[Teaching_Composition] Re: responses to Steve
Kristie Fleckenstein
teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:04:24 -0500
Wonderful, Rebecca. I'll follow up on these.
I wonder if we could collect and post on the McGraw Hill website all these references that people share. Has this been done in the past? It would make a great reading list for all of us struggling with these issues.
One of the nice things about this very focused listserv is that we can get a "collective mind" kind of phenomenon going. The more minds the better!
Kris
----- Original Message -----
From: Rebecca Ingalls <ringalls@UT.EDU>
Date: Monday, November 26, 2007 4:04 pm
Subject: [Teaching_Composition] Re: responses to Steve
To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> Hi, all...
>
> I love these posts, as well. When I first made the transition from
> graduatestudent for professor, there was a CFP specifically for
> this very issue from
> the Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies. I wrote an
> articlefor that issue titled "Unmasking the Brilliant Disguise:
> Smallness,Authority and the Irony of a Teacher's Body," in which I
> discuss the
> rhetorical implications of being young, quite small and female in the
> classroom. The entire issue is wonderful -- a beautiful collection of
> analytical narratives discussing the subjectivity of physical
> bodies in the
> classroom.
>
> Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, Volume 28 (Dec
> 2006).
> There is also a wonderful book dealing with these issues:
>
> The Teacher’s Body: Embodiment, Authority, and Identity in the
> Academy, ed.
> D. P. Freedman and M. S. Holmes. Albany: State University of New
> York Press,
> 2003.
>
> Sincerely,
> Rebecca
>
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Rebecca Ingalls, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of English and Writing
> University of Tampa
>
>
> And this, our life, exempt from public
> haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in
> the running brooks, sermons in stones,
> and good in everything.
>
> I would not change it.
>
> — W. Shakespeare
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> On 11/26/07 12:01 PM, "teaching_composition-request@mailman.eppg.com"
> <teaching_composition-request@mailman.eppg.com> wrote:
>
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> >
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> >
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> > than "Re: Contents of Teaching_Composition digest..."
> >
> >
> > Today's Topics:
> >
> > 1. Re: RE: [Teaching_Composition] Of Bodies Writing (Kristie
> Fleckenstein)> 2. responses to steve (Kristie Fleckenstein)
> > 3. RE: responses to steve (Susan Miller-Cochran)
> >
> > --__--__--
> >
> > Message: 1
> > From: Kristie Fleckenstein<kfleckenstein@fsu.edu>
> > To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> > Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:43:31 -0500
> > Subject: Re: RE: [Teaching_Composition] Of Bodies Writing
> > Reply-To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> >
> > Oh, my gosh, Kathy, your post brought back so many of my own
> memories in and
> > out of the classroom. I started teaching high school right out of
> college when
> > I was 22∑only 4 to 5 years older than the students I was
> teaching. Yikes!
> > When I got my first journal from a student describing how he‚d
> love to meet me
> > for pizza some weekend, I was more than a little uneasy and a lot
> flustered.> (I suppose I should have been happy he didn't ask me to
> bring the beer!)
> > Nothing in my undergrad ed classes (in the early 70s) had
> prepared me for
> > something like that.
> >
> > As a former WPA, I spent time dealing with such issues in TA
> training, but I
> > know that we don't have a lot of attention paid to embodiment in
> essay> collections designed for TA training. Lots of essays on
> what they (TAs) need
> > to know, which is definitely important. But essays on body
> concerns tend to
> > be in short supply, and I think that "corporeal" preparation is
> just as
> > important as course content.
> >
> > So what's going on in secondary ed training? I‚ve been out of the
> secondary ed
> > loop for too many years to know if issues of embodiment are
> addressed in our
> > undergraduate methods courses. Or perhaps "embodiment" is
> bundled in with
> > discussions of harassment?
> >
> > Can others on the list help us out here? Does UG teacher
> training clases deal
> > with body issues?
> >
> > And your memories, Kathy, reminded me of Steve‚s post, too,
> because I can‚t
> > help but wonder, especially as I watch my older daughter develop
> a rich,
> > complex network of online friendships (including at one time, I
> suspect, a
> > romantic connection) if the We 2.0 generation is developing not
> only different
> > modes of communication but also different senses of their bodies.
