genderowa
Silence: The Rhetorics of Class, Gender, Culture and Religion
Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2012
TTh 2:15-3:45, English House I
Our On-Line Conversation
This class is part of a cluster of three courses in a new
360° called Women in Walled Communities:
Silence, Voice, Vision, which focuses on the
constraints and agency of individual actors in the
institutional settings of women's colleges and prisons.
“Every sentence is a prison” (Emerson).
"That silence …
It’s a meadow…
Silence is a game of dodgeball @ dusk…
Lighthouses and Laboratories
Everyday
She ventures out
To Brant Point Lighthouse,
Dr. Grobstein brought her up to lighthouse keeping.
Here the storyteller’s problem is the sound;
There the sailor’s problem is the sea.
To see her, an officer ducks
Out on the deck.
Their alchemy
Is tertia non datur.
The third is not given for
Turning base metal into gold.
Her skin tans golden while waiting for him.
She is true, and he only likes true stories.
He learns that Wellington’s are good
For climbing rain slicked boulders,
Other details and facts.
Every night
He litters his room’s
Floor with facts about her.
The facts are chirping like crickets,
He has an infestation keeping him awake.
Heading to the toilet, he stubs his toe on a fact
He needs a toad. An anurian she would say,
A story to swallow legs and eyes
And all.
Welcome!
Welcome to the CETE Conference, hosted at Bryn mawr College May 30 - June 1, 2012.
Going To The Crack House
'Going to the crack house" - Jill McKorkel
Reading notes
Reading Is My Window
Thoughts on "Reading Is My Window; Books and The Art of Reading in Women's Prisons" Megan Sweeney
Sing Soft, Sing Loud - Patricia McConnel
I will use this page to record my ongoing thoughts while reading "Sing Soft, Sing Loud"
read first chapter
think about use for class
Self Evaluation
When I began this class I was just beginning to look at gender from a feminist lens. I had only ever discussed gender within the realm of literature and so this course was really like a window into a wider conversation about gender; one that took place in spaces other than a literary book. I think I am much more able to think critically about gender in a broader way because of this. I have been learning to pay attention to the classroom structure more, the ways in which certain classroom structures can be problematic or the ways in which is it useful for provoking discussion or creative learning.
I think there have been many classes where I spoke a lot and a couple classes where I sat back and did not say much at all. It took me time to adapt to the class structure after it changed mid-way through the semester. After a couple classes I became comfortable and began to participate regularly. I liked the idea of collaborative work both inside and outside the classroom. I love the use of serendip; I feel like it is very well integrated in the classroom, especially because we hear each person’s posts again and can discuss them. I felt as though I could have participated more online than I did.
Violating Language
Sara Gladwin
Critical Feminist Studies Final Paper
Anne Dalke
5/11/12
Violating Language
As I was reading a chapter in the book “Feminism is for Everybody” by Bell Hooks, I became inspired to start thinking about the ways in which language was used in the classroom and what effect changing that dialogue would have on classroom experience. I became interested in exploring how language could be used to alter the classroom to become a more inclusive place, where silenced voices are able to have the opportunity to be heard. Hopefully I could find a way that the classroom could validate students experiences instead of conditioning students to filter out certain parts of their lives from the classroom.
the queer classroom and self confidence
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being “are you even registered in this class? do you know where you are? and 10 being “you are fully present, prepared and engaged”, I would say I was an average of a 6.5 being that some days I was about a 1 and most days I was a 7.5-8. That being said, I was an average of about a 4 in my “real life” this semester 1 being “you are stagnant, you might as well be dead” and 10 being “your life has self motivated forward momentum”. So my participation and contribution was patchy at best, but you already know that. Though think I was more present in the small discussions than in the larger ones. Everything I did for class was “focused on my own learning” though I am not really sure what else it could have focused on…I was trying to contribute to the learning of others online. By this I mean that I was trying or hoping generally to engage with a discussion in my postings. I don’t think I have been thinking of how I might be contributing to others learning, in the sense that I don’t ever find myself wanting others to come to my point of view or position of understanding—I don’t consider myself a teacher within the classroom.
Self Evaluation
Sorry, I did not see this.
