♫I enjoy being a man!♫ Says the author of this piece on academic dads. http://t.co/ZLHhkltDDA — Karen Kelsky (@ProfessorIsIn) May 19, 2014 What do we, as writers, owe other writers? I’ve been thinking about this in the context of my “talking while privileged” argument. In general, when making arguments about privilege and power, I try…
Dear Adjuncts, Grad Students, Post-Ac, Alt-Ac, and other academics who are getting or have PhDs but who do NOT have a FT faculty position. UPDATE: Or people in TT jobs not doing much research due to teaching load! The MLA, via this report, has recommended reducing time to degree for people in MLA fields. Reduce time to…
Language moves. In the world of disability, phrases enter our lexicon to replace other terms that become pejorative, then they too have to be replaced. This is a normal process and does not mean we cannot work for better language, because representation matters. Representation shapes reality and reality shapes representation. This assertion is a fundamental…
There’s a handwriting system that my son’s teachers use called “Handwriting without Tears.” They have an app (that I don’t really like) and all kinds of classroom curricula (which teachers seem to like). I always laugh a little at the name, because for me, handwriting caused tears. As an adult, I’ve come to terms with…
I often write against a generalized “happy happy” language that permeates certain aspects of disability discourse, particularly in the Down syndrome community. Our community pushes a kind of “life is great” mentality, driven especially by the abortion issue, and I strongly support drives to fight the stereotypes of horror and worthlessness. The joys in our life with…
Last week I was working on footnotes, so I didn’t plan any pieces. Naturally, I wrote four essays that are some of the most-read pieces in the history of the blog. In reaction to the UCSB shooting, I wrote a piece on Elliot Rodger and Intersectionality. I coined something called “The shrug,” in which either as…
Family Vacation for a few days. Back late Sunday!
There’s been a lot of focus lately on Crisis Intervention Training for police officers. It’s being billed as an antidote to the failures of police to handle situations involving mental illness. Maryland just became the first state to mandate it state-wide for all officers, thanks to the work of the #JusticeForEthan movement. I’ll be writing…
Yesterday I got a comment on another post from a parent who ended up on my blog. The short version is that at a public play-place her son was hurt by a child with DS and she didn’t know what to do about it, because how can you blame a child with DS for anything?…
I write a lot about privilege and I have a lot of privilege. I’ve long argued that it’s important to be very thoughtful when writing about academic labor while tenured, gender while male, race while white, disability while able-bodied, and so forth. When writing about a given power dynamic, I often have the power by…