#And how interdisciplinary

[chicago-geniza]

Manager asked if I knew any other languages and I wordlessly turned my monitor toward him where the screen was split between a page in Polish and a page in Russian lmao

[catboy-beckett]

Kim Kitsuragi is a fascinating character because there's not that much fun or interesting or compelling about him. And yet somehow over the course of playing Disco Elysium the game rewires your fucking brain around him. He's the middest man you've ever seen in both appearance and personality but at some point he says something kind to you or something critical of you and you feel like you just got hit by a truck and you need his approval like you need oxygen and like how tf did this happen. what are you

[thebardbullseye]

hot take ame is the interdisciplinary studies major of the coven of elders

[morgenlich]

the four main issues with designing the Ideal School Curriculum are:

1) there are so many subjects and so much knowledge in this world, how do we narrow down the most important things for everyone to know in a way that won't result in kids in school for 12 hours a day

2) there will always be kids who don't wanna be there, how can we still try to engage them meaningfully at least some of the time

3) there will always be bad teachers, how do we mitigate this fact

4) people learn in different ways, neurodivergencies and disabilities exist, how do we work with this in a pragmatic way wrt making sure kids are taught in a way that's right for them and not overstretching our teaching staff, which will always be a finite resource

[callixton]

man i wish i could have any hand in the shaping my school’s theatre department on a macro level. we have so much potential that is just not being fully utilized or explored, and it’s mostly bc genuine exploration comes with risks that no level of the administration is willing to take :/

[s-lycopersicum]

[teenagefeeling]

it really does kill me how at the undergraduate level other disciplines were all like "every system that we use was created by people, so there are flaws and biases built in" and "part of learning is being critical of the work of past scholars" and "new research is always changing the way we think about our field" meanwhile in my music classes they were like "anyway, these three specific dead rich white guys are perfect, practically godlike infallible geniuses who invented modern music as we know it all by themselves and you should never criticize their work or question why you have to learn figured bass"

[fastwalker]

were humans ever really matrifocal/local organized? I've read a few theories about it, like the kurgan hypothesis, but like it's basically just the personal belief of one feminist archaelogist/athropologist with little substantial evidence is the belief of ancient matrifocality and the destruction of utopia by patriarchal invaders just atlantis for women?

[somehavegonemissing]

You know, there is a strange cousin of anti-intellectualism to those anecdotes. "hur dur dumb arrogant antro/archaeos don't know what wise humble blue collar tradesworker sees plainly".

Most archaeologists, anthropologists, archivists, and the like LOVE trades. Most also know a trade! I'm personally surrounded by fiber artists. As Jeza said above, most people in academia are wildly passionate! We have to be, it is certainly not a money maker.

We can have a conversation about the ivory tower, and how to invite "untrained" intellectuals to contribute their knowledge via conversation. After all, there are many people who can productively contribute who have never considered college.

Look at the Hairstylist who often is mentioned in these stories. The hairstylist wasn't just your run-of-the-mill salon star, she was married to an academic, who used his connections to help her gain access to resources for her research. She is an independent researcher, and I will eat my hat if she did not have at least 2 years of college.

I am never going to turn away someone who wants to offer their own perspective, but we want that perspective to be INFORMED. This is a few degrees removed from ancient aliens if you aren't careful! We are in a post-truth era! Both academics and non-academics have to be open to being wrong, but by god, it seems that if you are an academic you have no credibility now-a-days!

Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them. 

Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said “Oh yeah sure that’s a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.” 

“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”

“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”

It’s just. 

50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job. 

[hearty-an0n]

does anyone know what the hell theatre practice: audience is

[iishmael]

ok it’s time to start phdposting. This is a new series where u guys, my esteemed colleagues in tumblr, get to see me have breakdowns over the next four years over my research. Welcome. The first topic is: why is my methodology so complicated

[measureyourlifeincake]

I helped make (read: co-produced, script-edited, co-directed, voice acted, and did some other miscellaneous jobs for) a science fiction audio drama called ROGUEMAKER with some very cool people!

It's 10 episodes (plus a few bonus eps—one of which I wrote) and it's about a far future commercial spaceflight that goes horribly wrong, leaving the crew and passengers stuck in individual escape pods with faulty comms, an AI that can't hear them, and seemingly random broadcasts going in and out. It was written by my friend @spacecoffeeandcartoons, a soon-to-be doctor of astronomy/literature based on a larp that I helped her run!

