Author | Conflict Analyst | Presenter | Professor
Michael Livingston

The Blog

The Wonder of Knowing Very Little

I constantly tell my students that human knowledge is always subject to emendation. That’s the beauty and curse of living in a rationalized, post-Enlightenment age. Our greater understanding of the world has, perhaps paradoxically, left us with fewer reliable facts. Like most things in life, this existential conundrum is perhaps …

Mythology Lectures

I’m teaching mythology for the first time here. It’s a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work. This is especially true because I’ve been making fancy-pants PowerPoint presentations to cover the material in class. I’m still quite new to the software — I know, don’t laugh — …

First Grading Weekend

I’d say something about having two stacks of papers on my desk waiting to be graded, but that would be inaccurate. I have an inbox full of two batches of digital documents waiting to be graded. I’m still not sure how I feel about this whole digital papers, digital grading …

Henry Gee on a Silly Meme

I thought it would go away weeks ago, but I saw it again tonight. Almost as if it has perfect health care coverage, the Facebook health-care status meme just won’t die. You know, the one reading thus: No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one …

Tolkien in the Spring

For any cadets stumbling around and finding this site, this news is just in: 208: Special Topics (Tolkien) – Livingston Yep. That’s a class on J.R.R. Tolkien being offered for your attending and learning pleasure this spring, here at The Citadel. And with that 200 number almost everyone can take …