Our paper sessions!

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MIRANDA JOSEPH, "Investing in the Cruel Entrepreneurial University" 
> Wednesday, April 1, 2015; 5pm at Marie Mount Hall 1400

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Thursday 2 April – paper sessions

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Please come to class 5 mins early and be ready to begin our process promptly at 4:01!

Bring your professional bio to display along with your handout.

Bring enough handouts for everyone, with your name and title of project on them, and also an extra to use to mark the space you set up to share your project.

• @ 4:01: 9 mins: set up: create your space with handout as place holder; decide who will be displaying in each session
• 15 mins: everyone silently looks at the handouts, makes notes about the title of the paper, author, other identifying info for feedback
• 30 + mins: session 1: half display, half wander and interact with all displays
• 30 + mins: session 2: switch
• brief break 10 mins around 5:30
• last 45 or so mins of class for feedback, peer review set ups

Basically everyone creates a little space marked by their paper handout. Then we all go around silently and look at the handouts and make notes on what everyone is doing as understood that way.

We do NOT present contents of paper: we emphasize INTERACTION! That's a bit tricky and hard to get ourselves into this as a special practice: I say to folks: tweet at each other! So questions and answers are fine but not at any length! That's hard! we love to be the center of attention rather than actually interacting.

No monologing, yes, tweeting!

Think poster session, only with papers and handouts; think tweeting rather than presenting; think feedback at various ranges of engagement and detail.

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ABOUT HANDOUTS: Be sure your handout has your paper's title and your full name on it. It should be able to convey both the conclusions you came to in your paper and how you got there in a quick gestalt, such that we can read all of these in that 15 mins we go around and take notes silently, and others will immediately understand what you are doing!

Yep! Quite a task! A mix of text and visuals are best: not too much detail, but also enough detail to facilitate real engagement with your stuff! People will be interacting with you on the basis of the handout! You will be adding, in the briefest way possible, other details, or exchanging views and interests and thoughts. DO NOT PRESENT! DO INTERACT!

You will be surprised at how much you can convey both on the handout and in the interaction and how much useful feedback you will get in this process!

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This will also allow us to consider how best to divvy up who will do peer reviews of papers. Assume you will probably each do 3 peer reviews, so you might be considering who you want to review you, or who you want to review during this process! We will be doing what is called "open peer review" -- nothing is confidential.

A couple of links about peer review if you want to see these at this point: I will bring materials too:

= All four pages here: http://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/reviewer-guidelines

= http://adanewmedia.org/beta-reader-and-review-policy/

I will bring examples of my own reviews for presses of book projects, articles for journals, etc. And I will bring guidelines I have collected too: from Feminist Studies for example.

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For paper sessions: 1) learning to create abstracts and using as basis for scholarly interaction; 2) you will also create a professional bio before the event, such as those you will be asked to provide in various circumstances, sometimes for conference panels or journal contributions; 3) set up for sessions, handouts, in interactive poster-session style: new practices today as conference formats are sites of experimentation.

With website: 1) you will read everyone's papers after the sessions; 2) we will offer "peer-review" to two other classmates, learning how this is done professionally and feeling out how to offer and receive suggestions; 3) a simple website for the class will function as an online academic journal for the papers produced by our class and put up after class peer-review; 4) you will each curate some form of web-based professional presence, and will link that up to your paper on the class journal website.

Here is a nice example from one of Cathy Davidson's courses at Duke. Enjoy it! Ours can be even more simple: http://dukesurprise.com  Or this: http://www.hastac.org/collections/field-notes-21st-century-literacies  Check TAB assignment fun for links to possible platforms. Learn one skill at a time, be friendly about it all, everyone learns (don't have the most skilled already person do the work for everyone). Pick something to learn and take it easy! 

REVISIT TAB: assignment fun & TAB: communities of practice
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what's neo in neo-liberal? a symphony of liberalism

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from Povinelli 2011, pp. xvi-xvii

Thursday 19 March – SPRING BREAK

Thursday 26 March – Povinelli, Kirksey, Anker, Gessen, Rodríguez <ANKER AT CLASS>
[Wednesday 1 April: Miranda Joseph at LGBT Series: check out Burgett & Mendler: Community] 

Thursday 2 April – paper sessions

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Remember: Miranda Joseph speaks on The Cruel Entrepreneurial University as part of the LGBT lecture series Wed 1 April at 5 pm, Marie Mount Hall 1400.

Why and how are university politics entwined with LGBT issues and concerns?

