Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda

A Vision of College Students Today

Please note: I first wrote the following article in December 2019. I kept making tweaks to it and submitted it a number of places in December, in January, and in February with no takers. I thought about tweaking it to include the COIVD19 crisis, but as is, I think this serves as an important snapshot to how roughContinue reading “A Vision of College Students Today”

Notes on: Homeschooling

COVID19 has presented challenge after challenge. (And let’s not forget that our ever-more evil POTUS knew about its threat and had options to minimize its impact, but chose to ignore them.) For a blog post here, I wanted to briefly discuss homeschooling. I see post after post from people with children–who normally attend public schoolsContinue reading “Notes on: Homeschooling”

The “Big Idea” Gender Studies Syllabus

This is the third installment in my “Big Idea Syllabus” series inspired by Dr. Michael Wesch’s “Big Idea” Syllabus for Anthropology. My “Big Idea” Syllabus for History can be found here, for Writing here. The “Big Idea” Syllabus for Gender Studies follows. Gender is an important, valid field of inquiry, and because women and gender-nonconformingContinue reading “The “Big Idea” Gender Studies Syllabus”

Beto’s War Tax is Wrong (A Once Lost OpEd)

Back in June, I wrote the following article, intended to be an OpEd in a major publication but something happened, and I forgot about it until now. I’m sharing it here, as is, so the writing doesn’t go to “waste”! Beto O’Rourke’s proposed “War Tax” is noteworthy because it longs to go beyond Republican’s lipContinue reading “Beto’s War Tax is Wrong (A Once Lost OpEd)”

Wheel of Fortune’s Ableism Affects Pat and Vanna, too.

Wheel of Fortune‘s ableist tendencies are endless. I’ve previously written about some of these here. But its ableism extends in other directions, too. Back in August of this year, I made a social media post focusing on Vanna and wrote: She is 62 and still “looks” (is “required” to look) much younger. If she gainedContinue reading “Wheel of Fortune’s Ableism Affects Pat and Vanna, too.”

Minorities, Responsibilities, and Educating Others

Conversations on social media about privilege and oppression often have comments along the lines of “it’s not the minority individual’s job to educate others as to how they are being oppressive or blind to their privilege.” And this always strikes me as problematic or as, generally, less than ideal. On the one hand, of course. Continue reading “Minorities, Responsibilities, and Educating Others “

Notes on Flawed Characters vs. Flawed Scripts

I often aspire to help my students realize the difference between flawed characters and flawed scripts, but recently realized I had sometimes neglected to apply this notion to my own cultural criticism. My thoughts about How To Get Away With Murder help illustrate. Basically every character in How To Get Away With Murder is deeplyContinue reading “Notes on Flawed Characters vs. Flawed Scripts”