Alex Small – Medium

Alex Small

In Defense of Dissenting Syllabi

Could any professor fairly summarize–in just one sentence–the complicated history of land rights in their locale over centuries of conquest…

Aug 7, 2022

Aug 7, 2022

Science Isn’t About Sainthood

Should we rename concepts or equations named for racist scholars? A recent opinion piece argued that scientists who value diversity and…

Jul 14, 2022

Jul 14, 2022

More thoughts on Dr. Seuss, offensive art, and an open society

First, foremost, and (in my opinion) leastmost, everyone is within their rights here. The Geisel family can stop printing these books…

Mar 8, 2021

More thoughts on Dr. Seuss, offensive art, and an open society

Mar 8, 2021

I want to read a cancelled book. The scolds? They scare me more than crooks!

The estate of Dr. Seuss has decided to cease publication of 6 books because they carry images that offend modern sensibilities, and…

Mar 3, 2021

I want to read a cancelled book. The scolds? They scare me more than crooks!

Mar 3, 2021

What happened to the prosocial nature of vaccination?

I’m old enough to remember Before Times, when the anti-science cranks were the ones who told you that vaccines protect neither the…

Mar 1, 2021

Mar 1, 2021

Teaching is a human activity, so let’s discuss it in human terms

Like most professors, I spent part of last summer in an online teaching workshop. As happens in workshops, people asked us to specify…

Feb 8, 2021

Buzzword bingo card

Feb 8, 2021

The Farewell as a Tale of Similarity in an Era of Diversity

I have never identified with a movie character as strongly as I identify with Billi Wang in The Farewell (the role for which Awkwafina…

Jan 10, 2020

Jan 10, 2020

Published in
Arc Digital

Why This Physics Professor Reads Old Books

A scientist’s case for taking STEM off its cultural pedestal

Aug 17, 2019

Why This Physics Professor Reads Old Books

Aug 17, 2019

Alex Small

Alex Small

Alex Small is a professor of physics in Pomona, CA. His opinions are his own, but the awesomeness of Office Space is objective fact, not opinion.

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