On Tuesday, September 4th, we had an FSG planning meeting. Although not everyone could attend, we went ahead and brainstormed/rehashed a few ideas for our events this fall. It would be really great if we could use the comment section under this blog entry to discuss and respond to those ideas, so we can get started setting some plans into action. If you have other ideas that aren't listed here, please put those in the comments, as well.
Potluck! We're looking at Sept. 21st or 28th as possible dates. What do you think? More info coming soon on the listserv.
Last fall, The FSG had a grad student panel called "Feminism in the Classroom," which was really well-attended and interesting. We would like to do something similar this semester, maybe with a more specific focus. The two ideas we tossed around were:
Authority in the Classroom—Catherine B. brought this up at last year’s potluck. It would be a panel about teaching, particularly addressing the ways that we establish authority as grad student teachers and deal with conflict or confrontation in our classes.
Maintaining Public Spaces in Grad School, like Broken Eggs and Chez Cal--Every once in a while, we're reminded of the issues inherent to the shared spaces we use in our department and on campus. This would be a panel about the ethics and practical concerns regarding "policing" these spaces and using them effectively.
If you have thoughts on one of these panels, please be sure to comment below.
Fathers Version of the Academics and Parenting panel: We had a really successful panel on parenting last fall, but it was an all-woman panel, and several people expressed an interest in doing one for fathers this year. Lydia W. is sounding out interest in the panel in our department and among the grad student parent community, but we definitely know that some professor-fathers are interested. What do you think?
Mentor Panel—We've talked before about setting up a panel about mentorship, possibly with some grad student mentor pairs and professors who are involved in mentoring. At this meeting, we talked about tabling this idea for a little while and seeing if people are interested. What do you think?
Finally, last year we hosted a presentation from the Gender and Sexuality Center called LGBTQ 101. As we look toward the spring, we would like to look into having more educational programs from groups on campus. Any ideas?
Really finally, Kate has posted some open thread type entries on this blog about the first year of grad school. If you have the time to scroll down and check them out and add to the comments, that would be great.
Thanks so much to everyone who made it to this crazy meeting and to people who emailed--I'm so sorry it ended up being weird in time and location! See everyone at the potluck! And in the comments section... :)
--Layne
9 comments:
As I said in the meeting, I love the idea of talking about authority in the classroom. I really want to talk about public spaces as well, but it makes me really ancy to do that in a forum. Erin had suggested maybe doing something a bit more informal for that one.
Thanks for blogging the minutes for us!
Tabling the Mentor panel is fine with me...I think the program is going really well and that relationship tends to be so different based on the participants anyway.
I would be interested to hear what people say in the Gender and Authority panel, though I personally don't feel like I've had issues with authority in the classroom. I agree with the last poster, Public spaces might be really contentious and I don't know if it could be as helpful to people. Another idea for a future panel might be to discuss the issue of women and service in academia...as in, do we take on too many service activities or the right amount? I've been thinking about this in relation to my social life. I've volunteered (or have been nominated) to several "service" positions in family members' weddings, which is an honor, but weddings and showers don't typically take up the same amount of time for guys. It irks me sometimes.
--Stephanie O.
I still think the Authority in the Classroom panel sounds like a great idea. (And I'm curious to see what kind of response we get for the fathers' panel.)
Re: the mentoring panel, would people perhaps be interested in holding it in early spring? It might be a good thing to do at the beginning of that semester, because it wouldn't require a lot of prep.
Ooh, I really like Stephanie's idea about women and service activities. I remember one of our incoming mentees mentioned she was worried about "over-volunteering."
Lydia (I think!) mentioned that at the mtg. Erin suggested a less formal "Public Spaces" discussion, and I'm also intrigued by the idea of more FSG-specific meetings and discussion groups about some of these more sensitive topics that we still want to talk about as a group.
Oh, sorry, that is me above.--Layne
Should've said earlier that I also like the women and service idea! I don't know how I missed that paragraph in your comment, Stephanie, but I think it's an excellent topic to discuss.
I like all the ideas for panels (authority, public space, service, and fatherhood). I am more interested in the first two, particularly public space. I think examining public space- especially because it can be contentious is really important! I think creating 'safe spaces' - even electronically (i.e. broken eggs) can be really hard. For example, after the shit storm that ensued when Erin posted to the list serve about recent legislation affecting women's reproductive rights.- I personally feel very unsafe on the public forum of broken eggs.
Just my two cents as a new comer to the blog
I, too, am interested in the Public Space issue, especially with matters like Broken Eggs and so on.
Hi,
I would be happy to organize a panel on authority in the classroom, if i can cross purpose it as a workshop for the new TAs (as that is part of my job this semester). I am meeting with the new TAs and will see if it is an issue they are interested in seeing addressed. If so, maybe for time in early to mid October? Would anyone be interested in being ON the panel?
-Catherine B.
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