Hee. Loving the Matilda story.

Beth ~ heh - well, I am famous for my detailed knowledge of tarmac surfaces. I have quite literal dreams in this area. Instead of dreaming of seeing 'online' people in person, I mostly dream I'm spending time on messageboards. Odd, because most of my dreams are utterly random. I wake up going "And exactly where was the internal logic to that fictional world, hmm?"

not here writing dissertation not here writing dissertation not here writing dissertation

Oh, another interesting ethnicity form on a job application, this one in New Zealand. The ethnicity options were "European," about five different types of Asian, "Mixed Race," and "Other." I was just staring at that one for a while, thinking, "I'm European? I guess? And do they expect no black people or Middle Eastern people or Native Americans or Hispanic people to apply for this job?"

The form for Cambridge had, I think, different categories for Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi, plus one for Chinese, but nothing that would cover Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or anywhere else in Asia. But at least that one had a "White, not British or Irish" category where I could put myself.

I'm confused.

Why do they have ethnicity forms to begin with?

Well, most of the ones in the US say that the people doing the hiring don't see them -- they're for the people keeping track of who the university hires. I don't know exactly what they do with them.

Huh. Thanks for answering.

But at least that one had a "White, not British or Irish" category where I could put myself.

Interesting. Those boxes highlight the social construction of a lot of racial origins, for me. The Girl tends to go for 'White, Other' on those forms, but she has a very mixed background including European, American and Middle Eastern heritage. Whereas I get stuck around the category 'White, Irish' as a category, without explanation of whether that's a national or racial/heritage category (I have Irish parents and a British passport). I usually tick the box that feels right on the day!

Why do they have ethnicity forms to begin with?

Equal Opportunities monitoring. We have not-bad employment regulations regarding race and ethnicity, and they are required to keep records (of anonymised data - detached from application forms) to demonstrate fair recruiting processes. They're starting to do the same with disability, and I assume they have done with gender for even longer than for ethnicity.

Two more draft chapters sent to my dissertation supervisor. She won't like them (she's a slightly less distressing version of Hil's advisor), and it'll be too late to do much about them. So lets hope the double-marking process has some effect, because my course director thinks my work is great. It's the oddest contrast. There is clearly no such thing as impartial judgement on students' work.

The options for Cambridge were divided into several categories:

A. White:
White - British
White - Irish
White - Other white background

B. Mixed:
White and Black Caribbean
White and Black African
White and Asian
Any other mixed background

C. Asian or Asian British:
Indian
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Any other Asian background

D. Black or Black British:
Caribbean
African
Other Black background

E. Chinese or Chinese British or other ethnic group:
Chinese
Any other background

For comparison, a fairly typical American form first asks you to choose either "Hispanic or Latino" or "Not Hispanic or Latino," and then give the options of American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, White, and Other. Some of them will skip the first question and put Hispanic or Latino as one of the options.

I sometimes get the feeling that if historians would have used Ockham's razor, the whole damn discipline would ceased to exist.

You don't have to write an 80 pages long article. Even if you write very well. At this point stop and ask yourself if you're moving from historiography to literary theory.

Oy. Our Thanksgiving menu is once again becoming the subject of many emails and phone calls. We're now up to two kinds of cranberry sauce, two kinds of stuffing, and possibly two kinds of mashed potatoes, because nobody can agree on anything. (OK, the two kinds of stuffing are kind of my fault. The cranberry sauce was a mutual thing -- some of us like the canned stuff and hate the fresh, and some are the opposite. The two kinds of mashed potatoes are because people are skeptical that I can make vegan mashed potatoes.) We're also up to three desserts for five people. (I'm making pumpkin pie, which everybody except my sister likes. My cousin is bringing a pie dish full of apple pie filling, because she wants something healthier and thinks most of the calories are in the crust. My sister insists that fruit is not dessert and is bringing something chocolate.)