Learn something about those students protest in the context of international struggles in UK paper the Guardian, here:

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/mar/25/university-protests-around-the-world-a-fight-against-commercialisation?CMP=share_btn_fb

And this is the website of the collective at Amsterdam: http://rethinkuva.org/about-rethink-uva/

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listening on a Sunday morning of Spring Break: other than moral outrage, how do we motivate ...justice?

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"So I want to ask you, if moral outrage isn't the trigger that — it's true, we really, really think of moral outrage — I mean, we are a society of advocates, right?

"DR. MCCULLOUGH: Right.

"MS. TIPPETT: Then what? What activates — what has the power to activate the instincts to moral repair, to care for the stranger, that are at the heart of our religious traditions, that actually do manifest again and again in human society and that lead to this kind of moral progress that you talk about?"

From On Being, a conversation on the materialities of ethics and justice...

http://onbeing.org/program/arthur-zajonc-michael-mccullough-mind-and-morality-a-dialogue/transcript/7373#main_content

"DR. MCCULLOUGH: Yeah, I think the ability to take risks is really encouraged when people are not worried about their safety or where their next meal is going to come from. I mean, there's a sort of basic — I think, a basic ability to take risks that is encouraged when we know that not everything is on the line. So scarcity seems to be a real problem. So a lot of these things have vicious sorts of feedback loops to them. When we begin to take some of these affordances away or threaten them, some systems may not be resilient enough to have too many of these affordances peeled away before the system becomes fragile.

"So, I don't think there's anything inevitable about things getting better and better, actually. I think we need to safeguard and sort of buttress what we've got and try to not take it for granted, not allow those — these rights we've discovered that people have. Well, how strange is that? People have rights. That was a moral discovery."

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"DR. ZAJONC: Oh man. No. All this kind of soft language of mine, it's all hazardous — or raising the question of materialism. Oh man, this is a dogma. I think of it as an assertion. It's proof by assertion as opposed to by reason. And I want to — nowadays, I'm old enough, I want to call it into question. I never felt that it was adequate with the last 40 years of being in science. But for most of those 40 years I felt like, step out of line at your risk, at your peril. I've done it occasionally and more consistently recently, late in life.

"But we shouldn't have illusions about science, even today, welcoming the full discourse. There are certain general commitments. And one has to be — sort of pluck up one's courage at least to step into the fray. And then, more often than not, I think there's a positive response. You can get hit a few times. But basically, that's fine. So, I think we should practice this kind of work more and more, allow for that difference, explore it with real respect and civility and have it be the — what Hannah Arendt might like as our public place of discourse where really the most important ideas can be debated openly. And it doesn't — we don't have to come to a single conclusion at the end."

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"DR. ZAJONC: Well for me, I think there are two ways it can be interpreted, right? One is a way in which, in some sense, it's the biology of evolution, evolutionary psychology, the neurosciences that underlie, you might say, any of our actions. OK? So what you're discovering is just a fact about history and biology. So it's like the law of science or the law of physics. But now, in this case, it's more in your realm, Michael, than my realm. But I think of it differently. See, I think of it as all of that evolution, all that neuroscience, all of that gives biological support to the possibility of ethics. Doesn't predict ethics. It just gives — it's, like, necessary but not sufficient. Sure, I need a hand in order to write. Chop off my hand, I'm not going to write very well.

"OK. So I need a biological support to hold the pencil. But writing is not explained by that biological support. It's necessary, but not sufficient. I think the same thing is true for morality and most of what we talk about in terms of evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and all the rest. Sure, there's an infrastructure. There's a support for it. But that's not it. That's not enough.

"DR. MCCULLOUGH: I agree with that. I mean, when I talk about ethical discoveries, I would not want to be getting my ethics from my biology. That's a — don't go there. That is not the place to get it from. It's to be gotten somewhere else. But I think — all I wanted to say when using — and maybe I was being playful in using the term discovery — but I do think that some of what makes those ethical advances possible are recognitions of similarity or universality, which are not always easy to see. They may not even come to the untutored eye without the benefits of science. The universals of human nature may be difficult to see with the naked eye."

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Interview with Libby Anker

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In preparation for our visit from Libby Anker after Break!

http://www.processhistory.org/?p=186#more-186

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COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: feelings, orgies, longings

===NOTE CHANGES: we meet for entire class time 12 March; Joseph talk is 1 April 

<<<SECTION II: what’s new? Neo-liberalism? New materialisms?

Anker. 2014. Orgies of Feeling. Duke. 978-0822356974. ASIN: B00NCU8PWA.

