Ashok Karra - Encouragement

Tomas Tranströmer, "Kyrie"

What is it like when everyone yearns for a taste of the miraculous, abandoning anyone not part of the throng?

Encouragement 2025 Year in Review

This was a long year. I had less than ideal health in January – I was briefly unable to swallow water – and I lost my father in early February.

poetry

Sappho, "And I said" (tr. Mary Barnard)

I imagine Sappho's sacrifice of a goat messy in more than one way, as she wants a god to cure her inner turmoil.

poetry

Sappho, "I asked myself" (tr. Mary Barnard)

Our age shuns unfocused activities: we tell 14 year olds they must promptly choose a career and stick to it.

poetry

Sappho, "Standing by my bed" (tr. Mary Barnard)

I am certain if Emily Dickinson were alive today, she would be an extremely horny Tumblr power user.

Sappho, "We shall enjoy it" (tr. Mary Barnard)

So here's Sappho declaring "We shall enjoy it." A command, a wish, a pledge to and of the audience.

philosophy

Lesson Plan for Beginning Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics

Our concern is with Heidegger and political philosophy. To that end, we want to know what is at stake in questions of being.

poetry

Sappho, "Tell everyone" (tr. Mary Barnard)

"I shall / sing beautifully for / my friends' pleasure."

american politics

To love your neighbor is to love America

The freedom to hurt others is not true freedom.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "All Your Horses"

We are brought into the thick of a crisis, one with nearly imperceptible beginnings but severe consequences.

american politics

You should read Tatiana Schlossberg's "A Battle with My Blood"

American history is full of remarkable documents, ones with a sacred aura compelling reverence from readers.

american politics

Hunger in the Permian Basin

In order to love your neighbor, you have to know you have neighbors.

education

After the Conference

You do lots, it's all productive, everyone gains, there's so much to celebrate. Time slows down.

education

Democratic Erosion and Ungrading at the 2025 Northeastern Political Science Association Meeting

Education is a responsibility to your community.

heidegger

2025 NPSA Paper Presentation: Heidegger, Antigone, and Authenticity

Like many of you, I'm thinking and teaching about what comes next.

american politics

On Federalism

Federalism is an old solution to a perennial problem.

education

Remarks for Introducing Sigma Kappa Delta, Psi Alpha Chapter's "Falloween" Event

Gathering in today's day and age is an activity which can receive mild disapproval, if not outright hostility.

poetry

Sara Miller, "Countermeasures"

Thus you have to turn to the ducks. There is no choice.

poetry

Virginia Konchan, "Zoo"

I'm sitting with "the clay heart of Nature," thinking how malleable the most pristine encounters I've had with the natural world have been.

poetry

Ye Hui, "The Witch"

The witch proclaiming "You see nothing / Clearly" is the one statement of this poem which fits the facts.

american politics

You need to see this awful CNBC report about the shutdown

To be sure, what I've linked to below is financial journalism. A lot of that is by definition obscene.

american politics

Explaining the U.S. Presidency in 2025

What AI allows is the cult around the President to imagine anything they want and instantly create media which looks legitimate enough.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "New Rooms"

How do each of us deal with a world continually in flux without any time to think?

education

Sigma Kappa Delta, Psi Alpha Chapter Guide for Officers

Why doesn't everyone want to be an officer? It's obviously awesome.

education

Teaching Texas Government in 2025

...what you really want is immersion in the problem. Not simply "you can choose to explore this," but recognition of an enormity.