> Does the Web
> > 2.0 generation have a more flexible understanding of bodies than
> does the
> > typographic generation? If so, flexible how? And what are the
> implications of
> > those differences?
> >
> > Oddly enough, those questions make my mind jump to NCLB. Do we
> have in high
> > stakes testing a complete denial of bodies? And, if we shape
> curriculum to
> > align with high stakes testing, are we systematically denying the
> reality of
> > bodies in our K through postsecondary classrooms? How does
> interact with the
> > Web 2.0 experiences? Does it widen the gulf between "real" life
> and "school"
> > life? "real" literacies and "school" literacies?
> >
> > I can't help but wonder what would happen if we looked at some of
> the issues
> > plaguing education, K through postsecondary, through the lens of
> embodiment.> Might we find new ways of looking at nagging problems
> and perhaps coming up
> > with some novels solutions to those problems?
> >
> > I'd like to think so.
> >
> > Kris
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Kathy Fitch <kfitch@kafkaz.net>
> > Date: Monday, November 19, 2007 6:44 pm
> > Subject: RE: [Teaching_Composition] Of Bodies Writing
> > To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> >
> >> Kristie,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I love your module. It's exciting, inviting, richly thought
> >> provoking, and
> >> comes at just the perfect time for me, and, I'm sure, for others,
> >> as well-if
> >> you love to write, it's always the perfect time to ponder poetry,
> >> which, for
> >> me, is what we get when the body, the realm of imagery, and symbol
> >> systemsget all beautifully tangled up in one another. If you love
> >> to teach
> >> writing, then perhaps it's always urgent to keep some poetry in
> >> your bones.
> >> All of which is to say, the (long, now, sorry) meandering to follow
> >> is all
> >> your fault, and I thank you for the excuse to do it (not that I
> >> ever need
> >> too much of an excuse, mind you).
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --After reading your module, I started remembering. The very first
> >> semesterthat I taught as a grad TA, many of my friends, including
> >> my roommate of the
> >> year before, who was a Sophomore when I started teaching writing,
> >> were still
> >> undergraduates. It's strange to think of, now, since I've never
> >> been what a
> >> person might call conventionally attractive (by whatever definition
> >> is going
> >> at the moment-so far, none of them has seemed to have the likes of
> >> me in
> >> mind, though I suppose it could happen any minute, now), but, at
> >> that time,
> >> some of my students were apparently physically attracted to me. I
> >> typicallydressed up a few notches for class, since I was aware
> >> enough of issues of
> >> appearance to understand that I looked pretty much exactly like my
> >> studentsas far as both age and general style went, and since I
> >> didn't have nearly
> >> enough natural or acquired authority at that point not to need any
> >> of the
> >> external trappings of it. I remember being nervous, of course, but
> >> soon we
> >> were focused on writing, and I rather forgot about my physical
> >> presenceexcept for the general pleasure of moving about the class,
> >> talking,laughing, answering questions, asking them, listening, all
> >> of that. So, a
> >> few weeks into it, I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing.
> >> Then, I
> >> visited with my roommate of the year before. She knew some of my
> >> students-partied with them at frat houses, it seems-and passed
> >> along the
> >> news that several of them found me "hot." There were no
> >> ratemyprofessorservices complete with chili pepper hotness scores
> >> back then, and I'm glad,
> >> because even though I understood that this was supposed to be a
> >> compliment,and this is clearly how my friend figured I'd take it,
> >> that bit of feedback
> >> made me feel weird. It was like I had been floating up on one of
> >> thosesilvery tethers, marvelously non body conscious, and then was
> >> suddenly,unceremoniously slammed right on back into my skin. It
> >> was a high gravity
> >> moment. I didn't like it. Already, then, and ever since, I simply
> >> neverrelated to my students that way. Here were people whose
> >> intellectualwellbeing I was claiming some responsibility for:
> >> sexual flirtation wasn't
> >> a language it would ever have occurred to me to speak to them in.
