"Tenure in a Digital Era" in Inside Higher Ed

"Among the "horror stories" Rosemary Feal has heard: Assistant professors who work in digital media and whose tenure review panels insist on evaluating them by printing out selected pages of their work. "It's like evaluating an Academy Award entry based on 20 film stills," said Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association." digital / 26 - Inside Higher Ed

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Call for Proposals - Graduate Research Network

Reminder! The deadline to be listed in the GRN printed program and apply for Travel Grant funding is May 30!

We invite proposals for work-in-progress discussions at the tenth anniversary Graduate Research Network at the 2009 Computers and Writing Conference, June 18, 2009, hosted by the University of California Davis. The C&W Graduate Research Network is an all-day pre-conference event, open to all registered conference participants at no charge.

We need both Discussion Leaders and Presenters! Presenters may also be eligible to apply for Travel Grant funding.

For more information, visit our Web site at http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/writling/GRN/2009/index.html and follow the links for the online submission forms for the GRN and for Travel Grant funding, or email Janice Walker at jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu.

Notes from CCCC 2009 (Finally!)

I entered this note in my cell phone some time during the conference: "World Wide Wall" – graffiti (instead of World Wide Web). UC Berkeley guy from NCTE Press Conference – Jabari Mahiri. I liked that so much!

The press conference was a one-hour gathering before lunch at the CCCC Executive Committee (captive audience?) about the upcoming (and very exciting!) Day for Writing. For more information, see http://www.ncte.org/action/dayonwriting.

Overall, the conference was a success, of course—I always return home exhausted and exhilarated, with all kinds of new ideas for research and teaching. But I do want to take one moment to vent: presenters, I believe, should be able to assume that, at minimum, LCD projectors will be available in every room, and we need to be doing more to ensure greater Internet access will be available for those presenters who need it. Of course, the CCCC Executive Committee is considering these issues, but hotels are charging outrageous fees for even minimal technologies—and often, because of union issues, they even charge set-up fees when we bring our OWN equipment and do our OWN set-up—but I still believe we can do more, beginning with negotiating with hotels or other conference facilities and, perhaps, choosing alternative venues when possible if we cannot get the facilities we need. It's a long-term project, one with, perhaps, no easy fix, but let's keep asking anyway!

Some scattered and sporadic notes from the conference follow. I might have more to add later, although I've waited SOOOOOO long to finally get around to posting these notes, so I may not…. Ya never know! Anyway, here goes.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

"Methods, Ethics, Labor, and Imperatives: making Material Waves in Ethnographic Study"

Chair: Alanna Frost

Speakers: Alanna Frost, Tabetha Adkins, and Kate Warrington.

Speaker #1 presented a fascinating tale of collecting stories from first nation people in Vancouver, Canada. I LOVED when she discussed the challenges dealing with the "evil IRB form," which she found awkward and unwieldy. Also, history of these first nation people with signing their names made the required IRB forms even more problematic. Argue for a multiplicity of ethics, following Horner.

Speaker #2 did research which included interviewing members of an Amish community in Ohio. Theories of ethical ethnography have led to problems in her own research design. "Did the dirty deed of obtaining IRB approval." Informed consent forms geared toward medical studies are problematic for some populations.

Speaker #3 –continuum from autobiography to ethnography. Believes these may not be opposite ends of a continuum at all. Some self discovery/autobiographical awareness required to do critical ethnography. Also, impossibility perhaps of 15-week semester for critical ethnography, especially for some diverse populations. College a time for "forced self discovery" for students at her small Methodist private liberal arts college. Assigning ethnographic research in general education courses does encourage students and offer "avenues" to learn about others unlike themselves and to learn about themselves in the process.

"Making Waves through Writing: Food Memoirs, Argument, and Recipes as Protest"

Chair and Respondent: Janice Walker (hey, that's me!

Speakers: Lynn Houston, Risa P. Gorelick, and Heather Eaton

Speaker 1 discussed a student assignment about cultural memories. Questions from students: What if they didn't have an "ethnic" cultural background? Through this assignment, students discovered a heritage/background against the mainstream anyway (i.e., cooking in your underwear!). Green vs. industrial agriculture ("eat locally, think globally"). And more. Fascinating presentation

Speaker #2 claimed that Americans now spend more money on fast food than on maybe ANYTHING else. Argument writing class, using such materials as Fast Food nation. Using Toulmin logic. Newspaper articles as they occurred during the semester, etc. For students in thematic (food-based) argumentative writing course. Differences in grams of transfat in, say, a McDonald's meal purchased in America as compared to the "same" meal purchased in Europe (3x as much?!)

Speaker #3: relationship between slow food and feminist pedagogy. Eating an "ecological and political act." Alice Waters' restaurant [not to be confused with Alice's Restaurant of Arlo Guthrie fame—or the (in)famous Alice B. Toklas cookbook…). No, Alice Water's restaurant features organic, local, and sustainable foods. Arguing for cookbook/recipe writing. Teach, using Waters' writing—description, definition, metaphor, claims/opinions. Like writing process—flexibility, ingredients.

