Here are some of my notes from the Feminism in the Classroom Roundtable on Friday, October 20th. Thanks so much to all who participated. We had a really interesting conversation, mostly about issues related to gender and graduate student teaching. I am going to go ahead and make a outline of different topics that came up, and some of the thoughts that our panelists and participants had about those topics.

1. Managing different audiences in the classroom: How do we build alliances in the classroom without closing doors?
The question of which students we address as feminist teachers came up several times during the discussion.
--We talked about women and men as separate audiences, and Jackie reminded us not to make assumptions about our students' views on gender based on their genders or backgrounds.
--Pat asked about discussing feminist interpretations of texts without alienating students who aren't interested in feminism, and inspired several suggestions: 1) That we as teachers attach feminist interpretations very clearly to ourselves, giving the students an opening to question 'just our opinion'; 2) That we introduce various interpretations of a text "hypothetically," mentioning a feminist interpretation alongside other points of view; 3)That we avoid using the word feminism upfront in class discussions, giving students a chance to get used to new ideas without the baggage of a politicized terminology.
--Lacey talked specifically about consciously designing classroom activities to appeal to less talkative students, who do not have as strong a sense of their entitlement to participate in a graduate classroom; and then Amanda talked specifically about teaching to more obviously conservative students. Each of these strategies were posited as ways to overcome our own biases and traditional power dynamics in the classroom.


2. The Female Body in the Classroom: How do female instructors balance authority and openness toward students?
--Both Patty and Lacey talked about some of the specific issues female instructors encounter because of the more visible and often sexualized and/or politicized nature of our bodies in the classroom.
--Issues of dress came up: How much more formally do female instructors have to dress than male instructors? What are the connotations of a loose bra strap or a shirt hiking up over a belly in class? Does varying our gender-presentation enhance our authority as teachers?
--Lurking behind questions about self-representation and authority, to me at least, are questions about the ways that disrespect and respect manifest in the classroom. How do we gauge the level of authority we have in class before a problem arise? Is the issue that female instructors face more outright disrespect, or that they do not receive respectful gestures men can often take for granted?

3. Politics in the Classroom: When and how do we "come out" with our views?
--Amanda asked a question about saying the word "feminist" in connection to ourselves in the classroom, which elicited several different responses.
--Lisa Moore's tactic in E316K of announcing her politics to her students early in the semester was brought up as an effective, but intimidating (to graduate instructors), tactic; it was noted that it is important to emphasize both the instructor's beliefs and the instructor's openness to different opinions in that situation.
--Other participants in the panel argued that they took more subtle approaches to politics in the classroom, leaving students to guess their beliefs and presenting both sides of political debates.

4. Feminism in the Graduate Classroom: Who brings up feminist questions?
At the end of the session, Patty brought up some issues that I think would be really useful for further discussion, perhaps at another roundtable! She asked whether students or teachers bring up feminism in our classrooms, and what the best tactics for us to bring up gender-focused or feminist interpretations of texts might be in class situations, especially in situations when anti-feminist texts are excused by reason of their historicality. This is an interesting question from both an instructor and a student perspective, and we addressed both briefly at the panel.

I have some thoughts about the panel, but I may leave them for the comments, as this really long! Please feel free to post here anything I forgot, or your thoughts on the panel or the issues above, or ideas for future discussions.

On a lighter note, another personal situation that can sometimes intrude into our academic lives is the issue of moody professors. Has anyone ever encountered this phenomenon? If so, how do/did you handle it? Pretend like it doesn't happen? Say something? What if it seriously affects your academic relationship with her or him? Comments and reactions?

In looking to continue the momentum of the new semester, I thought I'd post a blog topic to get us started with our online conversations.
Our recent Safe Space awareness training and its small turnout made me think about different ways to reach more people in the department. More specifically, in reaching out to the department (or other communities) how should the FSG surmount the obstacle of “identity politics" (e.g. "I'm not ______, so that stuff doesn't concern me")? How can we emphasize to people the importance of coalitions and allies? Should we? Is it better to just let a person come to an awareness of an issue on her or his own?
Comments and reactions to the above topic are not only welcome but also wanted.

LGBTQ 101 with Safe Space!

Thanks to everyone who showed up!
We had a great training session, and those of us who are interested in completing our "offical" ally training are looking forward to the longer session coming up in October.

