March 24, 2007
My favorite sessions from the 2007 CCCC
*note* i’ll be posting my full notes from these soon…just don’t know when. for now, here are the highlights.
Taking Place: Representing Claims to Contested (Urban) Space
Annie Knepler, Candice Rai, and Sue Weinstein
AK drew from her experience as editor of the Journal of Ordinary Thought and the Neighborhood Writing Alliance in Chicago.
CR talked about CAPS and gentrification in Chicago and introduced me to the concept of “Postive Loitering” –which seems a bit like when flash mobs meet neighborhood patrol
SW discussed WordPlay, and more specifically, the way some of the writers represent (or don’t) specific places.
Other Rhetorics: Tatoos, Cookbooks, Graffiti, and Post-Rock
Adam Koehler & Scot Barnett, Doreen Piano
AK and SB discussed Sigur Ros and the absence (and recreation) of language
DP discussed Post-Katrina grafitti
I’ll say that this was the most packed I had seen a panel–over 60 people!
February 9, 2007
the hens are only one month old and look how much they’ve grown! to compare, here’s one from a week ago:
chicks near the brooder
today was one of the first sunny days in a while. temperatures were in the 70s (yay!) and it was just what i needed to get over the horrible cold/flu that has had me bed-ridden for a few days. so i threw on some flip flops, grabbed the fabulous book that my class is reading (The Monkey Wrench Gang), and took the chickens outside to play in the grass. I should note that the chickens have been living inside in their brooder since it’s been so cold and rainy, but they are growing so fast that Andy’s going to have to start building the coop sooner than we thought.
chick on my leg
all three jumping up to join me
sunny sitting contently while learning to perch
The hens have been fascinating to watch. In their brooder they began to scratch around looking for bugs at about 2 weeks and at about 3 weeks they started jumping on their food and water containers trying to perch. now, at 4 weeks they are beginning to emulate giving themselves dust baths (which is funny in the glass brooder b/c they’re on top of towels) and they fluff themselves out and squat down too. Meanwhile we aren’t actually supposed to let them be in their coop for another 2-3 months and they won’t start laying for another 4-5 months.
on another note, i’m having trouble knowing what to post the hen-ramblings under. i feel like they should be under “eco” or “food” or “health” since all of those hint at reasons why we wanted to get hens in the first place. on the other hand, i guess i could just add a category called “animals”…
February 7, 2007
Although one should probably just resist labelling altogether, in academia I find that branding is very important. For instance, in our English department the “not literature” and “not creative writing” degree track at the undergraduate level is called “writing and culture.” If you were a PhD student on the “not lit” and “not creative writing” and “not linguistics” track then you were on what had always (my understanding) been referred to as the rhetoric and composition track (both by people within and outside of it). However, in all official documentation, it is now referred to as “writing and culture.” Now, I actually like this better than Rhetoric and Composition but I think it’s because I feel better equipped at declaring (when the time comes) that I have a PhD in Writing and Culture than I would feel saying that I have a PhD in Rhet/Comp. But why? (And this is where I begin to understand some people’s need to blog anonymously.) So maybe I won’t address the why right now, but rather I’ll go back to the naming bit.
I’ve surveyed the fabulous Canon5’s Academic Programs in Rhet/Comp/Comm and have found no other school that calls their program Writing and Culture. I am particularly found of the inclusion of “literacy” in titles (no surprise there). I’m drawn most to the “literacy, language, and culture” though I also like the inclusion of pedagogy. Anyway, I guess what made me start thinking of this was the fact that we are hiring right now and in our job announcements we have advertised for a rhet/comp job and I just wonder why we didn’t say that we were hiring for a “writing/culture” position.
Though I’m not on the job market I have many friends who are and I’ve had a couple of interesting conversations with them about jobs that they found and didn’t find immediately due to the terms and labels. Some people didn’t feel comfortable applying for certain jobs due to the advertised label, when later they found out that they should have, and vice versa.
January 23, 2007
“Our success in this war is measured by the things that did not happen. We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our allies have prevented…”
This might be the statement that makes me the angriest. How does he continue to skate by without accountability? But then to cheer myself up, I think of things that didn’t happen because of our president–like the Dinosaurs that didn’t come rampaging through my town, the meteor that didn’t hit the US, and the Wicked Witch of the West that didn’t kill anyone.
“What every terrorist fears most is human freedom…”
My mom pointed out the sheer audacity for him to make that statement with Guantanamo still up and running.
“Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next 5 years. A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. And it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.”
This is the scariest thing that he said tonight. One doesn’t ask for 92,000 more soldiers unless one is going to attack (or “instill democracy in” another country…ahem…countries…ahem Syria and Iran.
Kudos to Senator Webb for including New Orleans in the democratic rebuttal.
January 21, 2007
we finally got baby chicks. they’re barred plymouth rocks (barred is the color. it’s looks like herringbone when they get a little older). the barred rocks lay about 200 eggs a year, are very friendly and curious, and are so pretty. we got them when they were 3 days old. the picture in andy’s hand was the day we got them. the ones in the grass was when they were 7 days old.
notice the little white bead on the beak–it’s called the egg tooth–and the chick uses it to break out of the egg. all three chicks have lost their egg teeth already! we just love the chicks already–they are very personable and they like to jump on us and huddle together and drop from heights and try to flap their wings all around. i love watching them stretch out their legs and backs!
January 7, 2007
i’m very excited about teaching an ecotexts class this spring. it’s a “literary themes” class at the 2000 level. i’m putting together the website for it right now and i’m also trying to put finishing touches on the syllabus. i decided to change the format of the class a little bit than what i had originally thought. i also realized that i was a little too ambitious with my reading requirements. the primary texts are now 4 novels and 3 nonfiction texts with varying intersections:
- Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
- food, health, feminism, pesticides, industry, environmental ethics
- Monkey Wrench Gang (Edward Abbey)
- pollution, industry, activists
- Friend of the Earth (TC Boyle)
- animals, dystopia, activists
- Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Tales (Ursula K Le Guin)
- Stolen Harvest (Vandana Shiva)
- environmental justice, food, health
- Prodigal Summer (Barbara Kingsolver)
- An Unreasonable Woman (Diane Wilson)
- activists, pesticides, industry, food
I’m still gathering the poetry, essays, theory, and films. For films, I’m thinking 12 Monkeys, Green, and Chicken Run for now…
I’d welcome any thoughts.