> >> (I'dspeak to them *of* it, if the subject came up in the course of
> >> things, but
> >> not *in* it, which is a whole separate deal.)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --A number of years later, a Dean interviewing me privately for the
> >> finalround of a tenure-track position noted my relative youth, and
> >> wondered how
> >> much of a role this might play in my student reviews. He was a
> >> great guy,
> >> really, but the clear implication was: you're young, and that's
> why>> students like you. Oh! I remember saying something about
> how if
> >> youth is a
> >> flaw, it's a fleeting one, and pointing out that attitude and
> >> approach can
> >> always be fresh, but this was another of those moments of feeling
> >> stuffeddisconcertingly back into my skin. I did accept that
> >> position, and a
> >> full-time faculty retreat soon followed. Overnight at a downstate
> >> forestpreserve. There were sessions, and singing, and drinking,
> >> and all sorts of
> >> mandatory chumminess. One new colleague saw fit to ask me, as I
> >> claimedtiredness and headed off to sleep, if I wore Frederick's of
> >> Hollywoodlingerie to bed. Guess it was fun for him to think about
> >> what all lacy
> >> nothings I might have crammed into my rucksack, but, again-
> >> uncomfortablybound in my skin by the power of a single comment.
> >> Reduced to skin. That
> >> night, my roommate, who was an Acting teacher very near retirement,
> >> delighted me (and frightened me just a delicious little bit) by
> easily>> regressing to a three-year old homesick child right before
> my eyes:
> >> she
> >> nailed the voice, the movement, the air of the thing. I could
> >> practicallysee the air around her shimmer with magic as she did it.
> >> Here was skin as
> >> parchment, as costume, as malleable joy. More flinty and
> melting skin
> >> moments eventually followed: the colleague who had "heard all
> >> about" my
> >> lesbian adventures (and how the hell does a straight married woman
> >> who is
> >> doubly offended--by the narrow-mindedness, there, first of all, and
> >> by the
> >> fact that he actually apparently had another colleague and good
> >> friend in
> >> mind-- respond intelligently to that one?); the all male Teaching
> >> Centercommittee members, mostly twenty or more years older than me,
> >> who proposed
> >> setting me up in a kissing booth to generate funds; the miscarriage
> >> that had
> >> me missing a few sessions of still another committee, much to the
> >> chagrin of
> >> its chair, who finally backed off when, in a moment of frustration,
> >> I told
> >> the dean he sicced on me (and who was a great guy, and thus refused
> >> to sic,
> >> though he did discuss it with me) that I wasn't going to haul my
> >> body to
> >> thrice weekly meetings while blood was snaking down my inner thighs
> >> anddidn't want to hear another word about it until I had this
> >> physical problem
> >> under control. Bloody female body as power and curse. It wasn't
> >> discussedagain.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --First year of grad school, while I was apparently busy being hot
> >> withoutknowing it or wanting to be, I lived in an old garden style
> >> apartmentbuilding. In the apartment just to the north of mine
> >> lived Lisa, who had
> >> been legally blind from birth. We met when she came to my door
> >> with a
> >> measuring cup in hand, seeking milk for something she was
> >> preparing. Now, I
> >> hope I'm not limiting her to her body when I observe that she was
> >> gorgeous.Long brown hair, skin the most beautiful color I'd ever
> >> seen, and the kind
> >> of lithe and willowy body that a lifelong dancer might have. We
> >> becamefriends. I learned all about the special computer she used
> >> to magnify
> >> books, listened to her boyfriend woes (he wasn't sure he wanted to
> >> marry a
> >> blind woman, but he wasn't thinking he wanted anyone else to
> have her,
> >> either), and discovered that she was loathe to use her cane while
> >> walkingaround campus. Never mind that she was practically killed
> >> by bikers,
> >> skaters, and general jostling several times a week. She didn't
> >> want the
> >> cane because it meant people would process her as "blind person,"
> >> steeraround her, and never engage with her on any other level. In
> >> the apartment
> >> just to south of me lived John, who had cerebral palsy. I learned
> >> to keep
> >> my apartment stocked with straws so I could offer him a drink when
> >> he came
> >> over, since drinking directly from a glass or can was tough for
> >> him. John
> >> couldn't leave the outward marks of CP at home, and it constantly
> >> frustratedhim. Girls were a particular source of concern. Like
> >> Lisa, he was very
> >> generous with me. I'd never had close friends with disabilities
> >> before, and
> >> here, quite suddenly, I was flanked by them. They let me ask all
> >> sorts of
> >> questions. John and I had long discussions about the challenges of
> >> dating.He was a romantic-writing poetry, buying flowers, falling
> >> hard and fast. We
> >> wondered, together, about how his body complicated things. Coming
> >> on too
> >> strong? He figured he came on too strong for some women just by
> >> being.Just a year or so later, one of my own students, Barbara,
> >> was blind. No
> >> special viewing devices for her, since the blindness was total.