Gessen & Huff-Hannon, eds. 2014. Gay Propaganda. OR Books. 978-1939293350. ASIN: B00J7XJBWO.

Kirksey, ed. 2014. The Multispecies Salon. Duke. 978-0822356257. ASIN: B00PIKKE1C.

Povinelli. 2011. Economies of Abandonment. 978-0822350842. ASIN: B0068JZCAK.

Rodríguez. 2014. Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings. NYU. 978-0814764923. ASIN: B00L8BUIES.

FOR MIRANDA: Community: Burgett & Mendler, eds. 2014 (2nd ed). Keywords for American Cultural Studies. NYU. 978-0814708019. ASIN: B00PSKHO1.

Thursday 26 February – Anker, Gessen

Thursday 5 March – Gessen, Rodríguez

Thursday 12 March – Povinelli, Kirksey <we must miss LGBT talk after all, so plan instead:
> Friday, March 13, 2015 Colloquium with Tavia Nyong’o; 12:30pm-2pm at Taliaferro Hall 2110  

Thursday 19 March – SPRING BREAK

Thursday 26 March – Povinelli, Kirksey, Anker, Gessen, Rodríguez <ANKER AT CLASS>
[Wednesday 1 April: Miranda Joseph at LGBT Series: check out Burgett & Mendler: Community] 

Thursday 2 April – paper sessions

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Thursday 12 March – Communities of Practice: feelings, orgies, longings: when oppositional and why? 

• READ: You should have done all the Anker, Gessen, Rodríguez, Povinelli, Kirksey readings for both the last two weeks as well as this week as negotiated with our Director of Readings.
• LINKS AND WEBSITE: You should have read the work on the new TAB: communities of practice and started to play around with how to use these ideas in our discussion and analyses. What will these conceptual tools help us do? 

• RECOMMENDED: Burgett & Mendler, eds. 2014 (2nd ed). Keywords for American Cultural Studies. TERM: Cvetkovich, "Affect" (13-16). Also Acknowledgements (vii-viii), Introduction (1-7) and Note on Classroom Use (9-11).
• ADD THIS WEEK: TERM: Rodríguez, "Latino, Latina, Latin@" (146-149).
• ALSO RECOMMENDED: on the Wikipedia: "LGBT Rights in Russia," here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia 

• ALSO: use the web to figure out the term "pinkwashing." What work does it do for which communities of practice? COMPARE IT WITH the term "homonationalism." How do these terms work together? How have you seen them used and by whom for what purposes? Where do you find each on the web? What can you infer from all this?

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DOUBLE PRESENTATIONS! BRING IN ABSTRACT FOR PAPER SESSIONS! 

• Each TEAM will have exactly one hour to accomplish both presentation and to facilitate discussion.
• We will take a brisk 10 min break between.

• That means we will have only about twenty minutes before the end of class to catch up on loose ends and maybe to continue connections among all the readings and our thoughts. Be sure you know what you need at this time! 

For this class you should ALSO bring in an abstract for the paper you are contemplating producing for our class paper session, and in our discussions following each presentation make a point of connecting with these ideas and possibilities! We will share these with class buddies, and you will meet outside class with a buddy to discuss these at some point before, during, or just after break. THINK COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE! Note the TAB on this for details.

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NOTICE! :) What's coming up! Begin to make plans, play around on the web, figure out where you will be going with all this! 

The paper sessions and the website give us a friendly introduction and practice for professional venues, skills, and even contestations today. 

For paper sessions: 1) learning to create abstracts and using as basis for scholarly interaction; 2) you will also create a professional bio before the event, such as those you will be asked to provide in various circumstances, sometimes for conference panels or journal contributions; 3) set up for sessions, handouts, in interactive poster-session style: new practices today as conference formats are sites of experimentation.

With website: 1) you will read everyone's papers after the sessions; 2) we will offer "peer-review" to two other classmates, learning how this is done professionally and feeling out how to offer and receive suggestions; 3) a simple website for the class will function as an online academic journal for the papers produced by our class and put up after class peer-review; 4) you will each curate some form of web-based professional presence, and will link that up to your paper on the class journal website.

Here is a nice example from one of Cathy Davidson's courses at Duke. Enjoy it! Ours can be even more simple: http://dukesurprise.com  Or this: http://www.hastac.org/collections/field-notes-21st-century-literacies  Check TAB assignment fun for links to possible platforms. Learn one skill at a time, be friendly about it all, everyone learns (don't have the most skilled already person do the work for everyone). Pick something to learn and take it easy! 

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EXTRAS! 

