Education

The view from Spencer's Butte above Eugene, Oregon. A grassy pathway leads to a bank of pine trees in the middle distance. Beyond the trees and far below lies Eugene, OR. In the distance are mountains, the blue sky filled with gray and white clouds.

Provost The Administrative Life The Long Road

A Pivotal Week in the Life of the Provost’s Office

Last week marked a pivotal moment in my transition to the role of Provost at the University of Oregon. We held two retreats, one early in the week for the Office of the Provost (OtP)…

Christopher LongAugust 20, 2024

$Looking up from the ground through the tall Redwoods of the Cathedral Grove in Muir Woods in California. The sky is seen refracted through the branches of the enormous redwoods.$

Living Provost

A Touchstone Poem for Leadership by John O’Donohue

Some years back, my friend Leigh Graves Wolf gave me John O'Donohue's book, To Bless the Space Between Us, when she left Michigan State University where we were working together at the time. Since then,…

Christopher LongJune 1, 2024

BillHD makes a gesture to a whiteboard off camera. He is sitting around a table with people listening to the point he is making. Sonja is watching Bill with her hand to her face, thinking.

Dean Living The Administrative Life

A Letter to Bill Hart-Davidson

The spirit of your gifts are present all around us, they animate our relationships and illuminate a world broken without you and better because of you.

Christopher LongMay 3, 2024

$Looking up from the ground through the tall Redwoods of the Cathedral Grove in Muir Woods in California. The sky is seen refracted through the branches of the enormous redwoods.$

Presentation: Other The Administrative Life

Using Obsidian Notes to Create Context and Connection for Meaningful Productivity

As many of you know, I find joy in refining the system that shapes the way I work and in sharing my approach here on the Long Road blog. So let this be the latest…

Christopher LongJanuary 19, 2024

A wooden gate framed by two columns of beige brick covered by green vines with red blossoms opens onto a tiered garden with a birdbath in the center. Off in the distance beyond the garden there are trees in full autumn folliage. The path leading to the bird bath is lined with purple flowers on this sunny November day in the Dumbarton Oaks gardens.

Dean Initiatives The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Coalition for the Future Academy

The metaphors we use shape the future we create. Upon entering the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, you are immediately confronted by four enormous Corinthian columns supporting a spacious atrium. There they stand, four…

Christopher LongJanuary 18, 2024

A diverse group of people of wide-ranging ages stand in a courtyard in front of a colorful mural of Grace Lee and James Boggs with young people. A young Grace Lee Boggs is in yellow, holding a megaphone to her mouth. Jimmie Boggs, on the right, is in a dark jacket, hands folded in front of me, listening. There is a diverse group of young people between them.

Dean Initiatives The Administrative Life

Ubuntu, Drawing, and A Pilgrimage to the Boggs Center

I am learning how to draw. It started during the pandemic, but if I am being honest, my practice has languished. Over the last few weeks, however, I have felt the need to redouble my…

Christopher LongOctober 21, 2023

A selfie with Chris Long in academic regalia to the right of Dr. Anthony Fauci in the Breslin Center before the 2023 MSU Doctoral graduation ceremony. The wall behind them has a Spartan helmet and images of Spartan Basketball players in action.

Education The Long Road

Joy and the Gift of Education

I’ve been a little quiet here lately as this very difficult semester comes to a close. It was healing yesterday to spend some time with Dr. Fauci before our MSU doctoral convocation. In his address…

Christopher LongMay 6, 2023

In the foreground in focus are white values cards with black letters laying on a dark wooden table with words like "Support for Failure," "Holistic," "Accessibility,"Excellence," "Appreciation," written on them. We read the cards upside-down as we look down the table, our perspective at table-level looking toward a woman in a black mask leaning over a computer pointing to something as participants around the table look toward the laptop on the table. The laptop and the people are out of focus at the depth of field is short and the focus is on the cards nearest us on the table.