For all those who are interested, the session included different activities that allowed us as participants to think about the different conceptions and stereotypes that we have about the LGBTQ community. We also got the chance to learn about different LGBTQ terms that we might not have known before, as well as how to be better allies to our LGBTQ students.

If you are interested in attending a training, I posted Safe Space's description and contact information below.

SAFE SPACE

Purpose:
Safe Space is a gay / straight alliance dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding about sexual orientation by providing education and training to the university community and staying informed of political developments to create better Safe Space providers.

Functions:
We give monthly trainings designed to educate people about issues within the community. Our trainings focus on evaluating stereotypes and looking at heterosexism and homophobia in society, and our primary goal is to create allies supportive of the glbt community.

E-mail:
info@UTsafespace.com

Web Address (URL):
http://www.UTsafespace.com

FEMINIST SOLIDARITY POTLUCK – 9/22/2006

- Overview of Fall 2006 activities
o LGBTQ 101: Awareness training provided by Safe Space for English and Comp Lit grad students; 9/29 at 3pm in PAR 204. For more information, please contact Erin Hurt (erinhurt@mail.utexas.edu)
o Feminism in Academic Disciplines: A roundtable discussion by and for grad students about the ways in which feminism makes its appearance in academic disciplines that are not traditionally identified as feminist fields of study (e.g. medieval studies). For more information, please contact Layne Craig (laynecraig@mail.utexas.edu) or Kate Beutner (katharine.b@gmail.com).
o Family Matters: Tentatively planned for November 10. A panel of grad students and faculty will discuss how they manage children/family with work. Issues include, but are not limited to choosing to take time off, how to balance stress with workload, and the practical advice for pregnancy and childcare. Please contact Lydia Wilmeth (lwilmeth@mail.utexas.edu) or Erin Hurt (erinhurt@mail.utexas.edu).
o A Day in the Life: Graduate students will describe a typical day in their life, from when they wake up to when they go to sleep. A collection of these will be posted on the Feminist Solidarity blog (http://feministsolidarityblog.blogspot.com/).
o Guide for New Students: Throughout the semester, FS members are encouraged to post tips for (new) grads on the FS blog, with the hopes of putting together a pamphlet of tips about the things that you are never told as a new student.
- Spring 2006 activities
o Mentor panel: Faculty will discuss their experiences both as mentors to students and other faculty as well as their own experiences of being mentored.
o Female faculty panel?

- Brainstorming ideas for 2006-2007 school year?
o Definitions of Feminisms panel?

- Discussion about using the various resources, communities, and groups that are already established on campus (such as Gender and Sexuality center, New Works Program, Center for Women and Gender Studies)
o It was suggested that that instead of starting from scratch in terms of creating feminist community and activism, the FSG should instead become aware of groups outside of the department and build on activities that are already established.

- Discussion of possible future activities:
o Discussion of marginalization and/or hostility in the graduate classroom
o Coping mechanisms for instructors with problem students

- Other upcoming events:
o Announcement of the formation of a support group for Women of Color
o October is LGBTQ Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Domestic Violence Awareness month

- Meeting ended with announcements of various sign-up sheets:
o Sign up for emails from the group
o Sign up to be a part of the planning committee
o Sign up to be a part of the Day in the Life project
o Sign up if you are interested in actively blogging on the FSG blog
o Email UTfeministsolidarity@gmail.com if you want to be involved in any of these things but didn’t get a chance to sign up at the meeting.


FEMINIST SOLIDARITY GROUP INFORMATION
- Listserv: feministsolidarity
o Subscribe yourself to the list: Send the request

subscribe LISTNAME 


in the body of a message to the address majordomo@lists.cc.utexas.edu

 Email account: utfeministsolidarity@gmail.com
- Blog: http://feministsolidarityblog.blogspot.com/
Email a blog administrator or the listserv to get the password to post on the blog.

Planning Meeting Notes

On Friday, Sept. 8th, the newly formed Feminist Solidarity Group Planning Committee met to discuss possible activities for the 2006-2007 school year. The following is a brief summary of the ideas we as a committee were most interested in for this year. Members are already working on putting these events together, so look out for us to contact you to help and/or attend. Definitely comment here or get in touch with a Planning Committee member if you'd like to be involved with planning one of these events. We'll announce upcoming events in more detail at the potluck Sept. 22nd and as they get closer.
Planning committee, if I've forgotten anything, please leave it in the comments here!