I had added the stuff below to an earlier post, and liked the Ainsworth article myself, not as without flaws or not to be criticized, but as some introduction to interesting issues. (I never assume that something I read or suggest is flawless!) And so it is! On Facebook today more response to this essay, including a link to comments by Anne Fausto-Sterling: “Giving credit and showing chains of knowledge are part of doing science journalism in an ethical and professional manner. It does a disservice to science to pretend that all the ideas come from scientists in the current moment. The ideas in this article come from intersex activists (many of whom some of the scientists you do cite knew and worked with) as well as historians of science and biologists such as myself. Feminist theory also contributed to the growth of these ideas. Biology is not an island divorced from the rest of academia or society. It is not great journalism to pretend otherwise.” (See: http://oiiuk.org/975/musing-on-binary-essentialism/  )

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[OPTIONAL READING NOW, BUT WE MAY WISH TO REFER TO LATER: Claire Ainsworth (2015). Sex redefined: The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that. Nature 518 (19 February 2015): 288-291. doi:10.1038/518288a.  http://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews  ]

Saw this on Facebook and like this science writer summary of findings since the nineties. Interesting elements perhaps in the narration, visualization, communication of intra-body action too. Could be understood to be the kind of knowledges that new materialisms might wish to work out and with and inspect and analyze.... What sorts of politics are appropriate for such analysis? What tactics are "friendly" to including new sciences while also being carefully aware of their ideological agencies?

The new sciences of epigenetics are involved here, "turning genes on and off" as the popular press tends to put it, a new set of mechanisms for what was, until relatively recently, understood as a scientific fallacy, the inheritance of acquired characteristics, sometimes denominated Lamarckism.  A Soviet version of that  was debunked as Lysenkoism. You may wish to nose around on the web and begin to become familiar with these terms and issues.

Menopausal killer whales are family leaders: http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/03/menopausal-killer-whales-are-family-leaders  

Getting Personal: Anne Fausto-Sterling on gene expression and individuality: http://bostonreview.net/wonders/anne-fausto-sterling-getting-personal-gene-expression

The emergence of individuality in genetically identical mice: http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-emergence-of-individuality-in-genetically-identical-mice

Mental health is a complex, interactive dance of nature and nurture: http://www.psypost.org/2015/03/mental-health-is-a-complex-interactive-dance-of-nature-and-nurture-32348

The environment and schizophrenia: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7321/full/nature09563.html

Yep! UMD closed today, our class cancelled! sigh....

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What this means for us!

1) We will do next class, 12 March, what we had planned to do today: two presentations back to back. (Scroll down for previous details.)

2) That means we will meet on 12 March for our entire class time and not break to go to the first talk in the LGBT series. You can still participate in the Friday Colloquium. Not required, optional and wonderful opportunity! There will be a reading for that, not required for attendance but nice anyway. I will post it when I receive it myself. (Check TAB events for details.)

3) For this next class, 12 March, bring in an abstract for the paper you are contemplating producing for our class paper session, and in our discussions following each presentation make a point of connecting with these ideas and possibilities! We will share these with class buddies, and you will meet outside class with a buddy to discuss these at some point before, during, or just after break. THINK COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE! Note the TAB on this for details.

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NOTICE! :) What's coming up! Begin to make plans, play around on the web, figure out where you will be going with all this! Today is the perfect day to spend time with this! 

The paper sessions and the website give us a friendly introduction and practice for professional venues, skills, and even contestations today. 

For paper sessions: 1) learning to create abstracts and using as basis for scholarly interaction; 2) you will also create a professional bio before the event, such as those you will be asked to provide in various circumstances, sometimes for conference panels or journal contributions; 3) set up for sessions, handouts, in interactive poster-session style: new practices today as conference formats are sites of experimentation.

With website: 1) you will read everyone's papers after the sessions; 2) we will offer "peer-review" to two other classmates, learning how this is done professionally and feeling out how to offer and receive suggestions; 3) a simple website for the class will function as an online academic journal for the papers produced by our class and put up after class peer-review; 4) you will each curate some form of web-based professional presence, and will link that up to your paper on the class journal website.

Here is a nice example from one of Cathy Davidson's courses at Duke. Enjoy it! Ours can be even more simple: http://dukesurprise.com  Or this: http://www.hastac.org/collections/field-notes-21st-century-literacies  Check TAB assignment fun for links to possible platforms. Learn one skill at a time, be friendly about it all, everyone learns (don't have the most skilled already person do the work for everyone). Pick something to learn and take it easy! 

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