engaged intellectuals

My dear friend and colleague Lane Clarke at Northern Kentucky University sent an email about this story from NPR on the 826 in Brooklyn. I’ve heard and read about 826 before, but somehow it got wrapped up in the sticky webs of my mind and I had nearly forgotten about it completely. I love the concept: really cool, kid-enticing storefront (spies, superheroes, etc.) that mark the entrance into a really cool, creative space where kids read and write. Love it.

Blessed Unrest: How the largest social movement in history is restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world by Paul Hawken is my new favorite book:). Call me slow, but I’ve been a bit resistant to talk about social justice issues alongside ecological justice issues, with my emphasis always on social justice. This book has offered me a new perspective, however, and I have a much better understanding about how free market fundamentalism, for example, not only marginalizes and dehumanizes workers and creates a greater disparity between the wealthy and the poor, but it also simultaneously destroys our planet. I began to imagine, in a way I haven’t before, how local/global “glocal” education that ties together ecological and human rights issues can firmly ground children and all of us to living locally, thinking globally, and inspiring hope and action in a way that could fundamentally change the materialism, consumerism, individualism that fuels classism and classist behaviors. Fighting for living wages, job security, and workers’ rights could be lived beside lessons on living simply - lessons we could learn from folks who don’t have the economic resources to produce much waste or emissions in the first place.

This book is engaging, informational, very well researched, and inspiring. Have fun reading it!

The Visitor - a movie released mainly in independent film theaters - is a simple movie about an overwhelmingly complicated and emotionally saturated issue: immigration in the U.S. A burnt-out professor finds himself enmeshed in a joyful life of two artists only to watch one get carried away in handcuffs and held in a detention center until he is deported. In the meantime, heartbreak, frustration, anxiety, devotion, and love are interwoven in the nuanced story exploring the multiple and subtle meanings of the film’s title.

Call for Papers
Gender and Education Association 7th International Conference

Theme: Gender: Regulation and Resistance in Education
25-27 March 2009, Institute of Education, University of London

Keynote speakers

Deborah Britzman Raewyn Connell Gloria Ladson-Billings

Plenary Panel 1: Intersectionality, Black, British Feminism and
resistance in educational research

Suki Ali Heidi Mirza Ann Phoenix

Plenary Panel 2: Regulation, resistance and activism: troubling margin
and centre
Bagele Chilisa Sylvia Grinberg Grace Livingston

* How do education and gender regulate?
* How do we theorize, research, talk about and enact resistances
to regulatory practices and gendered power relations in education?

These questions and the conference theme, Gender: Regulation and
Resistance in Education, invite engagement with gender and feminism at
every level of educational practice, including politics, theorizing,
policy creation, research methodologies, pedagogical engagement and
grass-roots activism. The conference draws together an exceptional
range of international speakers working at the cutting edge of
feminist and gender theory and research, and political and
educational activism, including those who are resisting current
contexts of neo-liberal economic reform and increasing global
disparities. Our goal is to create a space for dialogue about gender
and education that spans disciplinary, theoretical, political and
national boundaries.

Proposals

We invite proposals for contributions that critically explore
questions relating to issues of gender regulation and resistance in
education.

These may include the following:
* Power/Governance
* Politics/Policy
* Neo-liberalism/

Neo-Conservativism
* Standards agendas in education
* Histories, genealogies of gender
* Religion, nationality, citizenship
* Globalization /Marketization
* Community /Activism/Struggle
* Agency/ Structure/Subjectivity
* Pedagogy and curriculum
* Primary, secondary schooling
* Higher, further education
* Intersectionalities, race, class, gender, age
* Psychosocial approaches
* Gender, disability, inclusion
* Sexuality and queer theory

The papers might engage with these themes from a variety of fields and
areas of study:

* Feminist Studies
* Women’s Studies
* Queer Studies
* Sociology
* Health
* History
* Literature
* Philosophy
* Cultural Studies
* Media Studies
* Postcolonial Studies
* Development Studies
* Social/Educational Policy Studies

Session Formats
We are interested in a diverse range of formats and welcome proposals
for:
* Papers
* Symposiums
* Interactive Sessions
* Performance pieces
* Roundtables or Posters

Workshops

We are also interested in hearing from anyone who wishes to organise a
stream/theme that runs through the conference.

Education Practitioners

We are keen to include education practitioners in the conference as
presenters and participants. We will be pleased to receive proposals
from education practitioners for standard conference format sessions
(such as papers and symposium) or for more innovative/interactive
sessions such as roundtable discussions and workshops. We are also
looking for proposals for sessions that will be of interest to
education practitioners.

Students

We will be holding a student networking session, for student teachers,
undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, postdocs and researchers.
The session will address concerns around doing gender research and
finding career paths in gender and education. This session will have a
question/answer component with leaders in the Gender and Education
field in collaboration with the student and postdoctoral reps at GEA.

Submitting proposals

Proposals should offer a summary of the presentation/session being
proposed, including a short rational for the focus and indicting any
conceptual framing and empirical material to be covered or activities
to be undertaken. Proposals for single papers, posters, roundtables,
etc should be no more that one side of A4 (approx 300 words).
Proposals for larger sessions, such as symposium or workshops may be
up to 2 sides of A4 (approx 600 words). We anticipate a standard
allocation of 20 minutes per presentation and 80 minutes per session,
however, we are open to proposals that suggest alternative uses of
time - please state this clearly in your submission.

Please include:
title; author name(s);
institutional affiliation/country; technical requirements.

Closing date for abstracts: 30 September 2008
Send submissions to: genderandeducation09@ioe.ac.uk
Further details are available at: www.ioe.ac.uk/

fps/genderconference09

We can laugh at this satirical commentary on the burden of long work days, the cost of day care, and the potential for outsourcing child care to countries like India. Of course, I know all too well the student who sat in my office yesterday afternoon and told me that his father’s assembly line job disappeared after 23 years (along with the pension he would have earned in two more). When I think of real people pushed to the limit, this comedy begins to have teeth that bite back, and I’m reminded of Jonathan’s Swift’s A Modest Proposal. How can these satirical texts help us critically analyze policies that affect our loved ones? Watch the clip from The Onion.