I felt that because there were a lot of people in the class that were more knowledgable in Gender studies than I was, I found myself wide-eyed and agap with the kind of analysis that they were coming up with. In the beginning, I felt like I wasn't talking as much as I normally do because I wasn't confident in myself, but soon I just started to say whatever I felt I could contribute. Whether it was a comment that related things to my own experience with what we were talking about, or a question that I had no intenstion in answering myself but maybe someone else might be able to think of something and give any sort of insight along the way to the answer, I tried to say whatever I could.
I think in this experience, I've learned to acknowledge the other side of learning that I wasn't used to in the first place. I was very used to keeping conversation and staying on the same plane as most of the other students. I was used to learning things on my own, doing things on my own to find a result. But here, I was really relying on other students to help me grow into a more feminist thinking student.
I took a lot of notes and most of them where questions that arose form the discussion because it was interesting to me how we got from one question to the next. The class as a whole and how our train of thought took us to where we ended up. i found myself thinking of more questions similar to what we came up with in the class before for the next class's readings.
Diffracting - finding my voice and my passion
This class was a journey in many ways for me. This is my first Anne Dalke class, and so I have never experienced this type of class structure before. I certainly have mixed feelings, and my learning process in this class has been shaky and informative at the same time. As discussed ad nauseum in mine and others’ final web events, the class was structured in such a way that there were vast gaps in understanding and education between many of my peers. I was unfortunately at the “lower” end of what felt like a hierarchy of education, and so was often uncomfortable expressing my ideas for fear of being looked down upon as less understanding and uneducated. As an intro course I question how useful it is to have people with extensive knowledge in the class – they were often bored and frustrated with the others (myself) in the class who were still learning. Having people in the class with higher levels of understanding can be incredibly useful in that it can engender conversation that would not be possible with a group of people new to the topic, and often times the conversation was very interesting because of the levels of understanding some people had. However, occasionally that left others out of the conversation, because it would go over their (our) heads. But again, simply listening to other people have these conversations was useful, because I for one learn a lot from listening to other people.
Reflections
When I reflect on the semester and my role in conversation and levels of participation, I have a lot of mixed feelings. I am very regretful of my lack of presence on the course forum-- that was an entire aspect of conversation for the class that I really think I missed out on a great deal. I did engage, but only as a lurker and passive reader, which is certainly a shame because I think one of the lessons of this course was to value your own voice as well as the others around you (something that many conversations in class over the semester would lead me to believe is a feminist project). I think that while I managed to really enjoy the ability to see the thoughts of my peers develop on the forum, I did not really trust in the value of my own words.
In class, however, I definitely feel like I was a pretty active and useful member of discussion. I was always very interested in the voices around me, and, unlike my reaction to serendip, was able to trust in the worthiness of my own thoughts enough to share them. I really hope, and think it is not out of line to say that I think it’s true, that I was a good community member in that I contributed as much as I was taking. Or perhaps, a less possessive and more appropriate phrasing, I engaged fully in the shared experience of conversation and therefore did my best to enrich and be enriched.
Tell Me a Story...
Monday, I texted him, “tell me story…”
Thursday, my mate sat across from me starting with,
“I was walking to work when I was almost run over;
It was a man on a unicycle racing to make the ferry
I being crew, he inquired, ‘if his unicycle could
Be checked with the bicycles.’ ‘That’s correct,’
I told him. ‘But, could I ride his unicycle? I
Had ridden in my youth, and a pony too.’
He assented yet insisted on support,
Which was right because I failed
Only to look down and see
His hands holding me
Not the seat,”
He said.
Trans* Task Force: DLT Training and Q-Forum
Trans* Task Force: aybala50, amorphast, S. Yeager, MC and myself
Working towards breaking the gender binary at Bryn Mawr College and helping the queer folk on campus feel more welcome and at home.
Quick definitions for our visiting guests:
Customs week – one week before classes start, the freshman arrive on campus for a week long orientation led by the DLT
Customs group – freshman are grouped together generally by hall to create customs groups, which are led by Customs People.
DLT – Dorm Leadership Team
This includes:
HA (Hall Advisor) – One student on every dorm hallway who is basically in charge of everything on the hall.
Customs People – 2-3 students on each hall who are in charge of helping the freshman through their first year at Bryn Mawr.
CDA (Community Diversity Assistant) – Previously one per dorm, now only six on campus. They are students who “are charged with raising awareness of diversity issues and helping their friends and neighbors talk about them.”