For the Fall 2006 Semester:
Diversity and Sensitivity Workshop from the Gender and Sexuality Center:
We are working on scheduling a Diversity and Sensitivity Training Workshop for the English/Comp Lit Departments through the GSC and Safe Space. Here is a link that gives more information about this GSC service for UT students, faculty, and staff who want to find out more about being allies to LGBTQ students and community members. This will take place at the end of September, and we'll be working to get the word out about it to as many people as possible.
Panel on Feminism in Our Disciplines:
This is one of the earliest ideas we talked about when we formed this group. We'd like to get a group of graduate students together to talk about their experiences talking about feminism and sexuality issues in different disciplines in the English and Comp Lit departments. We're looking for volunteers to speak from the perspective of students and instructors in as many areas of study as we can. This event will be held in October.
Panel for Parents, Expecting Parents, and Potential Future Parents:
The number of parents in our department is growing! This panel will feature grad student and possibly faculty speakers discussing their experiences and challenges as parents and expecting parents in academia. They will also answer questions from students who are considering having children in grad school and will discuss the parent/non-parent divide among academics (I made that last part up, but I hope they'll do all that!). This event will be held in November.

For the Spring 2007 semester:
Panel on mentoring:
Our new mentor program generated a lot of enthusiasm in the department. This panel will give mentors and mentees a chance to discuss their experiences, and will feature faculty and advanced graduate student speakers addressing the benefits of mentoring and being mentored throughout their academic careers.
Female Faculty Symposium:
We'd like to ask female members of our faculty to come and talk to us about their experiences with feminism, sexism, family challenges, male colleagues, and all those career issues that we as feminists worry about but don't usually get to discuss in an academic setting. If you have a faculty member you'd particularly like to have speak, or who you think would be interested in talking about her career with us, please let her and us know.
Grad Student Round Table on Having a Social Life in Graduate School:
Continuing our series on things we don't usually talk about at school, the Planning Committee would like to gauge you guys' interest in a grad-students-only round table about dating, relationships, and the social struggles of being in a PhD program.

On the Blog:
We had several ideas for soliciting blog entries that are a little more content-focused that meeting announcements and minutes. First, we'd like to work this year on a comprehensive set of tips for incoming students, covering some of the details of financial aid, our insurance, department administration, and other things that we wish we'd known earlier! Kate is setting up blog entries for this project already, so please contribute your tips here, and we'll compile them next summer to give to incoming students next fally.
We also have some ideas for sharing our lives as grad students with each other on the blog, just doing some writing about our schedules and the ways we study and work. We'll be asking you guys to volunteer to write these entries, and we'll talk more about the project at the pot luck.

Finally, we will also talk at the potluck about whether we should go through the process of becoming an official student group, and the implications (particularly the financial implications) of that decision for us.

Upcoming Event of Interest:

The Gender Symposium presents a panel discussion

"The Ivory Tower Meets the Real World:
Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in the Classroom"

September 15, 2006
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Burdine 436A

Featuring the following distinguished UT-Austin Faculty:
Erika Bsumek, Assistant Professor of History
Ann Cvetkovich, Professor of English
Neville Hoad, Assistant Professor of English

Each panel member will discuss how they broach the topics of gender and sexuality in their teaching and share challenges they have faced with students in the classroom related to issues of gender or sexuality.

After the panel of faculty share their thought-provoking comments and ideas, the room will be opened up for questions and comments. Audience members are encouraged to come ready to participate in a lively discussion.

If you have questions or are interested in presenting your work in a relaxed and collegial atmosphere, please contact the Gender Symposium Committee at gender@uts.cc.utexas.edu.

You may also find information about us at our website: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/gender/

Planning Meeting September 8th

This Friday, September 8, the Feminist Solidarity Group will have a planning meeting at the Cactus Cafe at 2:00p.m. If you have ideas for this semester or you'd like to be involved in putting some ideas into action, please join us. We hope to have a much more active semester this fall, and it would be great to have as many people's input as possible.
If you have an idea for a panel or a get-together or an issue you'd like to see the group address, but you can't come to the meeting, please leave it here in the comments, and we'll put in on the table on Friday. The planning committee would appreciate everyone's input.

