“Are you a toxic enabler?” Times Higher Education, September 16, 2021.

“How to Cope With a Fear of Public Writing.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 19, 2021.

“Get medieval on your haters: lessons from Beowulf and Chaucer.” Psyche, November 17, 2020.

“Heroism should not be part of the academic job description.” Times Higher Education, October 29, 2020.

“We’re all Jessica Rabbit Now. Self-fashioning for the YouTube generation.” Times Literary Supplement, October 21, 2020.

“Time to Get Over Your Discomfort With Book Marketing.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2020.

“Struggling to exercise upward toxicity? Try toxic hypocrisy.” Times Higher Education, September 16, 2020.

“What Academics Misunderstand About ‘Public Writing’.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2, 2020.

“The Demon of Distraction.” With Caleb Smith. In the Moment (Critical Inquiry blog), April 22, 2020. 

• Reprinted at Times of COVID-19.

“Ten rules for succeeding in academia through upward toxicity.” Times Higher Education, November 21, 2019.

• Times Higher Education’s most-read article of 2019.
• Featured on History News Network‘s Roundup Top 10.
• Translated into Spanish as “Diez reglas para tener éxito en el mundo académico a través de la toxicidad ascendente.”

“‘Bio-Nazis’ go green in Germany.” Politico Europe, July 12, 2018.

“Teachers and Students.” Aeon, February 7, 2018.

• Included in the Tampa Bay Times’ The Reading File.
• Audio version by Curio.io

“Appetite (and iron-clad stomach) for success. The art of stuffing yourself while chancellor.” Politico.eu, June 17, 2017.

“The Curious Appeal of ‘Bad’ Food.” The Atlantic, August 5, 2016.

• Reprinted in Best Food Writing 2017, ed. Holly Hughes. New York: Da Capo Press, 2017. 7-12.

“‘Frivolous’ Humanities Helped Prisoners Survive in Communist Romania.” Zócalo Public Square, May 25, 2016.

• Featured among Editors’ Picks on Discover
• One of Zócalo Public Square’s 12 Favorite Essays of 2016, December 2016

“War and the Food of Dreams: An Interview with Cara De Silva.” Rumba Under Fire: The Arts of Survival from West Point to Delhi, ed. Irina Dumitrescu. Brooklyn: Punctum Books, 2016. 53-77.

“Terpsichore.” Rumba Under Fire: The Arts of Survival from West Point to Delhi, ed. Irina Dumitrescu. Brooklyn: Punctum Books, 2016. 197-199.

“Why ‘that’ photo mattered this time: Our children could be on that beach, too.” On Parenting for the Washington Post. September 8, 2015.

“On the Future of Old English.” Guest post at In the Middle, January 2014.

“The School’s Embrace.” This Book is a Class Room, eds. Lucie Kolb and Romy Rüegger. Berlin: Passenger Books and HIT, 2012. 43-44.

• Responses by Sjoerd Westbroek and Tanja Baudoin.

“Hidden Treasures at the Met Museum.” Guest post at In the Middle, July 2009.

Short contributions

“Are you ready for the return to in-person teaching?” Times Higher Education, September 16, 2021.

“Moving mountains: the reforms that would push academia to new heights.” Times Higher Education, February 18, 2021.

“Life in the Zoomiverse: What we miss about the physical campus.” Times Higher Education, April 30, 2020.

“Should you be working 100 hours a week?” Times Higher Education, February 20, 2020.

Longreads Best of 2018: Food Writing.

Longreads Best of 2017: Food Writing.

“About the Cover.” postmedieval 8.3 (2017): 267–269.

(With Berit Andersson) “Research Fellowships in Germany for Scholars in the Humanities.” Guest post at In the Middle, November 8, 2016.

“A Place of Absence, Loss, and Transcendence.” Part of a Zócalo Public Square conversation on “Why Libraries’ Survival Matters.” September 29, 2016.

“Dancing for Humanity.” fuse. A Tribal & Fusion Belly Dance Magazine 15 (2015): 11-12.