Susan Blum

Anthropology

Office
E284 Corbett Family Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone
574-631-3762
Email
sblum@nd.edu
Website

Professor of Anthropology

  • Cultural, linguistic, and psychological anthropology
  • Deception and truth
  • Multilingualism
  • Person and self
  • Ethnicity, nationalism and identity
  • Childhood and higher education
  • Morality
  • Well-being
  • Justice
  • Sustainability and food
  • Anthropological theory
  • China and Asia, the U.S.
  • Cross-cultural comparison

Blum in the News

In Defense of the Morality of Citation

OPINION: Susan D. Blum is a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, holding concurrent appointments as a fellow in the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, the Institute for Educational Initiatives, the Eck Institute for Global Health, and the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families.

Yes, Copying From Wikipedia Is Plagiarism

“The answer is always the same: yes. You can use it, but you have to cite it because you didn’t write it,” said Susan Blum, a professor at the University of Notre Dame whose scholarship has focused on plagiarism and educational anthropology. 

The fight over plagiarism is the harbinger of a messy new era

“Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or ideas without giving them credit,” says Susan Blum, an anthropology professor at Notre Dame and the author of My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture.

Harvard’s Claudine Gay was ousted for ‘plagiarism’. How serious was it really?

“I don’t believe in churning everything through turnitin.com because that’s a mechanical way of doing things,” says Susan Blum, a professor of linguistic anthropology at Notre Dame, referencing a go-to anti-plagiarism tool.

A Brief Guide to How Colleges Adjudicate Plagiarism Cases

We asked three experts who have researched and written about plagiarism and other academic-integrity issues to shed light on these and other questions. They are Susan D. Blum, an anthropology professor at the University of Notre Dame and author of My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture...

Ungrading Light: 4 Simple Ways to Ease the Spotlight Off Points

A recent collection on the subject, edited by Susan D. Blum, a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, features lively essays by teachers who’ve all put their particular stamp on the practice of de-emphasizing or abolishing grades.

The Unintended Consequences of ‘Ungrading’

Since the 2020 release of Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), the book’s editor, Susan D. Blum, a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, has given a steady stream of presentations about ungrading, most of them over Zoom. 

So, you want to take the grades out of teaching? A beginner’s guide to ungrading

Susan D. Blum is a professor of anthropology and a fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Can better tech make video meetings less excruciating?

But as Susan D Blum's linguistic anthropology class found out, it makes having a natural conversation practically impossible.

The Controversial but Useful Practice of ‘Ungrading’ in Teaching Writing

“I like to phrase it as ‘the central work of faculty is facilitating learning,’” says Susan D. Blum, a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame and editor of Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead).

The Resurrection of the Office Phone Call

Susan Blum, a professor who specializes in linguistic anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, says Zoom fatigue was inevitable given how unnatural conversational patterns can get there: “Video calls do not allow any conversational overlap. You can’t say ‘mmm-hmm’ to assent because that would interrupt and put you on screen as the main speaker.”