I can't believe it is already August! Some of us have been getting together plans for our group for this fall. We are going to start our mentor program, and will hopefully have some interesting panels and definitely happy hours, but if you have ideas or thoughts, it would be great if you commented here or emailed one of us or the group account at utfeministsolidarity at gmail dot com.
Also, while procrastinating today, I found this link to a blog entry about the inclusiveness of feminism, and it made me think of you guys and of our conversations in the spring, so I thought I would share it.
Have a good rest-of-summer!
Layne

For the Mentor Program Committee, and those who are interested, here are the official notes from the Orientation Focus Group meeting held by the Graduate Student Assembly May 17. (Thanks to Amy Dove Forestell, president of GSA):
Brief meeting summary:
We each described our orientation experience. Most was done in the departments, and everybody from the last 4 years did look at the online orientation. The department orientations tend to cover meeting the faculty, research areas, department specific things, etc., but not things like getting keys, where things on campus are, austin/campus-wide things, etc.

John Dalton talked about what other parts of UT (international, undergrad) are doing , and what other grad schools (Michigan and Berkeley) are doing. Other schools tend to do things like panel discussions and more abstract ideas rather than mechanical topics like parking and IDs. We said that a mix of both would be useful. We talked about ideas for panel discussions, like how to network and find your advisor, how to transition from undergrad to grad (both academically
and personally) or from work to school, etc.

Another idea John presented was an OGS open house on the main porch and in Dean Rodriguez's office, which we said we would attend (especially with free food). It was emphasized that anything that gets grad students to meet people outside their department is good. Perhaps Grad Interest Groups (like FIGs)?

We discussed the role that the GSA barbecue plays as an information fair. Since there are already 2,000 students attending, it is good to get them while there is free food. But would a separate info fair by OGS be useful as well?

Many more topics were mentioned as well (inclusion of international students, the up-coming grad life webpage, if academic rules are being communicated, PDCE programs, OGS advertising, etc.).

Some issues that came up that I thought might be of interest to the Feminist Solidarity Group were:
Information packets for new students--do we want to make a handout for our Mentor Program to include in folders given to incoming English and Creative Writing students, and is there any other information we might be interested in seeing handed out to new students?
On-going dissertation, writing, and professionalization seminars being conducted by the Graduate School, of which several of us at the Orientation Focus Group were unaware. We might try to remember to post these events on the blog when we hear about them.
Campus-wide interest groups for graduate students?? A way we might look towards developing our group in the long term?

If you have any ideas about Graduate School wide orientation, get in touch with Stephanie Odom-Robertson or Layne Craig. The focus group plans to meet again during the summer, and we'd be glad to let you know when and/or pass your ideas along to the group. If you have any ideas about the Feminist Solidarity Group getting involved with orientation, please share--the English Dept. orientation in August is already being scheduled.

Meeting Notes (March 4 2006)

Most importantly, we had a great first meeting - lots of talking and eating and
dog-petting. At the meeting, we talked discussed various names (listed below),
putting together a mission statement (once the blog is up), signed up for
committees, talked about whether or not the mentoring should be department-wide (and if so,how to implement that), and that a form for mentees to fill out would be forthcoming.

Possible names -- we all really liked the idea of the acronyms, but got stuck as to what words we wanted. Jack suggested that it's easiest to pick an acronym and then make up words that fit each letter. Regardless, we decided to stay away from female or women terms altogether, and instead decided that words like gender, feminist, solidarity, literature, and group fit more closely with what we want this group to accomplish.

Here are some of the names:

Feminist solidarity group (FSG)
FIG (I can't remember what the I stood for)
GILD (Gender in Literature Departments)
SAF (I can't remember what these letters stood for either, but I wrote it
down)

Please feel free to jumpstart the side of your brain that thinks of clever acronyms.

Here are the committees people signed up for at the potluck:

**Mentorship committee: Patty, Molly, Jackie, Laura (not sure), Paige,
Jessica,Erin, and Layne -- further plans for this still pending
**Panel organizing: Patty, Erin, Laura, Crystal
**Blog committee: Me, Olga, and Kate -- details below
**Other ideas: In-group partners, sharing information about outside groups,
like the GSC, CMAS, and others - I just didn't write them all down :(.

The blog is off to a great start. The address is feministsolidarityblog.blogspot.com. The name was chosen in the interests of getting things rolling. Since we can change everything but the URL if we need to, this name is not necessarily permanent.

CHECK IT OUT!!

Welcome to the Feminist Solidarity Blog