The Last Days of Academia

[an interlude]

A few weeks ago, I went to a retirement party for my dissertation advisor. “Party” isn't really the right term, as it was not just beers one night: it was a two-day series of events of honoring her, at which thirty or so of her former students, including me, had been flown in, put up, wined, dined, and seminar-ed.

Down I flew into memory holes.

This week’s newsletter is a long, fragmented way to answer two questions I was asked over and over at the event—one that no one ever asks me anymore—”what did you do your dissertation on?”—and another I am still often asked and still cannot answer succinctly——”why did you leave academia”? Thanks for indulging me.