who hoarded incredible artifacts is kinda staggering.