> >> Our whole
> >> class was somehow defined by her rhythms, which were assertive, but
> >> kind,and very comfortable (largely a magic of her making). The
> >> clicking of her
> >> slate and stylus became part of our world, we all learned (even
> >> "why would I
> >> touch you when I don't even *know* you?" me) to offer our arms with
> >> easewhen it came time for Barb to navigate the busy halls of the
> >> Englishbuilding, and workshop days meant we all read aloud to each
> >> other, so the
> >> hum was constant. Barb wrote the most beautiful, detailed visual
> >> descriptions. She always brought her slate and stylus to
> conference>> sessions, too, and took notes as we talked. All of
> these generous
> >> folks who
> >> let me learn from them how to be easy with them (and hard on
> them, and
> >> ticked at them, and just *with* them, generally) made it possible
> >> for me to
> >> be very comfortable with managing the challenges and joys of
> >> working with
> >> many later students who came bearing all sorts of bodily and
> emotional>> difference: blindness, CP, deafness, brain damage,
> epilepsy,>> depression,histories of abuse.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --Suddenly, I'm remembering the bodies of teachers I loved. One
> very>> overweight lit prof never, ever moved from the desk. She'd
> hike>> herselfonto that scarred old block of wood at the front of the
> >> classroom as the
> >> period began, and sit there the whole time. And yet, I have this
> >> impressionof grace when I think of the way she moved around in text
> >> and in ideas, and
> >> I remember feeling breathless and exhilarated by keeping up with
> her.>> Then, there was the elfin film professor, very thin and
> short. He
> >> used to
> >> smoke and pace across the room-this little engine of energy,
> >> puffing away.
> >> And he'd fill the board with words and arrows and charts and
> >> drawings that
> >> marked and moved our discussion along. I could never sleep
> after his
> >> classes. They left me wired and wanting to read, write, talk,
> >> think *right
> >> now.* Oh, oh-and the high school English teacher, Mrs. B. She was
> >> allpleated wool skirts and cardigans, and she always had a line of
> >> chalk dust
> >> across her back, right where she leaned against the chalk tray when
> >> she was
> >> at the board. Very soft-spoken. When I think of her, now, it
> >> seems to me
> >> that her great and rare talent consisted mostly of setting us in
> >> motion and
> >> then getting out of the way. I remember just writing and
> writing and
> >> reading and reading and writing some more, for her, but I never
> >> rememberfeeling at all pressured about it. Her space was quiet and
> >> absorbing.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --Then, too, the bodies of teachers I didn't love so much. The
> >> prim and
> >> prissy Shakespeare prof who drew a large and apparently perfect
> >> circle on
> >> the board on day one, then turned to us and told us that the
> >> ability to draw
> >> a perfect circle was the sign of a rare and prodigious intelligence
> >> was one
> >> teacher I instantly and irreversibly hated-even more so more
> >> because, of
> >> course, I couldn't resist trying the circle thing, and instantly
> >> discoveringthat without a compass, my circle making skills were
> >> iffy, at best. Then,
> >> there was the Econ prof who was simply boring. Somehow, I think
> >> beige and
> >> taupe when I think of him, though I can't really remember what he
> >> wore. I
> >> actually once got up, gathered my things, and walked out of that
> >> class and
> >> into the exhilarating spring sunshine (the sort of rudeness I
> >> hardly ever
> >> allow myself), simply because I couldn't take the monotone (and,
> >> apparently,the monochrome) drone of him for one more instant.
> >> Then, there was the Soc.
