tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post7922351124169308372..comments2024-03-16T12:29:36.145-06:00Comments on BLUE DUETS: Looking back and trying to look forwardKathleen Wallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02600340942046394429noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-42572007585148272362013-02-15T10:02:35.630-06:002013-02-15T10:02:35.630-06:00Kathleen, I just discovered your blog. Thank you f...Kathleen, I just discovered your blog. Thank you for writing this. Since graduating with the MA/English in 2011 I have taught a few courses at SIAST. I see the importance of both a technical/applied college and a university. It saddens me that university is the "Catch-all" degree for employment, when in fact a degree should be pursued by individuals who want to learn and pursue the thinking and discovery and research a university degree offers.<br /><br />I don't begrudge the existence of applied faculties such as engineering and nursing. I do think they are extremely important facets of our society, and engineering in particular, at the graduate level, has as much creative discovery as a literature program. (Having briefly been an engineering student I can attest to this.) However, that the university environment as a whole is favoring this path, and it is selling itself as job-creation tool rather than a place of learning and discovery, makes me very sad.<br /><br />We live in a society that doesn't understand the value of tradesmen and professional programs. Yet, they are fundemental to the functioning of society, so we try to insert them into educational institutes that we do see as valuable -- namely our universities. It's mixing apples and oranges at the very real risk of harming pure academics.Janet K. Nicolsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12043209741426401410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-79966918903760335562013-01-02T11:04:00.505-06:002013-01-02T11:04:00.505-06:00And you have just made me smile, Darcy. Where are...And you have just made me smile, Darcy. Where are you and what are you doing? Please bring me up to date.Kathleen Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02600340942046394429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-57021685527417252002013-01-02T11:03:14.843-06:002013-01-02T11:03:14.843-06:00Jes,
I can't imagine what this atmosphere is l...Jes,<br />I can't imagine what this atmosphere is like for you and my other young colleagues who will have to live inside what the job becomes. Thank you for giving me a glimpse of this.<br /><br />Yes, we must continue to tell stories. In her remarkable Tanner Lectures, "On Beauty and Being Just," Elaine Scarry notes that justice always occurs inside the particular, not the general. What we in the academy are looking for is a kind of justice. And "the particular" is exactly what stories bring us to.Kathleen Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02600340942046394429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-25683643287354118632013-01-02T07:19:00.620-06:002013-01-02T07:19:00.620-06:00Very well said. As a psychologist, I watch the sam...Very well said. As a psychologist, I watch the same shrinking of creativity and complexity in biasing applied research (to solve some specific, present problem) over basic research (understanding how things work in general). Given our demonstrated human fallibility in predicting the future, I dearly hope that enough young people choose to navigate using their creativity, curiosity, and sense of what gives them joy that the function of universities is retained, even if not in the current structures. That, and not immediate jobs, is our true insurance for the future.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-57791825375568431262013-01-01T20:01:11.816-06:002013-01-01T20:01:11.816-06:00"Fraught" is certainly the best word to ..."Fraught" is certainly the best word to describe the atmosphere, lately. The energy that should go into teaching, writing, and supervising keeps flowing into endless conversations about what we've already lost and what we're going to lose. I find it increasingly difficult to advise students about graduate studies, or even about the prospect of majoring in English, because I can't see what the department will look like 2-3 years from now. What strikes me is how many people have asked: is my job safe? This seems like a question that's focused on the long-term, but in reality, it emerges from the same line of thought that's creating this mess. The job as all-important. I'm concerned less about the status of my job, and more about what my job will become. Once we've stripped away the innovative programs that first attracted me to this school, what will be left?<br /><br />I agree that creativity is what's needed. A student recently asked me: why should I care about poetry? I imagine that many of us hear this question on a regular basis. All I could think of to say was: if you ignore poetry, you'll be missing something incredible. Your work will suffer, even if you don't realize it. Ignoring poetry because it's difficult is like breaking up with someone because their intentions aren't always clear, or because they don't always agree with you on every point [I didn't say that last part, but I should have]. If anything, it seems like we have to champion what you've described as "a sense of life's complexity."<br /><br />As I prepare to teach another creative writing class, I have to remind myself that these are students who want to learn about storytelling. They aren't just interested in critical reading, analysis, and literary appreciation. They're on fire to actually tell their own stories. Aboriginal ways of knowing often situate the act of storytelling ("worlding") as a form of critical theory, and it seems like this is what we're actually defending: the new storytellers who need time and space to develop their craft, without having to worry about landing a job. <br /><br /> Jes Battishttp://cunningbailey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-15068198859630610762013-01-01T19:58:44.797-06:002013-01-01T19:58:44.797-06:00Kathleen, when I read this, I could hear your voic...Kathleen, when I read this, I could hear your voice. It made me smile to recall a time when I was on the journey you speak of and looked to you for directions. <br /><br />Kind Regards,<br /><br />Darcy KirkhamAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-88200681280566991942012-12-31T20:16:11.793-06:002012-12-31T20:16:11.793-06:00
Congratulations, Alison,on beginning your tenure-...<br />Congratulations, Alison,on beginning your tenure-track journey. You hold fast too. And thank you for your own reflections and encouragement. Happy New Year!<br /> Kathleen Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02600340942046394429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268764116138678864.post-91027204813844162022012-12-31T13:51:10.151-06:002012-12-31T13:51:10.151-06:00Your contemplations have sparked a deep conversati...Your contemplations have sparked a deep conversation over here. My partner, who I regard as being more qualified to comment on these things than I (since he's less biased) recommends that you 'hang in there, and sow as many seeds as possible'. When I asked him what universities were for, he said that they were for improving society. I asked about poetry, and arts (he is an engineer) and he said that the arts are in part about helping us to think about things that are not invented yet.<br /><br /><br />Hold fast, if you can, for all of us. I start on the tenure track next week, and my whole career will be defined by this stupid crisis. We are the universities. We are the writers and poets and thinkers of things that have yet to become. Some of us, like me, have to play the long game, keep our jobs and raise our families. Others have more degrees of freedom. We should use all the strategies and tactics we can. Happy New Year, and good luck.Alisonhttp://www.alisonpowell.canoreply@blogger.com