Dean The Administrative Life

Finding the Values in Committee Work

The transformative power of values-enacted scholarship is only really felt in lived-experience. Just before spring break, and only two weeks after the mass shooting on the MSU campus, a small group of staff, directors, and…

Christopher LongMarch 16, 2023

The Spartan Rock, painted white, with a green Spartan helmet, on the left and "Always a Spartan" painted on the front. The names of Brian Fraser, Arielle Anderson, and Alexandria Verner, are written in green letters along the bottom. In front of the rock are piles of flowers and a green and white Spartans Will flag laying on mulch front and center of the image. There are three crosses with hearts and fish symbols to the right of the rock.

Education Living The Long Road

When Twilight Silence Falls

On Tuesday morning when I made my way to the sacred circle, past the resilient tree, to Linton Hall there was a silence such as I had never heard before. It was not the silence…

Christopher LongFebruary 18, 2023

This is an allegorical image. Against a beige background is the front of a building with pillars in slightly darker beige. Layered on top is a white image of the head, elongated neck, shoulders and upper torso of a person. The head is turned to the right with the outline of hair in a bun. Green, plant-like shapes grow behind the torso, in front of the building. A red heart-shaped heart is superimposed on the chest area of the torso. Three lines extend from the heart each connected to a beige rectangle. The rectangle on the left is almost square, with an icon of an open book in black. On the top right is a rectangle with a line graph with a single line going down and up. Middle right is a rectangle with black musical notes beginning with a treble clef. Five stylized human figures are in the foreground. Moving left to right, a Black woman with wavy black hair in a light pink sweater and dark pants with a red briefcase walks toward the heart. Sitting on the shoulder of the torso is a white woman with brown hair in a light brown top and brown pants reading a red book. There is a white man with brown hair in a white lab coat holding a clipboard in front of the heart. To his right is an Asian woman with shoulder length black hair with a stethoscope in a light brown top and dark brown pants listening to the heart. On the right is a Black man in a pink shirt and light brown pants and a dark brown pork pie hat. He has a conductor's baton and is pointing to the musical notes.

Education

Wholeness in a Torn World

To reweave ourselves into community, reconnect ourselves with our purpose, and realign university values with institutional practice, we need to create structures and cultivate habits that reinforce the work that gives our personal and institutional…

Christopher LongFebruary 5, 2023

Two people sit in gray chairs with dark wooden legs on a small stage with wooden floors. There is a round coffee table made of dark and light wood between them on which is a microphone with a pop filter, papers to which the speakers are referring, and two bottles of water. Amy DeRogatis is on the left, speaking and smiling slightly as she looks down at her paper and talks into the microphone. On the right is Isaac Weiner, grinning broadly as if laughing. On the left of the stage is a fake white tree with cotton "snow" underneath and white lights on the branches. The wall behind the stage is white, broken up with gray/blue squares of fabric designed to dampen the sound. The microphone is attached by a wire that goes to an amplifier that is just visible on the right, behind Isaac. There is a blue light coming out of the bottom of the amplifier.

Dean The Administrative Life The Long Road

What Does Religion Sound Like?

This question, What does religion sound like?, inspired the creation of a remarkable collaborative project on Religious Sounds between Amy Derogatis of Michigan State University and Isaac Weiner at The Ohio State University. Yesterday, I…

Christopher LongJanuary 28, 2023

The Frederick Douglas statue on the University of Maryland campus depicts, as wikipedia puts it, "Douglass in the middle of a speech, with one arm outstretched, and a copy of his autobiography under the other arm." His mouth is open in a fiery speech. The statue is cast bronze on a black marble block with white text chiseled on front reading Frederick Douglas 1818-1895, on the side, white text is legible that reads: Abolitionist, Suffragist, Labor Leader. The figure is set off to the right of the image with a band of long, wheat colored grasses in the middle background, with three windows of the red brick colonial style building in the distant background.

Education The Graduate Experience The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

The Intentional Work of Values-Enacted Change

The only way to ensure that transformative culture change takes root and grows across higher education is to build coalitions within and across institutions and organizations with colleagues who are structurally positioned and values-oriented and…

Christopher LongJanuary 22, 2023

Selfie on stage at the Kellogg Center after the 43rd MLK Dinner at which LeConté Dill gave the keynote. The selfie is taken by Chris Long, who is on the left, with, from left to right, Ruth Nicole Brown, LeConté Dill, Chamara Kwakye, Gianina Strother, and Yvonne Morris. In the background are rows of empty round tables with white tablecloths and black chairs around them.

