Susan D. Blum
I am an anthropologist seeking to understand the world we see around us, whether in China, the United States, or anywhere else. My interests have ranged from the study of ethnicity, nationalism, identity, and the self in China, to truth and deception across cultures, to cheating and plagiarism in US colleges, to food, sustainability, and culture, to the nature of education and childhood. I always connect my academic research to my teaching and my life experience, which means I am always busy trying to understand things I see!
For about fifteen years I've been obsessed with the divorce between learning and schooling, which I explored especially in my book "I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College (Cornell, 2016). I've also come to see a strong mismatch between the ways people learn outside schools, and the ways they only appear to learn in schools.
Still, there are brilliant experiments being done at all levels of education, often under the rubric of "Progressive Education," a category that traces its roots back at least to John Dewey in the early twentieth century and to a host of revolutionary educators in the 1960s.
In my own teaching I continue to experiment, using material from the vast universe of pedagogical writings.
In my blog I explore current events, information from my classes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and more.
My ongoing work on Ungrading and educational transformation benefits from collaboration with many people working in these fields.
For about fifteen years I've been obsessed with the divorce between learning and schooling, which I explored especially in my book "I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College (Cornell, 2016). I've also come to see a strong mismatch between the ways people learn outside schools, and the ways they only appear to learn in schools.
Still, there are brilliant experiments being done at all levels of education, often under the rubric of "Progressive Education," a category that traces its roots back at least to John Dewey in the early twentieth century and to a host of revolutionary educators in the 1960s.
In my own teaching I continue to experiment, using material from the vast universe of pedagogical writings.
In my blog I explore current events, information from my classes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and more.
My ongoing work on Ungrading and educational transformation benefits from collaboration with many people working in these fields.
Anthropologist
Department of Anthropology
University of Notre Dame
284 Corbett Family Hall
Notre Dame, Indiana, 46556
USA
University of Notre Dame
284 Corbett Family Hall
Notre Dame, Indiana, 46556
USA
More formal biography:
Susan D. Blum is a cultural, linguistic, and psychological anthropologist specializing in the study of China and the United States. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1994, and also has two MAs—in Anthropology (Michigan, 1988) and in Chinese Language and Literature (Michigan, 1986)--and a BA in Human Language from Stanford University, 1980.
The author or editor of nine books and dozens of articles, her latest book, titled Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) will be published in December 2020 by the West Virginia University Press, in the series Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, edited by James Lang.
She has taught at Oklahoma State University, The University of Colorado Denver, The University of Denver, The University of Pennsylvania, and The University of Notre Dame, where she is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. At Notre Dame, she has served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and a Fellow of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.
She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her book, Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths (2007), and has received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator's Award, 2010, for her book My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture (2009), which was translated into Chinese in 2011. Blum has also received an Excellence in Teaching award from The University of Colorado Denver (2000) and the Reverend Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from The University of Notre Dame (2010).
She is married to the intellectual historian Lionel M. Jensen and has two adult daughters.
The author or editor of nine books and dozens of articles, her latest book, titled Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) will be published in December 2020 by the West Virginia University Press, in the series Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, edited by James Lang.
She has taught at Oklahoma State University, The University of Colorado Denver, The University of Denver, The University of Pennsylvania, and The University of Notre Dame, where she is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. At Notre Dame, she has served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and a Fellow of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.
She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her book, Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths (2007), and has received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator's Award, 2010, for her book My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture (2009), which was translated into Chinese in 2011. Blum has also received an Excellence in Teaching award from The University of Colorado Denver (2000) and the Reverend Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from The University of Notre Dame (2010).
She is married to the intellectual historian Lionel M. Jensen and has two adult daughters.