We also have an original soundtrack up on bandcamp, which includes vocals from the in-universe band About Gardens (I was actually mostly uninvolved in making the music but it's good music and also a way to kick a few bucks to the folks who actually did make it)

I am being so serious when I say: if you have the financial and time privilege to get a group of friends together and make an indie project, PLEASE do. Indie games, indie animations, indie comics etc etc

the art industries are kind of in the shitter. It’s not so much because of AI (though that doesn’t help) but because studios just aren’t hiring people and funding projects anymore. People who’ve been in the industry for decades are finding themselves struggling, and once you have a mortgage or kids it’s harder to do something as risky as making something on your own.

completing projects is hard. it takes a lot of time and effort, and most people can’t afford it. so if you CAN afford to make art, even at the risk of no financial gain, I strongly encourage you to be as resilient as you can. We’re at a point where these industries are not going to turn around by themselves, and waiting for jobs to open up again in order to get experience and portfolio work might not be realistic.

people have been making art and telling stories longgggg before we were getting paid for it, and people aren’t going to stop just because no one has hired them to do so.

for everyone else: support indie artists when you can!!!! That person who made that cool indie game or youtube animation or webcomic might be doing this full time! your support might be the only reason they’re able to keep doing it.

and if you have already started an indie project: you’re so brave and I’m very proud of you!!! in fact, drop a link to it in the reblogs if you want! 👇

[jstor]

Want to write for JSTOR and get paid to do it?

Have you used JSTOR for a project in a unique or interesting way? Are you a faculty member or librarian who uses JSTOR in instruction? Got any pointers or cool techniques for incorporating JSTOR into research or even archival workflows?

If so, we want to hear from you! We're accepting submissions of drafts for blog posts, teaching resources, librarian tips, and more. Your work could be featured on the JSTOR Blog or JSTOR Daily and contribute to a wider conversation about how JSTOR supports critical thinking and deeper learning. This is a great opportunity to add a new publication to your CV/resumé and inspire peers across institutions.

We're especially interested in examples that show how JSTOR supports engagement with primary sources, the development of research skills, or interdisciplinary discovery—whether that’s through direct student use or the behind-the-scenes work that makes those moments possible.

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Learn more and submit your drafts here!

Image: A Scholar/Apothecary Mixing a Concoction with a Pestle and Mortar and Writing down the Remedy; an Emblem from a Drug Jar. Watercolour. Wellcome Collection.

[superlinguo]

Gesture: A Slim Guide - Five Fun Facts

To celebrate the publication of Gesture: A Slim Guide I've selected five facts from/about the book to share:

1. The cover is a deepcut reference to my first gesture research project

Gawne & Kelly (2014) is actually work from my honours project in 2007 - it took us a while to write it up for publication. In that experiment, participants watched a short video narrative and marked everything they thought was a 'gesture' without being given a definition. On the whole, people agree at a minimum level with Gesture Studies researchers about what a gesture is, but tend to include far more in their definition. The cover illustration from Lucy Maddox captures some of the key gestures from that video. Because we had no budget, I filmed the video of myself narrating the story.

2. Learning a signed language will affect the way you gesture in spoken language

Research on learners of ASL shows that learning a signed language affects the gestures of people who have spent their whole life speaking English. Gesture and signed languages are two very different uses of the same modality, but they influence each other in interesting ways.

3. You can make people imagine emphasis differently by changing the placement of emphatic gestures

Hans Rutger Bosker and David Peeters created experimental video clips that you can see here. They took inspiration for their experimental work from the classic McGurk effect in phonetics, where watching a mouth closing like a /g/ while a /b/ sound is played will make the viewer hear a /d/.

4. Dolphins and seals demonstrate the capacity to follow human pointing gestures

While there is evidence that many domestic animals can follow human pointing gestures, this is the only documented evidence to date that shows this skill in wild animals that aren't primates.

5. People still gesture even if their audience can't see them, but the way they gesture changes

Speech and gesture are so closely linked up that we can't help but gesture, even if our audience can't see us. Experiments show that changing the audience conditions changes how large or frequent gestures are, but nothing stops us gesturing completely.

The official launch party for Gesture: A Slim Guide will be the April episode of Lingthusiasm, stay tuned!