My response: Interestingly, even though Heather's paper related "slow foods" to feminist pedagogy, as I was preparing my response, I couldn't help remembering the eating scene in the old Tom Jones movie (I guess I'm giving away my age here!). I had no idea what I would talk about in this response before I heard the presentations—what do I know about food after all? So I decided to avoid thinking about it and read a book, which turned out to be Joanne Harris' Five Quarters of the Orange. From the back cover:

When Framboise Simone returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year.

As Lynn Houston talked about her student assignment, I realized that, in the book, the memories are entwined with the recipes, the tastes, touch, and smell of food, the receipes which are her mother's legacy and which Framboise recreates, thereby reliving the experiences and memories they bring back to her conscious mind, helping her to understand her own childhood history from the vantage of an adult and of her mother.

Food represents our heritage. In my case, my grandmother knew how to order in deli, and my mom knew how to open cans, but even the taste of delicatessen fare or canned green beans bring back familial memories. Against the grain of "mainstream"—where most of my friends' food memories include "mama's home cooking."

Joanne Harris is the author of six other novels, all seeming to deal with food, including Chocolat, and Blackberry Wine, and two cookbook-memoirs, My French Kitchen and The French Market.
So, I tried avoiding thinking about this response by turning on the TV and watching a movie. The movie? What else? Tortilla Soup! In this movie, food is family relationships, memories and dreams, seduction and sex (shades of Tom Jones again?). A Retired Mexican-American chef, Martin Naranjo shares an L.A. home with his three single, adult daughters. Though he has lost his ability to taste, he still loves to cook incredibly lavish dinners for his loved ones and serves them in a family-style ritual at traditional sit-down meals. Although the women humor their father's old-fashioned ways, each of them is searching for fulfillment outside the family circle. College student Maribel is growing increasingly frustrated with the singles scene and wants a steady man; gorgeous career woman Carmen is fed up with her boyfriend and his wandering eye; meanwhile, eldest daughter Letitia, who has suppressed her own romantic longings, senses something missing in her life. Things take a turn for the romantic when Dad, a widower, meets a vivacious divorcee on the lookout for a mate, and each of his daughters, in turn, finds someone. But they'll all discover that the recipe for happiness may call for some unexpected ingredients.

The next movie on tap was the 2007 film Waitress by Adrienne Shelly, a "charming and bittersweet tale of a pregnant small-town Southern Waitress (Keri Russell) hoping to win a pie-baking contest and leave her boorish husband." The movie depicts the pie baking in delicious detail, and the sexual innuendo steams as the love interests crush the berries and pour the chocolate (not to mention the bananas!), singing, "Baby don't you cry, gonna make a pie, gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle."

So, I turned off the TV and decided to read something more serious. It turned out to be Al Gore's book, and I can't help now but relate it to Heather's paper—green food. Okay, well, I guess the food doesn't have to be green—it might be a carrot or an apple—but you get the point!

By this time, I finally realized that food is everywhere—in our families, our cultures, our memories. Why not in our classrooms?

Friday, March 13, 2009

Digital Interventions in Composition, facilitated by Dickie Selfe

This trial session featuring poster presentations related to technology and the composition classroom was an incredible success. The poster presentations ran the gamut from presentations that were pro-"electronic-submission software (such as Turnitin)" to information literacy collaborations. The room was crowded and noisy, which I think added to the excitement. I really enjoyed the chance to have one-on-one or small-group discussions with each presenter, and I found the posters and accompanying handouts provided by most presenters informative and useful. A great way to attend a large number of presentations during one session! I vote we continue doing this, and thanks to Dickie for facilitating it.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rocking the Boat: Using Blogs to Challenge Traditional Notions of Academic Identity"
Chair: Collette Caton
Speakers: Collette Caton, Jenna Allen, and Bettina Ramon

While scheduled very late in the program, this panel was well worth attending. Speaker #1 discussed the myth of objectivity in academic blogs and how they allow space to challenge traditional academic identities. See the "Academic blogs" list on KairosNews for some examples. How female academic bloggers are reconceptualizing academic identity (embodiment—pregnant body; baking (cakes?); interpersonal). "Perhaps our notions of what it is to be an academic," she argued, "are too limited." I couldn't agree more!

Speaker #2 argued that feminist pedagogy in the postmodern classroom is increasingly prevalent. What happens at the intersection of feminist pedagogy and blogging? Can extend the boundaries of feminism beyond the composition classroom. Barriers such as large class sizes can shut down conversations; blogging can provide a solution. Akin to journaling in some respects. Allow both academic and social identities of students [in blogs] into the classroom. Motivating factor encouraging individual participation.

Speaker #3: Not only sexuality, but also exploring queer blogs, challenge heteronormativity assumptions. Reevaluate how sexual identity is discussed—or ignored—in the classroom. Blogs still primarily used as alternative to journaling in the classroom, as opposed to "academic" writing. Students more comfortable with blogging, blurring the boundaries between traditional academic writing and personal writing they may already be doing outside the classrooms. Allow students to be "polyvocal." Socially constructed identity—can engage students with reading and writing, share dialogic relationship. The way language constructs identity. "Queering" the classroom via the integration of technologies. Literacy—about gender and sexuality/sexual identity.