Dean The Long Road

Power, Love, Justice, and Joy

Since Thursday, I have been reflecting on the powerful keynote address Professor LeConté Dill gave at the 43rd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Unity Dinner. Drawing on King's insistence that "ower, properly understood, is…

Christopher LongJanuary 14, 2023

The group is gathered around Queen Cherice Harrison-Nelson who is on the right, with Toni Gordon leaning in next to her, Ural Grant on her right, Jessica Reed next to Ural, and in the back, Sharieka Botex and Marquis Taylor. They are in a conference room where the presentation on prioritizing joy in graduate education was given.

Education Living The Administrative Life The Graduate Experience

Ubuntu As Leadership Practice

There are times when your life seems to be telling you a story. When this happens, it is wise to listen. In October 2022, my life began to speak the language of Ubuntu, the powerful…

Christopher LongDecember 30, 2022

African and African American Studies students standing in a row, from left to right: Amber McAddley, Morgan Braswell, Jhala Martin, and Ayodele Uhuru. They are listening to Jhala read from a piece of paper with a microphone in her hand. Photo by Ryan Frederick.

Dean Education

A Place of Wholeness

Last week we celebrated the Ascension of the Department of African American and African Studies in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. What follows are my remarks emphasizing the hope that…

Christopher LongNovember 21, 2022

Education The Administrative Life The Long Road

Toward a More Just and Beautiful Future

As my eighth year at Michigan State University begins, I have been reflecting on the work we have done and the work that lies ahead. In many ways, this past semester and the next mark…

Christopher LongAugust 16, 2022

Richard Bernstein, in a black turtleneck, hands folded, with chairs, out of focus, in the background. Bernstein was a champion of democracy and democratic values.

Education The Graduate Experience The Long Road

Bernstein and the Future of Democracy

The news came early on July 5 in a text message from my friend Rick Lee: Richard J. Bernstein, our beloved teacher, died on July 4, 2022. In life, Bernstein taught and embodied a commitment…

Christopher LongJuly 16, 2022

The Administrative Life

Revolutionary Dean

A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak to an amazing group of new deans at Michigan State University about the role of the dean in higher education during a period of intense transformation.…

Christopher LongFebruary 25, 2022

Dean The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

To the Class of 2025: Let Us Begin Again Together

To the Class of 2025, Welcome to Michigan State University, to the College of Arts & Letters, and to the MSU Honors College! You begin your MSU journey at a time like no other. As…

Christopher LongAugust 31, 2021

Red Cedar River in Winter, white snow covers the trees on both sides of the river which is beginning to ice over from the banks.

Presentation: Other The Administrative Life

From Productivity to Meaningful Work

Six years have past since I wrote A Few Notes on Productivity, a post that outlined my approach to productivity in academic and administrative life. More than 11 years have somehow passed since I wrote…

Christopher LongApril 2, 2021

Compass with directions in the foreground with a distant and unfocused image of the White House in the distance.

Civic Life Dean The Long Road

The Promise and Perils of Democracy

Below is a message I sent to my colleagues in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University in the wake of the first turbulent days of 2021. Dear College of Arts &…

Christopher LongJanuary 7, 2021

American Flags lined up against a yellow building

Civic Life Dean

Register to Vote

On National Voter Registration Day, I sent the following message to students, staff, and faculty in the College of Arts & Letters. Dear College of Arts & Letters Students, Staff, and Faculty, As we navigate…

Christopher LongSeptember 22, 2020

Presentations The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Indicators of Excellence in the Liberal Arts

The following reflections are offered in the context of the opening colloquium of the College and Beyond II: Liberal Arts & Life series. #collegeandbeyondii The current pandemic is an apocalypse — an uncovering. It reveals at once…

Christopher LongSeptember 15, 2020

Dean

To the Class of 2024: Embarking on an Education for Action

Dear MSU Class of 2024, Welcome to Michigan State University and to the College of Arts & Letters! You are embarking on an education that will forever shape the course of your life. At the…

Christopher LongAugust 31, 2020

James Baldwin - "I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do."