Book overview

The gestures that we use when we speak are an important, if often over-looked, part of how we communicate. This book provides a friendly, fast-paced introduction to the field of Gesture Studies. Gestures are those communicative actions made with the human body that accompany spoken or signed language. Paying attention to gesture means paying attention to the fuller context in which humans communicate. Gesture is absolute, in that every human community that has language also has gestures as part of that language. But gesture is also relative, in that it is far more heavily context dependent than other elements of communication. This book provides a broad introduction to current understandings of the nature and function of gesture as a feature of communication. This Slim Guide covers the ways gesture works alongside speech and the different categories of gesture. The way these categories are used varies across cultures and languages, and even across specific interactions. We acquire gesture as part of language, and it is deeply entwined with language in the brain. Gesture has an important role in the origin of language, and in shaping the future of human communication. The study of gesture makes a crucial interdisciplinary contribution to our understanding of human communication. This Slim Guide provides an introduction to Gesture Studies for readers of all backgrounds.

Order links

Bookshop .org (affiliate link)

Amazon (affiliate link)

Booko page (for Australians)

[gallusrostromegalus]

Hi! I see your OC Oscar LeColéreux is studying Patent Law. as someone who is literally right now studying patent law, I can tell you that (in the USA), that's not a thing. to be a Patent Agent or a Patent Lawyer, one must first have a technical background (i.e. a degree in science/engineering). Patent Lawyers then go to law school, Patent Agents don't. regardless, both must pass the Patent Bar Exam, administered by the USPTO. this permits them to assist in Patent Prosecution, the process of applying for a patent, including appeals and post-grant proceedings before the USPTO's PTAB. Patent Lawyers can also represent patent holders through litigation in federal court. now that my trap card activation is over, what is Oscar's technical degree in? will he go to law school?

So all of The Lads (All the dogs in this post) have completed their undergrad degrees and are in grad school. They're in the same fraternity, which is to say: they're all renting the same house near campus and convinced a national engineering fraternity to count them as a chapter and help them with the rent and groceries.

Oscar's undergraduate degree is in Materials Science Engineering and he was planning on becoming a research chemist but quickly discovered he liked arguing with people and picking apart contracts more than being exposed to major industrial hazards. He's currently in the law program at College University along with his fellow engineer-ishes.

(more under the cut)

Oscar, Alexander, and Issac are all have proper engineering undergraduate degrees and are following engineering-related pursuits. Ewan is cutting it fine with an interdisciplinary engineering degree and now getting fully into the humanities. Ujin shouldn't even be there because his undergrad was in education, but that guy could talk the devil into piety so convincing the frat rep that his presence benefited the organization was a breeze.

It should be noted that this is a fantasy universe where the world is populated by anthropromorphc talking animals, so they are not, strictly speaking, in the united states of America, so I can play it a bit fast and loose with the laws and academic processes. They are, functionally, in the furry version of Danville from Phineas and Ferb: not a fixed geographic location, but a small city with any geographic feature or cultural center or political issue is required for the story.

College University is likewise an academic institution so much as an excuse for the characters to spend time together, like how nobody in Ouran High School Host Club ever goes to class. They've got a sportsball program and a law school and the art department regularly explodes and anything else that might be needed for the narrative.

The world itself doesn't even have a name, but of various anthropromorpic universes, this one leans more Beastars than Zootopia- there's birds, reptiles and even fish people, social tensions that arise from the radical differences in body types and break along different axes of power than you might expect, and the whole thing is a metaphor before it is a setting. To resolve the two big problems of any anthro universe:

Where does the protein come from? There are animals in this universe, some of which are farmed or hunted. There was an outbreak of Anthropomorphization that caused the existence of these animal-people like 50,000 years ago. There are no humans, except in the speculative fiction written in this universe. The issue of "What counts as a person?" regularly comes up for debate, and is often a political wedge tool, so the definitions of personhood vary widely across time, location, class and culture.

