On April 9, Jodi Dean published a blog post “Palestine speaks for everyone” for Verso Books in which she expresses support for Palestinian resistance. She has since been removed from teaching responsibilities (temporarily, until the end of term) by her employer, Hobart and William Smith Colleges. I took special interest in this news because I’ve been influenced by Dean’s scholarship on solidarity. Her definition is a foundation for an article that Janet Jones and I recently published on … [Read more...]
A self-assessment of my land acknowledgments
I live on the traditional lands of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. I think it's a little pathetic that I can't spell, from memory, the names of the Indigenous nations that live(d) in this region. I'm working on that. In early June I attended the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, an annual meeting of various disciplinary academic associations. Although I attend Congress regularly, I have rarely have attended sessions hosted by non-philosophy associations … [Read more...]
Arendt and outer space
In the span of a month I'll have been to Washington DC, Guelph, Atlanta, and Edmonton. I'm half-way through what I'm jokingly referring to as my "Spring Speaking Tour." Both my rats and my students might forget what I look like. This post is less of a blog and more about what-I've-been-up-to. Mostly I've been thinking about Arendt and science fiction, both separately and together. I wrote about these two together in the first entry to this blog, focusing on the task of philosophy as Arendt … [Read more...]
Reading Indigenous Writes by Chelsea Vowel
Preamble Below, I have re-blogged a post I wrote for the University of Waterloo Faculty Association's blog. It's the first in a series of posts from faculty members about books we've been reading relating to Indigenization. When we were divvying up books to read, I jumped at the chance to read Vowel's non-fiction, as I am a huge fan of the Métis in Space podcast, which she co-hosts with Molly Swain. Between the time I wrote this post and its publication, I've also had the pleasure of … [Read more...]
The “practice” in practicing self-care
A few years ago, I began using the acronym PREP in my teaching. It indicates to my students the learning methods I find most helpful: Prepare, Reflect, Engage, and Practice Self-Care. Throughout the semester, I check in about how PREP is working for them, if they use it. Some students are surprised to see self-care mentioned, others feel supported by it. There's always a range of responses about how students incorporate that final "p" of the acronym. Here's my check-in about self-care. I'm … [Read more...]