> >> Prof who was persnickety as can be. Very smart, kind of funny,
> >> but really
> >> not at all nice. I remember watching the cowlick at his crown
> >> bounce as he
> >> paced the room.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ---Random grad school memory: Lit prof known for flirting
> >> outrageously (and
> >> sometimes, more) with female students. Creep. But, I had one
> >> friend with
> >> whom he never, ever flirted, and she was deeply bummed about
> this. I
> >> avoided his courses, so I was a bit at a loss. She *wanted* the
> >> creep to be
> >> creepy to her? Sigh. Yes. She wanted to know that she, too, was
> >> worthy of
> >> his creepiness. But she was not thin, not pretty in the way he was
> >> drawnto, and entirely (as I told her, again and again) too smart
> >> and too good and
> >> far too beautiful for him, anyway. I never read Blake without
> >> thinking of
> >> her.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --Random teaching memories: The young women who approached me very
> >> solemnlyat the end of class one day, asked me to raise my arm,
> >> withdrew a pair of
> >> manicure scissors from her purse, and proceeded very gently to cut
> >> the tag
> >> that was hanging there. New jacket. My little glow of pleasure
> >> about this
> >> new thing-I was feeling uncommonly happy about the color and the
> >> fabric and
> >> the feel of it-wasn't at all undone by the gesture. Not many
> >> people could
> >> have been that tenderly respectful. Another young woman who
> >> approached at
> >> the end of class one day to thump our book onto the desk, and
> >> declare "this
> >> book doesn't include me." And so it didn't. She explained why,
> >> and she was
> >> right. A young man who wore a tee shirts with drawings of serial
> >> killers on
> >> them to class, who wanted to shake some reaction out of his
> >> classmates in
> >> this manner, and who did. Interesting negotiations had to go on to
> >> preventthat one from blowing up. Another young man who wore lots
> >> of black eye
> >> makeup, lots of black clothing, lots of dangly earrings, and who
> >> was very
> >> quiet, very sensitive, a poet really. When I mentioned, one
> day, how
> >> talented I thought he was, he said that it wasn't until college
> that>> teachers ever said this wondrous thing to him or about him.
> Before>> that, he
> >> felt that he was always pretty immediately sized up and put into
> >> the trouble
> >> category. Oh, and so many more lessons delivered skillfully from
> >> smartstudents to a teacher who learned from them that's it's best
> >> to remember
> >> that there's always something new to learn about how to be a good
> >> teacher to
> >> them.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --Hmm, and then I was thinking, all in response to this module, of
> >> how very
> >> different various sections of the same course can be. One
> >> semester, there
> >> were two research writing courses. One group was pretty quiet,
> very>> workmanlike, not that into conversation or debate, but very
> solemnly>> absorbed. They consistently handed in amazing work, and
> basically>> kickedbutt all the way. They were a pleasure, all
> around. Another
> >> group was
> >> challenging, raucous at times, questioned every little thing, and
> >> cracked me
> >> up on a regular basis. Their writing, on the whole, wasn't
> quite as
> >> good-collectively, they had further to go--but the engagement level
> >> was very
> >> high. I would sometimes look at them in mock indignation and
> >> declare that I
> >> was lucky I could ever get a darned word in edgewise, with them.