How does everyone continue their genetic line? Any Anthro can produce issue with any other anthro (barring individual fertility issues), but they are rolling the dice on what kind of creature the resulting offspring will be. Two rabbits are most likely to produce more rabbits, but there's a solid chance they'll produce a chinchilla, a lesser chance of having a swan, and a remote-but-still-possible chance they'll give birth to a hybrid anthro like a rabbit-duck, and an even remoter but still possible chance of making a hybrid with species not seen in either parent, like an eel-horse. Ujin's parents are rats. Most of his siblings are rats, except for his oldest sister, who is a marbled polecat. The more disparate the two parent species are, the less predictable the resulting offspring. An elephant can marry a trout and have a baby tyrannosaur. A notable exception is hybrid/hybrid pairs, which consistently produce single-species offspring, usually from the selection of species available in both parents. A hybrid/single-species can produce superhybrids, (sometimes called Tribrids, but this process can continue well past just three species). Another OC in this universe is a Jackayote, the result of the union between a Jackalope (jackrabbit/pronghorn antelope) and a coyote. 2.1: Nobody in-universe calls themselves by breeds or subspecies. Most of the time they identify more with a broader taxonomic group: all The Lads are all Canines, as are what we'd call wolves, foxes, jackals, tanuki etc. and being more specific than that is pedantic and weird. Knowing your specifc specific species is only important for your medical history or if you're going to have kids. In fact, touting around your specific species in public is seen as over-sharing and kinda suspect, like a guy who is a little TOO into his ancestry. Some groups will distinguish themselves if there is a notable practical difference: Fruit Bats include the Fruit so that a well-meaning host doesn't accidentally serve them crickets, and bears are the same because there's a big dietary difference between polar and panda bears. Cats typically call themselves "purrcats" or "roarcats" because Max, a 4'11" Purrcat has very different accessibility needs than her Roarcat cousin Tony (tiger, 7'2") Birds can be outright secretive about their species, with "singers" keeping their exact taxonomy a secret except among other birds. Birds of a feather flock together, and there's strength in numbers for this historically persecuted group.

--- Anyway, the real answer to this ask is that you probably shouldn't worry too much about the greater worldbuilding here, because all of this is in service of a smut comic.

[cuzxai]

practice makes perfect - nsfw

spencer reid x afab!reader

a/n: spencers having a hard time with a presentation hes supposed to give so you help him practice

Spencer’s pacing again. He’s been circling the coffee table for the past ten minutes, notecards fluttering in his hands like he’s afraid they might attack him. You watch from the bed, legs crossed, chin resting in your palm, your expression somewhere between amused and plotting.

“It’s not like I’m not prepared,” he says, for the third time. “It’s just—how do you summarize the Bureau’s mission statement, our collective efforts, the interdisciplinary dynamics of field and support units and touch on interdepartmental cohesion… all in six minutes?”

You blink. “Babe. That sentence alone was six minutes.”

He shoots you a look—half exhausted, half grateful you’re here. Always like that with Spencer. Like he’s constantly surprised someone can handle the speed of his mind and the softness of his heart at the same time.

You lean back into the pillows. “Come here.”

“I can’t, I’m—”

You raise an eyebrow. Spencer stops mid-panic and swallows. He knows that look.

“Bed,” you say simply. “Notecards. Bring them— even though you don’t need them. You have an eidetic memory remember?”

He hesitates. Only for a second. Then he’s obeying, knees hitting the mattress a little too fast, hands still trembling with nerves as he shuffles closer to you. You pull him gently between your legs, settle him against your chest, and reach around to take the notecards from his hand. Your other hand? Already sliding up under the hem of his T-shirt. He stiffens. “Wha—what are you doing?”

“Helping,” you say, voice low. “You’re overthinking. We’re gonna make this speech muscle memory.”

He tries to sit up but your hand pushes him gently back against you. The fingers under his shirt are already drawing lazy circles across his abdomen.

“You’re gonna recite it,” you murmur. “And every time you mess up, I’m gonna go a little faster.”

Spencer blinks. “Faster…?”

Your hand slides lower. His breath hitches. “Jerk you off, baby,” you whisper into his ear. “But you don’t come until you finish the whole thing. Clean. No mistakes.”

He makes a sound somewhere between a moan and a panic attack. You press a kiss to his temple.

“Start from the beginning.”

You feel the tension ripple through his body before he even opens his mouth. Spencer’s already flushed, his long fingers twitching nervously in his lap, chest rising and falling too fast. But he obeys. He always does when you use that voice. “The Behavioral Analysis Unit…” he begins, voice a little shaky, “…is a specialized sector of the FBI tasked with…” Your hand slides into his waistband. “…with, um… criminal pro…”

You wrap your hand around him. He’s half-hard already, nerves making everything hypersensitive. He gasps when you stroke once—slow, firm, just enough pressure to make him twitch.“Not what you wrote,” you murmur against his ear. “Try again.”

Spencer groans, head falling back against your shoulder. “Fuck, okay, okay…” He swallows.

“The Behavioral Analysis Unit is a specialized sector of the FBI tasked with investigating violent crimes through behavioral profiling and—” He says investigating instead of addressing. You catch it. So does he. “No—shit, I—”

You start stroking. Smooth. Steady. Relentless.

