#accessibility in academia

[sluttylittlewaste]

Since the Hbomberguy video has dragged everyone back into talking about academia, I have a rant:

The take, "Academic papers and academia in general tend toward a writing style that is intentionally inaccessible to maintain standards of ableism and academic elitism" (woke) is not the same statement as, "Because I do not understand this thing about this topic I have never researched at this level before, the work is inaccessible and therefore in Bad Faith™️" (not only broke but fucking wild).

Working as an academic advisor in my senior year, my specialty was helping people with writing. That included reviewing essays and helping with research mostly, as both of my degrees are research and writing intensive. Even with the MANDATORY Introduction to College Writing class freshman were forced into - unless, of course, you either tested well in AP English Language or passed the writing assessment that allowed you to skip the course (which most people didn't) - I often found myself explaining that academic papers are written with the understanding that the reader already possesses some meaningful amount of context. Students would come to me with full confidence just to show a paper reliant on paraphrasing and regurgitating the source text, ended with whatever hand-wavey, unresearched thoughts they had while reading and call it /Analysis/. Thus would begin the long, arduous process of teaching them how to actually research and structure an academic essay from scratch, down to identifying reputable sources and deciding how many is too many quotes.

As such, while it saddens me to see people put off of academic writing (and research as a whole) for the reason of inaccessibility, I get it. Disregarding the prevalence of paywalls blocking credible published works from the public, I'd argue that most papers assigned to studentsr weren't actually written for students. The 25 page article in the well established medical journal is going to be laden with esoterica and intracultural references; it was written for peer review by other professionals in their field with a baseline of pre-requisite knowledge. Similarly, if you're doing independent research and just roll into a random a decades old article you found on Google Scholar, it's likely to be confusing if you have no backgound in the topic. The expectation that anyone can just dive into a research paper written by an expert and immediately grasp the information provided completely misses the fact that learning is an active practice requiring critical thinking and access to reliable resources.

Why does that matter? Because the core facet of research is taking that confusing, inaccessible academic journal or data and /making it make sense/. Taking the time to learn terms you don't recognize, to read ALL OF the provided context, to reword and recontextualize the information to be digestible to an audience without expertise on the topic, that's THE POINT. When an assigment asks for ten sources, it's not for the sake of making you work harder. The entire exercise is to have you compare and contrast things like word choice, historical context, and author bias so you can synthesize your own understanding of the topic. Entire categories of the research and essay writing community exist simply for this goal: to make complex academic literature accessible to general audiences. It's what Internet Historian and Illuminaughti (fuck if I spelled that right) were pretending to do!

There are a lot of valid points to be made in the discussion of academia being inherently inaccessible. Unfortunately the Internet, specifically social media, has a way of boiling actual conversations down to the bare bones of "Is hard and I don't like it, therefore is bad."

(Note: This does not apply to professors/educators assigning a bunch of text without doing any actual teaching. Expecting everyone to be able to read something and just get it isn't a "challenge in critical thinking", it's bad teaching and makes things harder for people who may already find a learning challenging or inaccessible. Do better. )

Is academia filled with conventions that make it widely inaccessible to people from all education levels? Yes.

Do some people write with as many big words or as much autofellating fluff as possible purely for the purpose of sounding smart? YES.

But, as an academic writer and reader myself, and as a person with a bevvy of peers I respect deeply in the field of research, a significant amount of these articles are written in good faith by people who are using the vocabulary they have. The use of "big" words, esoteric references, and hyper-specific language isn't based in the desire for exclusion, but rather clarity for a peer group who are comfortable with the language being used is it's intended context.

Sorry about all this. I just actually enjoy academia when it's about the love of learning rather than being a pissing contest/bitchfest. Ignore me 😭

[teapot-studies]

Random writing tips that my history professor just told during class that are actually helpful

Download all your sources or print them so you can turn off your wifi

Give your phone to someone

Just. WRITE. Writing is analysing, you’ll get more ideas as you write. It doesn’t need to be perfect, for now you can just blurt out words and ideas randomly. You can fix it later.

Create a skeleton/structure before writing.

Stop before you get exhausted. It’s best to stop writing when you still have some energy and inspiration left, this will also motivate you to get started again next time.

Make a to do list

Work in bite sizes. Even if it’s not much, as long as you put some ideas on paper or do some editing.

Simple language =/= boring language, simple language = clear language.

Own your words. If they are not your words, state this clearly in the text, not just in the footnotes.

STOP BEFORE YOU GET EXHAUSTED. Listing it again because it’s easily one of the best tips a teacher has ever given me.

[burningvelvet]

if the significance of the internet archive being threatened has been lost on anyone, maybe these quick comparisons will put it into perspective…

Banning the Internet Archive would be the equivalent of burning the Library of Alexandria hundreds of times…

[Image Descriptions in alt text]

[rudjedet]

Folks if you're not familiar with Sidestone Press yet, they're a Dutch academic publisher who make every book they publish available to read online for free (and a selection is also freely downloadable as a PDF, such as Egyptian Bioarchaeology, edited by Salima Ikram et al.). Open access is one of their founding principles and I highly encourage looking through their published works, which cover fields such as archaeology and Egyptology, but also philosophy, linguistics, media studies, law & criminology, and others.