Dean

Open Letter to Our College of Arts & Letters Community

Dear College of Arts & Letters community, “Anger,” Audre Lorde insists, “is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.”Lorde, Audre. “The Uses of…

Christopher LongJune 5, 2020

Dean The Liberal Arts The Long Road

To the Class of 2020

There is nothing the world can now throw at you that you are unprepared to handle. You have harnessed the great power of a liberal arts education...

Christopher LongMay 7, 2020

Dean The Long Road

Deepening Connection in a Time of Distancing

As this disquieting semester comes to a close, it’s appropriate to pause for a moment to reflect on the distance we have traveled and the path that lies ahead.

Christopher LongApril 29, 2020

Aerial view of the center of MSU campus with intersecting pathways and trees.

Dean The Long Road

Catalyst of Collaboration

On September 26, 2019, I had the opportunity to address the Michigan State University President’s Council, which includes the Deans Council and the Executive Leadership of the University, about the values-based strategic planning process we…

Christopher LongOctober 7, 2019

Dean The Undergraduate Experience

To the Class of 2023: Embrace the Adventure

Dear Class of 2023, Welcome to Michigan State University! As we prepared our Welcome to MSU video this year, I found myself unexpectedly face-to-face with a picture of my past self as a first-year student…

Christopher LongAugust 27, 2019

Dean

Toward a Culture of Care

In the summer of 2018, a group of MSU Deans came together to write an essay that was published in Inside Higher Education under the title: "Can Michigan State Recover and Chart a New Path…

Christopher LongApril 24, 2019

Dean The Administrative Life The Long Road

Failures to Listen

One year ago today, Rachael Denhollander addressed the Ingham County court in Michigan, her abuser, and the institutions that failed to protect her and her #SisterSurvivors. Listen again to part of what she said on…

Christopher LongJanuary 24, 2019

Dean The Long Road

Open Letter Regarding MSU Interim President Transition

Dear College of Arts & Letters Alumni, Students, Staff, and Faculty, One year ago this week, the courageous testimonies of the Sister Survivors began to sow the seeds of change at Michigan State University. Taking courage…

Christopher LongJanuary 17, 2019

Dean

Living Values

In the open letter we wrote to the College of Arts & Letters community in January 2018, we promised to look critically at ourselves, recognize our failures, and rebuild the trust that is required of…

Christopher LongNovember 30, 2018

Dean

2018 Dean’s Report – Resilience

Dear College of Arts & Letters Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends, For generations, the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University have demonstrated the capacity…

Christopher LongNovember 16, 2018

Presentation: Academic The Liberal Arts Vita

AGLS Keynote – Practicing the Arts of Liberty

At the heart of my keynote address to the 2018 Association of General and Liberal Studies in Pittsburgh, PA is this idea: The intellectual and ethical habits we need to transform higher education are the…

Christopher LongSeptember 22, 2018

The Administrative Life The Long Road

Bonomi, Rothman, and a Human Rights Approach to Sexual Misconduct in Higher Education

In her recent article in the Journal of Family Violence, Amy Bonomi, Chair of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University, insists that sexual assault and relationship violence cannot be effectively redressed until we undertake…

Christopher LongSeptember 4, 2018

Original Seal of the Michigan Agriculture College

Dean Education

To the Class of 2022: MSU is an Open Door

Welcome to the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University! As you embark on your educational journey here at MSU, I invite you to consider the doors that are opening for you all…

Christopher LongAugust 28, 2018

Dean The Long Road

Open Letter to College of Arts & Letters Alumni and Friends

Dear College of Arts & Letters alumni and friends, By now many of you have heard that the university has agreed in principle to a $500 million global settlement with the survivors of the sexual…

