I'm taking a class this semester called "advanced pedagogy: gender and sexualities." The class is offered by my university's Communication and Culture program, and so far it's less focused on pedagogy than it is on gender and sexualities, which makes it different but not, you know, bad.
Back in 2006, when I was trying to make a living as an adjunct instructor teaching composition and literature classes at a small pile of Boston-area colleges, I spent an awful lot of time rushing around. My 13-mile commute in to Boston took about an hour, and the 5-mile train ride from one college to another took about another 45 minutes. I had no office, just a common area for meeting with students. I had no money--anyone who's done adjunct work knows why--and I eventually snagged a part-time job on top of my full time course load.
Hello, HASTAC dudes.
I suppose this post is my self-(re)introduction. It's my second year as a HASTAC Scholar. I love it over here.
This group is designed to support the ongoing efforts of HASTAC Scholars and affiliates interested in queering the field of Digital Media & Learning.
I've been thinking lately about Roger Ebert and digital media snobbery.
I found out through my colleague John Jones that Ebert, a blogger and film critic, recently attacked the publication of "easy reader" editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. His main concern appears to be that these abridged versions of Gatsby omit the poetic language of the full text:
I simply don't believe that DML attendees would be opposed to identity politics and queer studies issues addressed explicitly. If theres any arena where this scholarship would, should, and could be embraced, its there. And if we have to worry about whether DML folks will be hostile to queer theorists and the issues of queer youth, then we have a bigger problem than any form of pragmatism can address.
I'm at the DML 2011 conference, the theme of which is "Designing Learning Futures." For whatever reason, this year's conference includes exactly 0 panels that are explicitly about Queer youth, queer theory, or queering the curriculum. So I'm working on adding a work / discussion session around this question: How can we strategize to increase the visibility of research into on the needs and interests of queer youth, queer scholars, and queered curricula?
Students find out early what it's like to live in a country that generally believes that the best defense is a good offense: That catching and punishing wrongdoers will deter others from going down the wrong path. Never let the facts get in the way of a good theory: We'll keep passing ridiculously harsh drug laws even though they don't deter people from buying, selling, and using illegal drugs. Our politicians, supported by right-wing pundits, will resist extending unemployment benefits in the worst economic recession we've seen since the Great Depression. Why? Because they've decided, in direct contradiction of the evidence, that America's 15 million unemployed adults are lazy bums who just need a swift kick in the ass.
That's the world our students are headed for, so they might as well learn the lesson early that it's a world that prefers punishment over dialogue, short-term fixes instead of enduring solutions, and using bandaids to fix gaping wounds.
A little less than a year ago, a group of HASTAC Scholars, faculty, and Digital Media & Learning-affiliated folks started talking about strategies for Queering DML. (Look