“Oh my God,” he gasps, hips jerking up into your hand without meaning to.

“Start over,” you whisper.

He’s already panting. You can feel the way his body’s fighting it—how he wants to focus but the pleasure is pulling him apart too fast. His voice wavers as he tries again, stumbling halfway through a sentence about interdepartmental cooperation. You pick up the pace.

“N-No, no, please, just give me a second.”

You don’t. You keep stroking—fast, slick, ruthless. His thighs are trembling slightly, his body arching softly as your hand works him. He sounds wrecked already. “Too fast,” he chokes out. “I can’t think—can’t say it right like this—”

“That’s the point,” you say sweetly. “Try again, baby.”

Your hand hasn’t stopped moving for a while. You’ve slowed down a few times, just to keep him dangling but you haven’t let go. He’s panting, flushed all the way down his neck, damp curls sticking to his forehead, fingers clutching the sheets like he’ll fall off the earth without them. And still, you say it, soft and cruel and patient, “Again.”

He lets out the most pathetic whimper you’ve ever heard. “Please…”

You hum. “I said again.”

“The Behavioral Analysis Unit…” He chokes on the first words like they’re smoke. “Is a specialized—ah—specialized sector of the FBI…”

You stroke him harder for a beat and he wants to scream into his own arm. You lean forward, lips brushing the shell of his ear. “Specialized sector of the FBI what?”

“Tasked with—fuck—tasked with addressing violent crimes through—th-through behavioral profiling and investigative analysis—”

His voice cracks. You’re not sure if it’s from the pressure in his throat or the way your hand hasn’t given him a second of relief. His hips are stuttering—he’s trying not to thrust but it’s instinct, helpless like his body’s begging to finish even though his mind hasn’t earned it.

“Keep going,” you whisper. “You’re almost there.”

“I—I’m not—I c-can’t—”

“You can,” you say, tightening your grip just enough to make him sob. “You will. Now come on, pretty. Say it right.”

He starts again. From the top. This time he makes it through the entire first paragraph, stammering a few times but the words come out. He’s breathless by the end of it, tears standing in his lashes, lips parted and red. You slow down for just a second, easing the pressure to keep him teetering on that perfect edge.

“That was good,” you say softly. “Really good. You gonna finish the rest for me now?”

He nods frantically, his voice shaking with it. “Y-Yes. Please. Just—just don’t stop. Don’t stop touching me—”

You smile and kiss the side of his neck. “I can speed up?”

“If you do, I can’t—”

“Yes, you can,” you breathe into his ear, stroking him slow, torturous. “You’re so close. Just say the last part and you can come.” You shift your hand just slightly—just enough that he whines through his teeth and bucks against your palm. His thighs are shaking.

“The BAU’s continued success is due to… due to a collaborative structure that integrates—”

He stumbles. Says interdepartmental instead of interdisciplinary. You know he caught it because he gasps and grabs at your wrist like he’s trying to hold you back—trying to hold himself together. You go faster.

“No—n-no please, please. I’ll do it right this time, I promise—”

“Then do it right, Spencer,” you whisper right against the shell of his ear. “You’re so smart, baby. I know you can get it right. Just finish your speech. You wanna come, don’t you?” He whimpers. He’s almost crying now, you think—just a little. You don’t stop. You want the tears. He’s beautiful like this.

“The BAU’s—oh my God,—continued success is due to a collaborative structure that… that integrates behavioral science, field experience and… and… fuckfuckfuck I know this—”

“You do,” you coo, pumping him faster. “Say it.”

He sobs. It comes out with a shiver and a choke but he says it. “…and administrative strategy across a multidisciplinary framework…” you nod,“…with each unit drawing from shared resources to promote strategic coordination and—”

“Come on, baby. You’re right there—”

“—interagency efficiency,” he gasps.

And that’s it. You let him come. You don’t even have to say it. His whole body locks up in your arms, his hips jerking so hard he almost escapes your grip. He sobs as he spills over your hand, thighs trembling, voice cracking, crying your name like it’s the only thing he’s got left. You hold him the whole time, murmuring praise into his hair, kissing his neck while his body gives out and melts against you. When he finally comes down, he’s ruined—a flushed, sweaty mess curled against your chest, still twitching from aftershocks.

“…Did I say it right?” he whispers, hoarse.

You kiss his cheek, smiling. “You did good, baby.”