Christopher LongMay 24, 2018

Dean The Liberal Arts

Cultivating a Culture of Trust

It has been difficult to write for the public in the months since posting the Open Letter to the College of Arts & Letters in the wake of the survivor impact statements that are transforming…

Christopher LongApril 12, 2018

Journal of General Education The Liberal Arts Vita

The Liberal Arts Endeavor: A New General Education

In the introduction to volume 65, issues 3-4 of the Journal for General Education, I draw on insights from Cathy Davidson's book, The New Education, to argue for a New General Education, one that is…

Christopher LongFebruary 28, 2018

Dean The Administrative Life The Long Road

Open Letter to the College of Arts & Letters

Dear College of Arts & Letters Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends, In the wake of the survivor impact statements, the Nassar sentencing, and the resignation of President Simon, we have entered an important period…

Christopher LongJanuary 25, 2018

Dean The Long Road

Life’s Blueprints: Designing the Structure of Our Professional Lives

Last year at this time, we spoke of beginnings and routine, of resolve and the quotidian habits required to weave them into a meaningful life. We set our intention to focus on five priorities through…

Christopher LongJanuary 15, 2018

Dean The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Practices of Weaving: Arts & Letters at MSU

Late last month, the faculty on the College Advisory Council (CAC) gave me a writing assignment. In preparation for our Fall 2017 faculty meeting on November 17, they asked me to take a step back…

Christopher LongNovember 14, 2017

Dean The Administrative Life The Long Road

Practicing Gratitude

Last weekend was homecoming on the Michigan State University campus, and I found myself reflecting on the meaning and significance of gratitude. So many alumni returned to campus to give thanks for all the ways…

Christopher LongOctober 24, 2017

Dean The Liberal Arts The Undergraduate Experience

To the Class of 2021: Be Resilient, Like a Tree

Dear College of Arts & Letters Class of 2021, Welcome to Michigan State University! As you embark on the adventure of discovery and growth that is a liberal arts education in the College of Arts…

Christopher LongAugust 25, 2017

Dean The Liberal Arts The Long Road

The Emergence of Our Vision: Public Education Rooted in the Liberal Arts

This month marks the beginning of my third year as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. When I began as Dean in 2015, I spoke about advancing the arts and humanities at the…

Christopher LongJuly 19, 2017

Dean The Liberal Arts

The Liberal Arts at the Heart of the MSU Land Grant Mission

When Ryan Kilcoyne and I met late last year to plan the 2017 MSU College of Arts & Letters Dean’s Report, we wanted to show what we have long talked about: situating the liberal arts…

Christopher LongJune 26, 2017

Dean Living The Long Road

Beware the Jabberwocks

Lessons from the Dragon Boat None of us knew quite what to expect on Saturday as we gathered at Hawk Island for our one-hour training session for the Capital City Dragon Boat Race to support the…

Christopher LongMay 23, 2017

Dean The Liberal Arts The Long Road

To Teach and Delight

The last two weeks of March this year brought sadness twice over to the College of Arts & Letters. On March 18, 2017, we lost Anna Norris, a beloved professor of French Literature who taught…

Christopher LongApril 14, 2017

Journal of General Education Publication: Journal The Liberal Arts Vita

The Liberal Arts Endeavor: The Arts of Liberty in a Time of Uncertainty

“The Liberal Arts Endeavor: The Arts of Liberty in a Time of Uncertainty.” Journal of General Education, 65, 2 (2017), v-vi. Even if, as Hannah Arendt suggests, “we are always educating for a world that…

Christopher LongMarch 19, 2017

Civic Life Education The Liberal Arts The Long Road

“…No Arts; No Letters; No Society…”

In early November last year, I returned to the Leviathan. In it, Thomas Hobbes grapples with the question of sovereignty and considers the human condition in a state of nature in which there is: …no…

Christopher LongMarch 17, 2017

Dean The Administrative Life The Long Road

Charting a Path to Intellectual Leadership, then Following It

As a junior faculty member, I attended every possible workshop on tenure and promotion I could find. Inevitably, however, as the shared wisdom of those who had successfully been tenured and promoted washed over me,…

