Michael J. Faris

Inbox down to 13 for the first time in a LONG time. I've been extra grumpy the last few months, but maybe March and April is when I catch up and feel less overwhelmed.

I should say that, obviously, this is a product/effect of neoliberal publishing and all our work being outsourced/owned by these publishing agencies, but that's "obviously": Our work becomes less our own and ALSO harder to do because of corporate infrastructures

Hey all these journals using "ScholarOne Manuscripts": Is it really necessary to have a different login for each journal? Having 5 different logins to the same site is kinda confusing.

Don't understand why presses do hardcovers. Price is too high for both individuals & libraries. Just do the paperback from start. A no-duh move. Best presses in my field (e.g. Colorado UP) understand this. (This you, Routledge & SUNY Press: stop with stupid hardcover w/ then paperback a year later)

I wish that EPSN understood that North Carolina baby blue on a white background is not really readable #accessibility

I really wish MLA/MAPS would fix their login issues. It took me like 30 minutes to log into my department account today, and it takes nearly that long EVERY TIME because they have 3+ logins instead of just one. JFC

I don't have concrete data on this, but it feels like in 50% of the online meetings I have with someone using bluetooth headphones that there's a problem with their audio. I hate them. (them = bluetooth headphones, not the people)

Front Cover of the book Adequate: Rewriting the Logics of Success in Rhetoric and Composition, edited by Timothy Oleksiak and Joshua Barsczewski. Cover art by Nafís White. Piece is entitled Oculus (Black, Brown, Navy, Teal) and consists of braided hair woven into a pattern.

Back cover text: Barsczewski and Oleksiak collect chapters that tell stories, build theories, and make cases for what a healthy academic life looks like. Acknowledging that the academy will always take as much as you give, this collection gives readers material for imagining their own "adequacy" barometers. This is essential reading for graduate students and early career faculty as they seek to build sustainable careers.” —Holly Hassel, Michigan Technological University “These excellent contributions illuminate how, for so many of us, the dream of a dignified, well-remunerated academic position is just out of reach. Instead, our working lives are mostly shaped by austerity, contingency, overwork, and underpayment. Adequate dares to name these conditions, calling attention to the innumerable falsehoods and broken promises of the neoliberal university, and articulates a powerful new vision of academic labor.” —James Rushing Daniel, Seton Hall University Adequate: Rewriting the Logics of Success in Rhetoric and Composition proposes a fresh approach to teaching rhetoric and composition—a field awash with unrealistic labor expectations and untenable and often unattainable requirements for both the educator and the educated—that takes “success” and “failure” out of the equation and advocates for the concept of adequacy over that of perfection. Adequate reimagines what the concept of adequacy holds for the future of academic work. An invaluable resource for scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students in the rhetoric and composition field, this volume covers the realities of teaching rhetoric and composition in the modern college environment, as well as potential paths forward for educators in need of a better work-life balance.

Print copies of Adequate: Rewriting the Logics of Success in Rhetoric and Composition, edited by @timothyoleksiak.bsky.social and me, came in the mail today! Thanks to @upcolorado.bsky.social for publishing it!

Penn Calls Government’s Demand for Lists of Jewish Staff ‘Disconcerting’

And why on earth would the federal government want a list of Jewish employees...

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...

I finally got my inbox below 15. Goal is 0 before winter break

Finally got my inbox below 30 again... it won't last long.

Finally got back down to 30 after a crazy September and start to October...

Finally got my inbox below 30. woot!

Fall 2025 is already killing me. Got my inbox down to 53 messages, the lowest its been in a few weeks, but higher than normal.

Carolyn Miller in the recent RSQ: "I will just question whether it’s helpful to think of rhetoric as having “methodologies.” Does this language engage in a kind of science-envy? Isn’t rhetoric, as a discipline, rather a set of questions, a habit of mind, an interpretive vocabulary?"

You know Routledge/T&F editing is crap when I'm excitedly reading a new article and I keep getting distracted by the copyediting errors instead of engaging with the authors' ideas.

Due to travel and then being sick today, my inbox hit 90+ emails today, which is anxiety inducing! Got it down to 45 after a few hours...

To give another example: I last made changes in a folder at 3PM on laptop A (less than 100MB changes, I imagine). From 6-9PM on laptop B, those changes haven't synced. Please communicate how you're fixing your app so that it actually works with all Mac OS

further, on one my computers, the Dropbox app must have updated or something and changed the settings (without my doing) to not have local copies. Now, that computer is going to spend 100s of hours to download files that had been local previously. Why I am paying you money for ineptitude?

.@dropbox.com I'm a Mac OS user and haven't even updated to the newest Mac OS yet, and your syncing has become incredibly slow and unreliable. It takes hours to sync just a few MB files, and I've had to quit and restart Dropbox and force quit Finder just to get things to sync. Can you fix your app?

Is Bluesky glitching for others? I tried the browser version before mobile, and there’s no compose button available 🤷

USPS received a package for me, delivered to Lubbock, and instead of delivering it to me, sent it to New Mexico. I just wrote feedback: “Uh, WTF?”

Odds I actually receive it?

Goddammit I have become too Type A to have any friends.

Thanks! I've got ideas percolating after last CCCC, but not sure I have the time/focus to continue on this... we'll see! <3

wrote my first Blog post in a long-ass time last night, on problems with accuracy of institutional (and field-wide) data: michaeljfaris.com/blog/2025/05...

One thing I really appreciate about TTU is that promotion dossiers for non-tenure-line faculty don't require external reviewers. Requiring that would be stupid, because external reviewers can't actually review their teaching, just what the institution and faculty member writes about teaching.

Starbucks in the SUB is the worst. They put black coffee in the drink queue so that you have to wait 15+ minutes for a drink they could hand you in 30 seconds

Likely

Not sure how, but as fascism rises, I'm managing to keep up with my email? inbox is at 9.

Inbox down to 13. Miracle.