Hilzoy, My Old Prof!
Wow. I’d never known, until I just stumbled onto her Wikipedia page, that the pseudonymous blogger Hilzoy is Dr. _____. Though I doubt she remembers me, I took a philosophy course under Professor ______ as a freshman at Pomona College. All these years later, I still recall the cadence of her speech, the method of her arguments, and I almost feel stupid for not having sooner realized that there was something familiar about Hilzoy—and though I never had an inkling, now that I do know I can hear Professor ____’s voice every time I read a Hilzoy post.
Indeed. Though are you aware that she has often requested that other bloggers allow her to stay as pseudonymous as possible? (See e.g. here). You don’t have to respect that, obviously, and it’s not like the information isn’t all over the web, but you ought to consider honoring her request.
— Christopher M · May 12, 01:50 PM · #
She blogs pseudonymously in order to prevent her students from making the connection – although that’s targeted at her current students, not people like you. She tries to keep her political views out of the classroom, so she’d prefer if her students (who might google her professor name) not find out about her internet identity. So you might want to remove this post, or at least render her names ungoogleable.
— Blar · May 12, 05:13 PM · #
I’d never seen the requests for anonymity — I’ll hide the info from Google now.
— Conor Friedersdorf · May 12, 06:23 PM · #
My dad used to always say that if someone sent you an unsigned letter, throw it in the garbage without reading it.
— Freddie · May 12, 06:33 PM · #
Conor: Yes, I remember you, although I didn’t know that the person blogging here was in fact my old student, since I had forgotten your last name. Thanks for deleting mine, by the way. It’s a losing battle, but hey.
— hilzoy · May 14, 03:15 AM · #