Christopher LongMarch 14, 2017

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts

Open Letter on the Executive Order on Immigration

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff in the College of Arts & Letters: Many of you have written to express your concern about the executive order signed by the President of the United States on January…

Christopher LongJanuary 30, 2017

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Between Beginning and Routine

With the new year comes the deluge of resolutions. This ritual of new beginnings affords us an opportunity to begin anew, for, as the ancient proverb reminds us, “well begun is half done.” Aristotle, Politics,…

Christopher LongJanuary 15, 2017

The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Open Letter to the College of Arts & Letters

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff: We in the College of Arts & Letters seek to advance the core values of Michigan State University — quality, inclusiveness, and connectivity — by practicing inclusion as a matter of institutional habit.…

Christopher LongNovember 12, 2016

Black and white abstracted image of layers of circles and squares

Digital Humanities The Administrative Life The Long Road

Critical Diversity in a Digital Age

Last year we developed a strategic plan in the College of Arts & Letters that called for a cluster hire in culturally engaged digital humanities that focuses on humanities questions of race, inclusion, cultural preservation,…

Christopher LongOctober 31, 2016

Digital Scholarship Education

Nurturing Fulfilling Scholarly Lives

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, there is a famous passage in which he reminds us that “to be happy takes a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one fine day;…

Christopher LongOctober 14, 2016

Dean Education The Administrative Life The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Finding Your Place, Leaving a Mark

Dear College of Arts & Letters Class of 2020, Welcome to Michigan State University! As you begin your journey in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, let me tell you a…

Christopher LongAugust 31, 2016

Dean Digital Humanities Digital Scholarship The Administrative Life The Long Road

Investing in Humanities Publishing

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at the headquarters of the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C. early last week to take part in a discussion about a…

Christopher LongAugust 8, 2016

Civic Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Responding to Complexity with Nuance and Grace

In the wake of last week’s violence, we have again become caught up in the fraught dichotomy into which public discourse always seems to force us. It is as if somehow the human capacity to…

Christopher LongJuly 14, 2016

The Administrative Life The Long Road

MSU Shadows

A year ago today, as I began my tenure as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, I made reference to a passage by Peter Raible, one that draws from…

Christopher LongJuly 1, 2016

Education The Administrative Life The Long Road

5 Things That Facilitate Academic Collaboration

Lists are the current vernacular of the internet. There is even a social media site, li.st, wholly dedicated to the creation and sharing of lists of all sorts. So, as I considered how I might…

Christopher LongJune 27, 2016

Dean Education The Administrative Life

Learning to Play in a More Inclusive Key

On three different days in three different meetings, the same note was sounded. It struck a cord that resonated with me as I listened to faculty from three groups talk about their experience in the…

Christopher LongApril 25, 2016

The Administrative Life The Long Road

Arts & Letters Scholars

On the surface, it appeared to be a simple question of style: should we spell out “and” or use the ampersand when referring to the College? But form and content are intertwined; no style presents…

Christopher LongMarch 3, 2016

The Administrative Life The Long Road

Practicing Inclusion as a Matter of Institutional Habit

Institutions of higher education across the country have long talked about diversity and inclusion. Many have established offices of equity or inclusion and hired staff to ensure that the institution is living up to its…

Christopher LongFebruary 14, 2016

Presentation: Interactive Presentations The Liberal Arts The Long Road Vita

Tweeting the Liberal Arts @Muhlenberg #MCLA16

In his inaugural address as president of the college he founded, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg spoke of the values that animate the institution: "We do not regard an education as complete that aims only at improving the intellect,”…

Christopher LongFebruary 1, 2016

Dean The Long Road

I am allergic to cynicism.

