Posts By: Jason Sullivan

Jason Sullivan

An unofficial AU advocate at large, Jason never misses a chance to recount the merits of an Athabasca education. Jason’s studies began alone in front of a rustic rural fireplace in December of 2003 and carried on through various brick and mortar college classrooms yet always with Athabasca as part of his journey. In 2014 he completed his BA in Sociology and in 2022 graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies. To this end, his columns seek to explore edifying moments of learning how to learn within the challenging ideological terrain of that great bugaboo facing students everywhere: the real world!

The Fly on the Wall – The Muchness of Many

I like to think that at AU we learn critical thinking such that almost anything may be seen in a new light; our engrained presuppositions about other people and our traditional interpretations about thingsbecome questionable. This ability to find new; or, what Gilles Deleuze referred to as minoritarian viewpoints is a sublime aspect of being… Read more »

The Fly on the Wall – Students of the World, Relax!

At AU we have all felt a lingering shadow of dread as a deadline approaches. Maybe we’ve squandered spare time we could have used to apply ourselves; perhaps life just got in the way. It’s as though we’ve revelled amidst plenty only to realize that our privilege can be crushed at any moment. Yet we… Read more »

Fly on the Wall – Escaping the Fandom in Academia

The quotable Steve Jobs once claimed that “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough?that It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing” (Jobs). Variety is the spice of life may be a worn-out aphorism but the positive results in terms… Read more »

Fly on the Wall – What is A Book?

“What is a book?” “What do you mean, what is a book, it’s wood pulped and pressed and imprinted with ink. Your philosophizing is always so preposterous.” “Ok, well, get this. I know a recently-retired professor who cleaned out his office and tried to give away some of his books. Yet neither the local library… Read more »

Fly on the Wall – The Chattering Class

While walking for a study break I looked up and noticed five squirrels silently scampering along a mesh of branches above my head. After hearing so much spring squirrel ruckus in recent weeks their stealthy passage came as a surprise. “Hmm,” I thought, “perhaps I’m seeing another side of squirrels.” Maybe all conflict contains more… Read more »

Fly on the Wall – Islands of Education

The classic film Papillon illustrates the life of a convict who, immured on an island, counts waves crashing onto the shore and eventually realizes that one out of every seven will carry his raft to freedom. Distance education likewise recounts isolation in a way that no other life experience touches. We students choose our sentence,… Read more »

Fly on the Wall – The Chattering Class

While walking for a study break I looked up and noticed five squirrels silently scampering along a mesh of branches above my head. After hearing so much spring squirrel ruckus in recent weeks their stealthy passage came as a surprise. “Hmm,” I thought, “perhaps I’m seeing another side of squirrels.” Maybe all conflict contains more… Read more »

Fly on the Wall – This Thing Called Boredom

Boredom: what is its substance? Poring over schoolwork on dark January days can easily bring about this question. Last decade one answer presented itself as I was visiting some relatives out in the Maritimes. While they discussed their newly-acquired farmhouse I sat sequestered in a corner with my binder full of readings for SOCI335. “That… Read more »