[thoodleoo]

she let me hit because of my academic swag and my institutional access

[poppy5991]

They just can’t stop stealing his limelight 🤦🏼‍♀️

[hussyknee]

Guys, Z-library is back up, but it desperately needs our help.

Z-Library is one of the largest online libraries in the world. We aim to make literature accessible to everyone. Today, Z-Library contains over 12,140,413 books and 84,837,000 articles Z-Library has many servers all over the world. Our stored data now totals more than 220 TB! Every month, millions of people use Z-Library for their purposes — and that means we are on the right track. But it will be difficult to achieve our goals without your help.

As you may know, almost all public domains of the library were blocked in November 2022 by order of the US Secret Service. The inner infrastructure of the project suffered some substantial damage too. Today, we are still under unprecedented pressure. At the moment, Z-Library is going through the hardest times in all the 14 years of its existence. The library might work with interruptions, and we ask you to be patient. Be sure – we are doing everything possible to provide free access to knowledge for millions of people across the globe, and we expect you to help us with that and to support us.

But despite all the difficulties, the library continues to function and develop. We have recently introduced several important features: the new recommendations section, comments to booklists, the new web-site menu, personal domains and Telegram Bot, and more.

Your active support gives strength to our Team and inspires to work. Each donated dollar is not only money for us, but it is also the confidence that you really need our project!

On 15 March 2023, as in March and September of each year, we launched additional fundraising to project maintenance and development. We will be extremely thankful for every dollar that will be donated. Furthermore, UNLIMITED downloads (for 1 month) are available for ALL contributors who will donate during the fundraising period. The fundraising will run until 1 April 2023

Millions of people use Z-Library every month for their purposes — this shows us that we are on the correct track. But it will be difficult to achieve our goals without your help.

Please consider making a donation.

I know there's a lot of discourse around book piracy right now, but you know who absolutely cannot afford to buy your books in dollars, afford the shipping fees, or don't have access/ travelling distance to the kind of fully stocked libraries you have in the West? The Global South. Our factories make your Kindles, your phones, your textbooks, and then we can't afford to buy them from your corps that sell them at around 300% grate price, and half the books are not even available for our region. Our universities don't get your funding or recognition, and when we do sell our personal possessions to get the money and work our asses off to get admittance to Western universities, y'all use us as grunts, exploit us and pass our work off as your own. Worse still, you buy out our local publishing houses and shut them down.

You cannot imagine the extent of global apartheid and colonial economic order that capitalism runs on. Amazon cheats you out of royalties? We can't even afford to buy your books. A dollar can buy someone a full dinner here. These sites – Z-lib, Internet Archive, Libgen, Open Library, Sci-Hub, PDF Drive, LibriVox – they are essential to granting the global majority our human right to knowledge, education and access. Z-Lib is by far the best one of them all.

You will first need to sign up to Z-Lib and access it through the private domain link they send you. It's a simple process, and every little bit counts. You're a leftist that believes in equal access for all? Then literally, put your money where your mouth is.

[learnelle]

Here’s what 7 years of journaling and scribbling looks like :)

[super-paper]

afotaro is the elephant's foot of toxic old man yaoi but that's not gonna stop me from memeing on it, y'know, as a coping mechanism.

[breitzbachbea]

"The literature of the Hellenistic period began to place more emphasis on male sexuality. For instance, in Apollonios's Argonautika, the third-century BCE reinvention of the epic that narrated the journey of Jason and the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece, Jason is not only handsome, a common characteristic of heroes since the Homeric epics, but also sexually alluring. Charles Beye has argued that this is the defining aspect of his character. Jason's sexual allure attracts women, particularly Medea, whom Jason recruits to his cause and convinces to betray her family. It can be argued that it is the magic and cleverness of Medea, rather than the heroism of Jason (who is not portrayed by Apollonios as the smartest of men), that allows the Argonauts to succeed and propels the action of the story. Jason's contribution to the success of the endeavor is therefore his ability to make women, Medea particularly, fall in love with him and follow him despite the consequences. This makes Jason a distinctly Hellenistic hero, since in contrast to traditional epic heroes, like Achilles and Odysseus (who were certainly also attractive and who had numerous sexual relationships), Jason's dominant characteristic is his power of sexual attraction. As Beye states, "His sexuality is simply the essence of his being." The literary example of Jason demonstrates that men were now viewed not only as sexual aggressors but also as objects of sexual desire for both women and other men."

Herring, A., Sexy Beast: The Barberini Faun as an Object of Desire, in: Journal of the History of Sexuality 25/1 (2016), 59.