I have been owning up to this affliction in each of the introductory department meetings I have had with faculty across the College during my first semester as Dean. Of course, the more cynical among…

Christopher LongJanuary 12, 2016

Education The Graduate Experience The Long Road

Remembering Reiner Schürmann

“Symbols effect the translation of discourse into a course, a path.” Schürmann, Reiner. “Symbolic Difference.” The Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 19/20, no. 2/1 (1997): 9–38, 33. It was early in the afternoon on November 21st,…

Christopher LongDecember 24, 2015

Education The Administrative Life The Long Road

Engaged Scholarship

This was initially posted on Medium as part of my Writing Along the Way project. Engaged Scholarship To speak of “applied” scholarship is to divorce theory from practice in a way that impoverishes both. This,…

Christopher LongDecember 24, 2015

Education The Long Road

Toward an MSU Arts and Culture Scholar Credential

As a member of the Cultural Engagement Council at MSU, I've been thinking about how we might create a more coherent and integrated arts and cultural experience for students at the university. Drawing on my…

Christopher LongDecember 17, 2015

The Administrative Life The Long Road

Catalytic Opportunities

Continuing my experiment in public writing along the way, this post on Medium outlines the contours of what I've been thinking about as "catalytic opportunities." Catalytic Opportunities I’ve begun thinking about strategic initiatives as catalytic.…

Christopher LongDecember 11, 2015

The Administrative Life The Long Road

Habits of Public Writing

This post on Medium initiates an experiment in public writing designed to facilitate transparency and refine my thinking in relation to issues I face in my role as Dean of the College of Arts and…

Christopher LongDecember 6, 2015

Dean The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Paths to Explore

Last week was the first week of the fall semester at Michigan State. It was my first opportunity to welcome new students to campus as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. In order…

Christopher LongSeptember 7, 2015

Green grass leading up to the beautiful Katsura Tree in the Beal Botanical Garden. There are purple flowers in the foreground on the right.

Dean Education The Administrative Life The Long Road

A Living Place of Education

The places we inhabit habituate us. The virtues they cultivate are grounded in the values they embody. In 1855, a natural opening in the oak forest of the Burr farm was selected as a fitting…

Christopher LongJuly 28, 2015

Dean The Administrative Life The Long Road

The Edge of the Oak Opening

As I begin my tenure as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University I find myself thinking of these lines adapted from Deuteronomy 6:10-12 by Peter Raible: "We build on…

Christopher LongJuly 1, 2015

Education Living LwCH The Administrative Life The Long Road

Inhabiting a Liminal Space

With the announcement that I would be recommended as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State, Val, the girls, and I entered a liminal space. I have long be drawn to the…

Christopher LongMay 25, 2015

Education The Liberal Arts The Long Road

A Liberal Arts Response to #Ferguson

The liberal arts have always given us powerful ways to study and understand the world we inhabit. The events in Ferguson call for a liberal arts approach because they are multidimensional. They require us to…

Christopher LongMarch 29, 2015

The Liberal Arts The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Returning to an Integrated Gen Ed Approach at Penn State

By the summer of 1954, the students at Penn State had grown impatient. The world had settled into a Cold War, the nuclear arms race threatened total annihilation, and the students felt unprepared to address…

Christopher LongFebruary 20, 2015

The Liberal Arts The Long Road

The Liberal Arts and Sciences and the 21st Century Land Grant Mission

At the beginning of the Physics, Aristotle captures something of the essence of the liberal arts and sciences as an endeavor. This path from the surface of things to a deeper understanding of their nature…

Christopher LongFebruary 16, 2015

The Administrative Life The Long Road

A Few Notes on Productivity

I was asked to facilitate a discussion about productivity and administration with my Associate Dean colleagues on the Academic Council for Undergraduate Education (ACUE) at Penn State. Being something of a productivity geek, I jumped…

Christopher LongJanuary 19, 2015

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Butterflies Pinned

In the winter of 1988, during my freshman year at Wittenberg University, I took Professor Warren Copeland’s Introduction to Ethics: Racism course. This course and its sister, Advanced Ethics: Racism, which I took the following…

Christopher LongJanuary 19, 2015

Education The Administrative Life The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Deliberating #PSUGenEd

Today we embark upon an exciting new phase of the General Education reform process at Penn State. After more than a year of conversations and discussion, we are now in a position to engage in…

