Reading Time: 4 minutes The thing about dog whistles is that they are often innocuous looking. There’s nothing wrong-sounding about something like fighting for “family values” or being “tough on crime”. They look, or sound rather, like ordinary and colorless statements.
communication
Posted inEducation, General
Reflections on Teaching First-Year Writing
Reading Time: 5 minutes Since I’m teaching First Year Seminar this year, I’m teaching academic writing skills through a variety of assignments…but of course, this is making me reflect on when and how I first learned to write.
Posted inEducation, General, Myth & Folklore
What I’ve Been Up to in the Folklore World
Reading Time: 5 minutes A lot of academic work is invisible and goes unrewarded…well, somehow a bunch of rewards just dropped into my lap all at once, so I thought I’d share them here (since my blog varies in its folklore content but that’s kinda my main profession, at least for now!).
Posted inEducation, General, Myth & Folklore
What Is the Point of Academia If Not the Community?
Reading Time: 4 minutes The pandemic is making us all rethink many things; for me, a major point of reflection is the role of community in university life, and what to do when we are without it.
Posted inEducation, General, Myth & Folklore
Meme This Class
Reading Time: 4 minutes What do you do when you’re teaching a year-long course, First Year Seminar, and pick up some new students in the spring semester? Have students make memes to explain the previous semester!
Posted inCulture, Education, General
Thoughts on Vocation, Privilege, and Specialization
Reading Time: 12 minutes Finding my way to a new career involves examining my thoughts on vocation or calling, as well as what to do with my existing specialization and privilege.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Social Distancing Is Like Monogamy: It Only Works If You Observe It Perfectly
Reading Time: 9 minutes Learning to assess and communicate about risk in relationships is something that many Americans don’t learn how to do, and I think it might be connected to our culture’s default setting of monogamy (or at the very least, that there’s a useful parallel to draw).
Posted inEducation, General
I’m Essentially a Knowledge-Worker; How Do I Do My Job When I Don’t Have a Job?
Reading Time: 6 minutes I’ve been in higher education my entire adult life. This is what I do. This is what I’m good at. What do I do once that job is gone?
Posted inEducation, General
Positionality and My Writing on Dance
Reading Time: 4 minutes Pausing to reflect on one’s social positioning in regard to one’s writing is a good thing to do…preferably before publishing said piece of writing. Here are a few thoughts on my recent work on the belly dance debates.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Emotion Work vs. Emotional Labor
Reading Time: 4 minutes I recently had the opportunity to explain to someone what I think is a key distinction for when we use the term emotional labor and when we talk more generally about how humans work with emotions in their daily (and sometimes professional) lives. I thought it was worth replicating here.