[hamletthedane]

*meets my plug on a street corner and he furtively glances around before passing me a baggie full of USBs, on which are dozens of paywalled research papers he downloaded using his university student research database access*

[toothy-crow]

Trust me, Potter. We’ll get you your bird.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[burningvelvet]

conservatives are always saying “the liberals are getting out of hand these days! why can’t we go back to the time when everyone was normal?!” as if over two centuries ago circa. 1820 percy shelley wasn’t an outspoken polyamorous vegan anti-fascist chronically ill atheist spiritualist poet with weird hair and funky blouses and 10 mental illnesses buried in financial debt who lived in unofficial exile with his goth bisexual feminist wife who pioneered science fiction who ran around with him threatening old people by saying they wanted to decapitate the king

[mishy-mashy]

Just wanna say this: the High-End Hood should've been Shinomori's corpse.

Yes, it's confirmed Hood is some random fighter from the underground, but it just makes more sense if it were Shinomori at the base?? At the least, I think it'd be verrry fascinating

Although it might be a bit cliche, like if Kudo were Bakugo's ancestor, but it'd be a nice piece of trivia. It wouldn't have to be said outright. Like AFO losing Yoichi's hand cuz of All Might.

Endeavor just fights and kills Shinomori, a cute hermit that gave the rest of his life because of OFA, and Bruce's trust in him over said Factor. Even using his turn to build up strength, Shinomori was looking forward to the future too

A parallel of wanting to be the strongest is drawn between Shinomori and Endeavor. Even after death, the duty of OFA haunts even a corpse.

For why it makes sense if Hood were Shinomori;

Shinomori and Hood wear the same kind of pants (Hood's is ripped, but he's a Nomu and corpse, so it makes sense). It even ends just below the knee. A colored version because I don't want to open the anime;

Shinomori's desire to avoid the strongest (AFO) could've been tweaked by Garaki to look for the strongest instead

Hood looking for the strongest person (hero) could even be Shinomori's desire to give OFA to someone strong enough to protect and grow the Factor. As a hero, someone trustworthy

My [OFA Users are High-Ends theory post] for why Shinomori would be a good base for a High-End

AFO didn't know his face, so the High-End could've been named Hood to keep up themes. That AFO didn't know his face, and even now, he has a "hood"; Hood's face isn't visible beyond glowing features at first

Endeavor burned Hood and said to rest. This could've been Shinomori getting his cremation, and that Shinomori could relax (about OFA)

Endeavor said Hood is possibly Endeavor from the past or the future. In the past, Shinomori wanted to grow his strength for the Factor, so technically, Shinomori wanted to be the strongest. The strongest he could be, at least

The fact we know Shinomori underwent an autopsy, and that Garaki works in morgues to harvest corpses

The knowledge that multiple Quirks kills the normal (not-AFO) person is found in Shinomori. Finding this out, this could've been the reason Garaki and AFO specifically use corpses for Nomus. That way, there's no life force to drain, and technically no drawbacks to the wielder

Garaki was alive during Shinomori's time. Considering these panels,

This happens chronologically. AFO knew Bruce only had leftover embers (he could tell the same with All Might), which is why he looks so dismissive of his corpse. He's just wondering where Yoichi could be now.

AFO met Garaki after he killed Bruce. With all his followers and the way AFO is sitting, he's likely in search of Yoichi in Shinomori. But he never sees or meets the wielder. Thus the way he has his head down, as if upset and ignoring the insignificant crowds

That's why, when he finds Banjo, he's smiling. Yoichi is right in front of him again, after 18+ years of nothing.

Garaki was probably alive for all the OFA users. He's already looking middle-aged when he first meets AFO, and his Ability is just longer life. So he looks younger than he actually is anyway.

Since AFO faced all the previous OFA Users (sans Shinomori), AFO had access to their bodies when they died. Meanwhile, Shinomori ends up in the morgue anyway, likely by Banjo.

AFO shredded Yoichi's body apart, so there's no corpse left. He killed Kudo, Bruce, Banjo, En, and Nana; but not Shinomori, who died of old age, or All Might or Midoriya, because they're still alive.

He has access to the corpses of the previous holders he killed himself, and left relatively intact. And Banjo may as well have given him Shinomori's corpse to figure out what killed a relatively-young, healthy man.

With access to those corpses, AFO and Garaki could've preserved the corpses of OFA Users to make High-Ends

(Maybe see this post where I elaborate why OFA users make great bases for High-Ends)

[borderlinebelle]

What’re the odds you’re thinking of me too?

“home to you”, photoset 11/14 🖤

📸 @my younger son

[llyfrenfys]

Noswaith dda! I'm still taking a break from most work on Llyfr Enfys for the remainder of the month due to health issues - but I've teamed up with The GNC Network to publish another chapter from my dissertation on their carrd (link in their Instagram bio @transgnc_network_official). Big diolch to The GNC Network for publishing this next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.

If you haven't seen, I'm offering a $1 tier on my Patreon (link in my bio) to help support me with dental care costs (see last post). So if you enjoy my work, please consider donating so I can afford to keep my teeth!

Happy reading pawb!