> >> Lots of
> >> the students in this section were on their second or third time
> >> through the
> >> course. We decided, right off, that this would simply have to
> be it:
> >> they'd make it even if it killed them-or me-and we allowed as to
> >> how it just
> >> might hurt a little bit, at times, but we'd just go on ahead and
> do it
> >> together, anyway, and be glad of the chance to. Most of them (not
> >> all, but
> >> most) really did pass. Toward the end, they kicked me out of
> the room
> >> during the last ten or fifteen minutes of class, one day. That had
> >> neverhappened before, but there it was: "Mrs. Fitch, you have to
> >> leave now. We
> >> need to talk without you. Shoo." So, I left, wondering what
> they were
> >> plotting. Might have been anything from a mutiny to a party, with
> >> thatgroup. Turned out, they were plotting flowers. A huge bouquet
> >> for me on
> >> the first day of the last week. They had pooled their money,
> and also
> >> pooled their garden resources. There were hothouse flowers,
> >> wildflowers,and heavy branches of blossoms cut from trees and
> >> shrubs in their yards (and
> >> maybe their neighbors yards, too). It was a huge and crazy
> bouquet-
> >> andexactly the sort of composition that best reflected their
> >> spirit. I loved
> >> it, and them.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Oh, and there's so much more: the athleticism of teaching,
> >> especially in a
> >> computer lab setting; the maturing of both body and spirit over
> >> time, and
> >> how this impacts teaching; the various languages (Spanish,
> Vietnamese,>> Russian, and countless others, plus ASL, gang signs,
> slang, tattoos,
> >> costume, hair) students bring to the project of writing and
> >> learning with
> >> them; the language of fear and frustration in the classroom, as it
> >> plays out
> >> on every level; the cultural differences when it comes to virtually
> >> everything, including how marriage, family, and success (all things
> >> thatmatter for the project of learning) get defined.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Well, no big insight to offer, but many seemingly disparate things
> >> to ponder
> >> and to continue to draw together, and for that I thank you.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Kathy
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _____
> >>
> >> From: teaching_composition-admin@mailman.eppg.com
> >> [mailto:teaching_composition-admin@mailman.eppg.com] On Behalf Of
> >> StephenRuffus
> >> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 3:19 PM
> >> To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> >> Subject: RE: [Teaching_Composition] NEW MODULE
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Kristie's post brings something to mind. Recently, the General
> >> Educationcommittee at my school proposed that courses satisfying
> >> the college's
> >> diversity requirement not be taught online until we knew more about
> >> howstudents negotiate racial and ethnic identities in digital
> >> environments. It
> >> seemed to me a basic question about embodiment was being asked.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Associate Professor
> > Department of English
> > Florida State University
> > 405 Williams Bldg., 631 University Way
> > P. O. Box 3061580
> > Tallahassee, FL 32306-1580
> > 850.644.3530 (O)
> > 850.644.0811 (F)
> > kfleckenstein@fsu.edu
> >
> >
> > --__--__--
> >
> > Message: 2
> > From: Kristie Fleckenstein<kfleckenstein@fsu.edu>
> > To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> > Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:35:29 -0500
> > Subject: [Teaching_Composition] responses to steve
> > Reply-To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> >
> > Hey, Steve. For some reason, I never received your post. I found
> it at the
> > end of Kathy's. So I did a little cutting and pasting.
> >
> > Here's what you wrote.
> >
> > Kristie‚s post brings something to mind. Recently, the General
> Education> committee at my school proposed that courses satisfying
> the college‚s
> > diversity requirement not be taught online until we knew more
> about how
> > students negotiate racial and ethnic identities in digital
> environments. It
> > seemed to me a basic question about embodiment was being asked.
> >
> > Here's my response.
> >
> > I think you're right. It is, at heart, an embodiment question,
> and one we
> > need to keep reminding ourselves to ask.
> >
> > It reminds me of Coco Fusco‚s work in _The Bodies that Were Not
> Ours_.> (Fusco's a performance artist at Columbia U, and I've just
> discovered her
> > work.) She‚s concerned that digital technologies too easily lead to
> > disembodiment in a couple ways. First, we users tend to forget
> that all that
> > hardware has likely been assembled in a third world low wage
> assemble-line
> > factory (she did 3 years of research in the factories along the
> Mexican> border). AND we tend to assume that bodies don‚t matter
> on line (back to the
> > New Yorker cartoon˜the one with the two dogs, one at a computer
> terminal who
> > tells the other one that no one knows you‚re a dog online).
> Fusco wants to
> > keep reminding us that, yes, bodies do matter, especially online.
> >
> > It seems as if your school has gotten this message. So how do we
> answer that
> > question?
> >
> > I know there are folks who are looking at the way in which we
> carry real world
> > biases with us into virtual world spaces. But does anyone on the
> list know of
> > research that looks at the way our minority students configure
> themselves in
> > online environments? And, if not, how do we go about getting
> answers to these
> > questions?
> >
> > Ideas?
