Friday, March 25, 2016

never mind Carmen SanDiego, where in the #adjunct/iverse is the #precariousfaculty blog?


…but the hat, red trench coat and high boots are snazzy. As for the blog, with 4 posts in January, missed all of February and today being March 25, even I ask if there is one. There's a tunc et nunquam feel about it all and with it, temptation to throw caution to the winds.

  So here I am ~ less about throwing anything to the winds just yet: just clearing more space while I consider directions. Just don't expect a blog post day for the rest of the month. Although not much of a blog these days, the network is alive and well. I've even been thinking how to bypass the blog and post directly to the network or some rss manifestation of it. So let's talk about the network, turning informationist and other (in my opinion) adjunct-appropriate interests. My latest PF Network page update covers those: 
Now, collections from the above are transformed/remixed from folders and tags into feeds, html clips and bundles on InoReader. Bundles include social justice, immigration (special project for Adjunct Justice), labor, higher education, adjunct/ contingent faculty, education, academic labor, BDS/Palestine Advocacy (special project for Sean Kennedy), Ayotzinapa Matters (special project for Adjunct Justice). These are less networks than news/information/resource collections.
Online databases and their feeds aren't like hard copy: they update constantly. Parameters and tags can be revised without a new press run or edition. They evolve. Here's the 2014 post accompanying a previous update. Then I dropped the R for rising. Just "Precarity Network" + collections is the next step -- out not down. Check out the Adjunct News too and the stand-alone html clip -- not the most elegant page layout but an in-depth, information one-stop for adjunct and contingent faculty: local to global news, higher education and mainstream media coverage, images, videos, collections, magazine articles, book reviews, adjunct blog posts and more. Clips and bundles can be customized geographically or by topic. I'm working on a an open, public Cal-ed online collection with rss feed for CPFA.

All precarity, social justice and human rights issues should matter to contingent faculty. Some will be more interested in -- committed to -- particular areas than others. BDS/Palestine Advocacy, Ayotzinapa, and immigration are cases in point. Education, like social justice, is huge -- overwhelming, too relevant to ignore and the contained topics too interrelated to separate in silos. Both would benefit from looking at aspects (topic areas) as parts of complex ecosystems that include yet more topics -- arts, humanities, social sciences, law, technology, media, natural resources, climate, and more.

Daunting. Irresistibly so.

12 comments:

  1. Thank you for doing such a great synthesis of your work, and ours, Vanessa: much needed and always appreciated!

    I still do not know the ins and outs of the online world, but I know that I can always look to see anything I want to remember through you, because you have captured it.

    That is a wonder all its own!

    And there is such truth in what you say: "the contained topics too interrelated to separate in silos."

    I have always maintained that everything is connected; everyone touches all. We all do it, from words to action to information to gathering to words all over again.

    It becomes a complete cycle, and you carry it all...

    Besos, not borders,
    Ana/Adjunct Justice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm still working on the best way to explain or at lay bare the connections, expose the wiring. You and Sean are examples of how teaching and the adjunct condition can inform broader, deeper social justice involvement. It goes beyond movement politics.

      Scratching rights -- free speech, right to assemble, privacy -- hard enough digs down to academic freedom and the right to organize. Those go directly core issues: race, economic inequality, neocolonialism, media control and manipulation. Palestinian knew instinctively that Ferguson was a "sister city." That, not tenure, was the lesson we should have been taking from the Salaita affair the year before.

      As for explaining the tech, how the Rube Goldberg works -- and how any and everyone can build their own. That's not done.

      If I'm looking for an avatar that doesn't look like me, Carmen would be dandy. The swarming madjuncts can point out that she's a crook. Everybody will be happy. Selected mocking is on my new blogging agenda along reclaiming my personal voice and tossing the movement mouthpiece one.

      Delete
  2. So true about the Palestinian/Ferguson connection. This is such that when the Ayotzinapa Caravana43 went there last year -- and they were having problems holding a rally at the museum where they were scheduled because they did not want to welcome Palestinian friends -- the Caravana43 chose to hold it elsewhere with everyone, and I have never been prouder.

    Connections, the bigger picture: everything comes together, if we are only willing to let it happen, to make it happen, for the good of all.

    And as for the avatar that doesn't look like you, I beg to differ.

    I tried to upload the photograph of you in your wonderful fedora-like hat and coat -- the one you wore when I went to visit you -- but this did not let me do it. And I think it was not me or my bad computer skills this time: it's just not allowed.

    BUT you know the photograph, don't you? You look so spiffy in your hat and coat, ready to take on the world and all the "swarming madjuncts."

    BTW, Carmen San Diego is a lovely crook...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adjuncts or anyone involved in a movement or organizing should to be into at least one other social justice campaign and have outside interests. Not only are they antidotes to a wind tunnel effect but crucial to cultivating empathy.

      As a corollary, insisting that others share our campaigns is a form of psychic colonization. Put it out there and let them Lead the horses of instruction to water. Then they have to think for themselves. Even get their own water.

      So which or what "this" did not let you download image? And from where? Insufficient data. When something is "not allowed" there's is usually an accompanying message to that effect.

      Delete
  3. I think I cannot post jpg's onto this type of format, and I do not have your image online, though I believe it is one of your profile pictures?

    Maybe this one will work. I found it online! https://i.vimeocdn.com/portrait/7347692_300x300.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  4. Though of course, my entire purpose was to put the actual image up, not the url :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You just can't do that so don't even try. I thought you knew that. PS posting a link on Blogger does not automatically make it active like posting on WordPress. You have to code the html manually.

      fwiw visitors tend not bother with links they can't click through.

      Delete
  5. Yes, that's why I wanted the image, and not the link. Now when I click on this link, it does take me to the image: not you? Well, it's all beyond me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is there a problem using reply feature? That would keep all the OT discussion on the same thread. I didn't even try the link since you never code them and if you did, I don't need to look at picture of myself.

      As for Carmen San Diego avatar, if the she were appropriately aged, I might.

      Delete
    2. What problem? Haven't I been using reply? Is this macs not talking to PCs? Oh boy :(

      And coding links? An even bigger OH BOY!

      I still think that Carmen San Diego avatar is a great one

      Delete
    3. Enough with the Mac ate my paper excuse already. Until just now you've been posting a new comment instead of replying.

      fyi image embeds can be coded but the Blogger comment feature does not accept all html tags, just a few basics.

      If you want an OT conversation, email me

      Delete

pull up a soapbox and share your 2¢

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...