Archive - The Recovering Academic

Academe is suffering from foreign occupiers

Lessons from Václav Havel for a profession in decline

Jul 19, 2022 •

Joshua Doležal

The boy is father to the man

What I learned about fatherhood as a child

Sep 22, 2023 •

Joshua Doležal

Catching Summer In My Pickle Jars

A little over a year ago, my ex and I sat down with our children to tell them that we would divorce.

Jul 23, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

The Best Metaphors Are Epiphanies

I’ve been attending a Quaker meeting since last August, a gathering that observes an hour of silence.

Apr 30, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

What Role Do Fathers Play in Feminism?

I was speeding down the Atlantic City Expressway, having just escaped the Philadelphia traffic, when my ex (whom I’ll call Sarah) announced that Roe v…

Mar 12, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

The Treachery of Narrators in Memoir

Tobias Wolff begins This Boy’s Life with an epigraph from Oscar Wilde: "The first duty in life is to assume a pose. What the second is, no one has…

May 28, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

The Librarians Are Not OK

A decades-long attack on their status is bad for us all

Oct 17, 2023 •

Joshua Doležal

Awaken Your Memoir By Making It Strange

Defamiliarization will transform your scenes from prosaic sketches into haunting images that live on in your reader’s memory long after they have left…

Jan 23, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

How Folk Ballads Help You Write Better Stories

If you watch streaming TV, you’ve likely internalized its formula for plot, how the opening scene introduces a murder or illness that the heroes spend…

Aug 20, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

Universities Were Unraveling Long Before Trump and Musk

Al Swearengen, the foul-mouthed saloon keeper in HBO’s Deadwood, shares a nugget of wisdom in a rare moment of civility: “Announcing your plans is a…

Mar 18 •

Joshua Doležal

A Lost Son Comes Home

Searching for ancestors and finding chosen family in Moravia

Dec 26, 2023 •

Joshua Doležal

Darkness and Light

A personal essay

Aug 6, 2024 •

Joshua Doležal

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