> >
> > Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Associate Professor
> > Department of English
> > Florida State University
> > 405 Williams Bldg., 631 University Way
> > P. O. Box 3061580
> > Tallahassee, FL 32306-1580
> > 850.644.3530 (O)
> > 850.644.0811 (F)
> > kfleckenstein@fsu.edu
> >
> >
> > --__--__--
> >
> > Message: 3
> > From: "Susan Miller-Cochran" <susan_miller@ncsu.edu>
> > To: <teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com>
> > Subject: RE: [Teaching_Composition] responses to steve
> > Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:32:55 -0500
> > Reply-To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> >
> > Kristie,
> >
> > Thank you for such a marvelous, thought-provoking module. In the
> spirit of
> > sharing anecdotal evidence of (dis)embodied writing, I started
> thinking> about some of my own teaching practices...perhaps with a
> bit of chagrin. I
> > thought about how our bodies, or how our bodies are perceived by
> others, can
> > silence us and limit the ways in which we "can" use language. And
> I thought
> > of the discussions I have had with my students about developing
> ethos in an
> > argument--how we can/'t make certain arguments because of who we
> are or how
> > our bodies are represented....discussions that often end with
> statements> like, "You might have trouble making that argument."
> What I'm often saying
> > to students, without directly saying it, is "You might have
> trouble making
> > that argument because of how you are seen by others." I don't
> want to say
> > that out loud, but that's often what I mean. And I'm embarrassed
> to admit
> > it.
> >
> > I'm not sure where my thoughts are going with this, but you've
> given me
> > cause to rethink the ways that I approach these kinds of
> discussions with my
> > students.
> >
> > Enough of my rambling for now. :)
> >
> > Susan
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: teaching_composition-admin@mailman.eppg.com
> > [mailto:teaching_composition-admin@mailman.eppg.com] On Behalf Of
> Kristie> Fleckenstein
> > Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:35 PM
> > To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
> > Subject: [Teaching_Composition] responses to steve
> >
> > Hey, Steve. For some reason, I never received your post. I found
> it at the
> > end of Kathy's. So I did a little cutting and pasting.
> >
> > Here's what you wrote.
> >
> > Kristie's post brings something to mind. Recently, the General
> Education> committee at my school proposed that courses satisfying
> the college's
> > diversity requirement not be taught online until we knew more
> about how
> > students negotiate racial and ethnic identities in digital
> environments. It
> > seemed to me a basic question about embodiment was being asked.
> >
> > Here's my response.
> >
> > I think you're right. It is, at heart, an embodiment question,
> and one we
> > need to keep reminding ourselves to ask.
> >
> > It reminds me of Coco Fusco's work in _The Bodies that Were Not
> Ours_.> (Fusco's a performance artist at Columbia U, and I've just
> discovered her
> > work.) She's concerned that digital technologies too easily lead to
> > disembodiment in a couple ways. First, we users tend to forget
> that all
> > that hardware has likely been assembled in a third world low wage
> > assemble-line factory (she did 3 years of research in the
> factories along
> > the Mexican border). AND we tend to assume that bodies don't
> matter on line
> > (back to the New Yorker cartoon-the one with the two dogs, one at
> a computer
> > terminal who tells the other one that no one knows you're a dog
> online).> Fusco wants to keep reminding us that, yes, bodies do
> matter, especially
> > online.
> >
> > It seems as if your school has gotten this message. So how do we
> answer> that question?
> >
> > I know there are folks who are looking at the way in which we
> carry real
> > world biases with us into virtual world spaces. But does anyone
> on the list
> > know of research that looks at the way our minority students
> configure> themselves in online environments? And, if not, how do
> we go about getting
> > answers to these questions?
> >
> > Ideas?
> >
> > Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Associate Professor
> > Department of English
> > Florida State University
> > 405 Williams Bldg., 631 University Way
> > P. O. Box 3061580
> > Tallahassee, FL 32306-1580
> > 850.644.3530 (O)
> > 850.644.0811 (F)
> > kfleckenstein@fsu.edu
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Teaching_Composition maillist -
> Teaching_Composition@mailman.eppg.com>
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> > To unsubscribe, please visit
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> update> your information.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --__--__--
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Teaching_Composition maillist -
> Teaching_Composition@mailman.eppg.com>
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> >
> > End of Teaching_Composition Digest
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Associate Professor
Department of English
Florida State University
405 Williams Bldg., 631 University Way
P. O. Box 3061580
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1580
850.644.3530 (O)
850.644.0811 (F)
kfleckenstein@fsu.edu