Christopher LongSeptember 21, 2014

Education The Graduate Experience The Long Road

The Engaged PhD

Without diminishing the centrality of the PhD research endeavor, how can we cultivate more engaged graduate students? This presentation situates the graduate research endeavor in its wider institutional and public context and suggests two concrete…

Christopher LongSeptember 19, 2014

The Graduate Experience The Long Road

The Graduate Experience: Pathologies of Self-Doubt

Whatever else can be said of the PhD endeavor, it is fraught with anxiety and self-doubt. Everyone associated with graduate education knows this, many of us from first-hand experience, but rarely do we discuss it,…

Christopher LongSeptember 2, 2014

The Graduate Experience The Long Road

Performing the Humanities PhD

One of the main affordances of the emergence of digital modes of scholarship in the humanities is the manner in which they have opened the question anew about the relationship between the content of humanities…

Christopher LongJune 23, 2014

The Liberal Arts The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Ike Advocates for #PSUGenEd at Penn State Centennial Commencement

Fifty-nine years ago today, on June 9, 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower addressed the centennial graduating class of Penn State, where his brother, Milton, was president of the university. Two things were on the President's mind…

Christopher LongJune 9, 2014

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Beginning Anew with #PSUGenEd

At the Penn State General Education Spring 2014 retreat, we decided to begin anew with GenEd as we try to find ways to feasibly adopt a curriculum that would be animated by substantive integrative learning…

Christopher LongMay 18, 2014

The Administrative Life The Long Road

On Welcoming philoSOPHIA to Penn State

From time to time, I am called upon in my role as Associate Dean to welcome academic groups to campus. This afternoon, I had the opportunity to say a few words of welcome to philoSOPHIA:…

Christopher LongMay 1, 2014

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

General Education Reform at Penn State

The Information Technology unit at Penn State holds IT Matters breakfasts a few times a year. This semester I joined colleagues on stage to talk about my work and how it intersects with IT at…

Christopher LongApril 15, 2014

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

#PSUGenEd and the Research Endeavor

We at Penn State are engaged in an intense, ongoing and, in my view, very healthy dialogue about General Education reform. In order to integrate the research endeavor into the undergraduate experience, we ought to…

Christopher LongApril 10, 2014

Presentation: Interactive Presentation: Other Presentations The Graduate Experience Vita

Cultivating an Online Scholarly Presence

Graduate students are often confronted with conflicting advice about how much of their academic work they should share publicly online. Although there are good reasons to consider carefully what one shares and how, graduate students…

Christopher LongMarch 27, 2014

The Graduate Experience The Long Road

Expanding the Humanities PhD Market

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article Susan Welch and I wrote about the data the College has collected since 1996 on the placement of our graduate students in the social sciences and…

Christopher LongFebruary 10, 2014

The Administrative Life The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Deliberating GenEd Reform at Penn State

One of the values we hope to integrate into the new General Education curriculum at Penn State is the recognition of the importance of public deliberation. Deliberating in public is difficult; it requires certain intellectual…

Christopher LongJanuary 28, 2014

The Administrative Life The Long Road

Toward a Deliberative University Public

I have always sought to integrate my philosophical commitments into my administrative life. So, when Noëlle McAfee came to campus to deliver a paper entitled, "Deliberation and the Affective Dimensions of Public Will-formation," I found…

Christopher LongNovember 13, 2013

The Administrative Life The Long Road

General Education Reform and the Art of Listening

By the time we took the stage as the final panel of the day, we had heard the voices of expert educators, faculty, administrators, employers and alums speak about the value and importance of general…

Christopher LongNovember 3, 2013

The Liberal Arts The Long Road

Music, Philosophy and the Liberal Arts

On the day he was to die, we find Socrates writing poetry. This is very strange because Socrates generally chose not to write, opting instead to engage in dialogue with those he encountered in and…

Christopher LongSeptember 9, 2013

Education The Liberal Arts The Long Road The Undergraduate Experience

Beginning Again with the Liberal Arts

The rhythm of the academic year returns us again to the beginning. State College is charged with energy as parents drop off their children, some for the first time, and students turn and return to…

Christopher LongAugust 24, 2013

CONNECT WITH ME