Mark D. White

Wow, I didn't realize that I hadn't accounted for my "progress" for three weeks… I can't blame it all on a root canal now, can I? (But I'll certainly try.) Let's see…

• I had a article at The Good Men Project each Friday (let's hope I can keep this up!): "Captain America Is the Best Man" (July 22), "What a Taoist Can Teach Us about Finding Love" (July 29), and "Cheating: Who Draws the Line?" (August 5), plus a few shorter blog posts in between.  
• I wrote a lot about Captain America in celebration of the movie: in addition to the Good Men Project article above, I wrote an op-ed piece arguing that Captain America can remind Americans of their shared values, which appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Washington Times; a Psychology Today post about the timelessness of Cap's ethics; and a movie review at The Comics Professor.
• I wrote a few more posts on being yourself and wei wu wei for Psychology Today: "What Dating Advice Can We Get from Wei Wu Wei?" (July 18), "Who Cares What Women (or Men) Want–What Do You Want?" (July 24), "Definitely 'Be Yourself,' But Make Sure That's The Best 'You' You Can Be" (July 30), and "Don't 'Dumb Yourself Down' to Attract Somebody" (August 4), based on some great discussion at Kat Richter's blog, "After I Quit My Day Job."
• I revised and finalized my first article for Complete Wellbeing magazine; no word when it will be in print or online, but I'm already planning my next one.
• The free (FREE!) ebook from Wiley, Superheroes: The Best of Philosophy and Pop Culture, was released, featuring two new chapters I wrote (exclusive to this ebook) on Captain America and Thor, plus reprinting one of my chapters from Batman and Philosophy.
• Finally, I received several very flattering invitations to write, one summarizing the main points of my book Kantian Ethics and Economics: Autonomy, Dignity, and Character, and the other as a "relationship expert" for a new website. (Go figure.)

Other than that, I chiefly worked on editing Avengers and Philosophy and dealing with department chair business. Not a very academic summer in terms of writing, to be sure, but I do have several conference presentations scheduled for November and January, so I will be returning to it soon, and I have many thoughts along those lines. This summer does makes me wonder, though, if my writing life has taken a turn toward the "popular"–not that that would be a bad thing, by any means, but it would be a major shift in how I see myself as a scholar/writer/editor/blogger/whatever. Time will tell…