bringing the publicators back?

rather than create a new blog, what about resurrecting the old one? any complaints if we do so? or, do we need a name change to christen a new era of applicator-ing, publicator-ing?

what about docticators? doctorators? PhDors (pronounced "fidders")?

-k.

temple uni. (philadelphia, pa) exchange programs

... none of which require you to actually go to Philadelphia (tho' i have heard it's a wonderful town):
http://www.temple.edu/studyabroad/programs/summer/index.html

thought i'd share it because it's not all anthropology, and not all in Japan. (tho' no costa rica, there is Ghana, Jamaica, Mexico, Senegal, and Spain...)

it is, however, not inexpensive.

-k

the craft of academia: final round, the phd

thanks for stimulating conversation last night, dudes. i hope i didn't come off too didactic or preachy—the catholicism in my family history sometimes makes me fervent about certain things. i think last night i was going off on the craft of academia, and how i believe what we do as phds is training and rehearsal for that craft. (craft's a big term, but in brief: not suggesting that it's only learning the ropes of academia that's involved in acquiring the phd-craft; but there's also a matter of pushing the boundaries to shift what it means to be academics, struggling to change what needs changing in the structure/institution/industry, etc.—in short, craft knowledge as both a matter of professionalization and a matter of radicalization and change)

so what follows is all my belief—clearly to be taken with a grain of salt, but worded with conviction as it is firm belief for me... take from it what you will.

1) writing needs to be a daily act—time of day, duration of writing activities, nature of immediate environment: i think these all need to be both reflected upon very carefully and varied to determine best fit for our needs. i wonder if we need to get out of strict and rigid habits, or whether we need to form them...

2) everything goes into the phd—which is to not to mean we spend every waking hour and every sleeping one dreaming about our dissertation; but i think we need to reflect on how our interests and passions about everything from Barney to Foucault (no comparison intended!) need to be deeply considered. i guess it's about finding a balance, perhaps between carving out discrete chunks of time to spend with family and friends away from work/research, and about allowing oneself to think about research/work during these times without rushing to a keyboard.

3) befriend technology, yet remain a luddite—i was talking about RSS feeds from journal providers, joining email listservs for areas in our field (even peripherally), organizing our interests in refworks, and probably setting up a wiki or blog to order thoughts and gain some writing and web development experience... yet part of me wants to build tables, paint watercolours, and forget all about the hi-tech stuff. i guess the point is to recognize where tech can kill creativity and innovation, and to be skeptical of it for that reason, and for the other ways we let it dehumanize us (is this thought overly dark?)

anyway here's a hit list of some programs i find useful (i'll only mention the free stuff).
+ Firefox is the web browser of choice for doing research: it allows you to "add on" different features, like Zotero, which is a bibliographic research tool.
+ Thunderbird is a great email program that lets you organize and archive your email better than doing stuff only online. it's a bit of a pain to set up, but once you do, you should be sailing. it also allows you to bring in RSS feeds so you can bring all your research into here, a kind of one-stop place for daily mail and news...
+ GMail is the only online mail service that i use, mostly because it's a great interface, but also because, once you create a Google account, you have access to all the other free stuff Google has created (like Blogger, Calendar, Scholar, Documents, and so on)—this is all great stuff for if you're not working from home, but are mobile (esp. during classes in first year). Useful too, because Google Documents are totally compatible with the Microsoft Word format
+ Foxit reader is an alternative to Adobe PDF Reader, and really nice because it lets you annotate PDF files: specifically, make highlights and add comments—Adobe doesn't let you do that!

...here's some of the writing/editing resources i mentioned, too
+ Howard Becker's kind of the guru for social science writing, in my opinion. very clear and direct writing, and a narrative style that directs his readers away from snap judgements toward more analytical, multi-faceted, and responsible thinking on a topic. (I would recommend hitting a library or a used-book store to peruse them first: you might find one to be better than another [or you might find one for cheaper than what Amazon or Chapters sells it for...])

Writing for Social Scientists | Telling About Society | Tricks of the Trade

(i'd also recommend his book on Art Worlds which, even though it's about the social construction of systems of artistic practice, i think there's a great deal of what's said that informs how systems of scientific practice operate...)

anyway, that's the list for now—any more to add? thanks for listening & i'm sure the conversation will continue...

doing some writing...

hey, so i'm petrified of the kind of reading and writing work that needs to be done over the next few years as a phd student, and panicked over the quality of writing that i'm thinking is necessary. i've begun to blog in earnest, writing about stuff that i think is (personally) interesting in order to motivate myself to write more frequently, in a forum where stakes are a little less high, and where i can play around a little with the focus and themes and style.

here's the feed, so you don't have to put it as your homepage:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/localweather

would like to know what you think, and would be thrilled if you think it's worth sharing around.

funding denied

Well, no SSHRC for me, and am on the wait-list for OGS .

In the interest of full disclosure, here's the project i pitched--good enough to get me into Communications and Culture at Ryerson/York, but nothing else so far...

Insights, ideas, scathing criticisms, biting commentaries—all are welcome!

- k

Seeing Learning
Towards a Critical Visual Pedagogy of Classroom Learning

Background and Statement of Problem

Although we exist in a profoundly visual culture, there are relatively few contemporary examples of photography-based education in either public school or community-based settings. Each is rare, but each is also distinct: public school photography instruction typically emphasizes technological and vocational aims at only the most senior levels (or “vo-tech” [Goldfarb 2004; Newbury 1997]), while community-based photographic education has a rich history of innovative and critical practice across a range of sites and focused towards a diverse audience. Such practice includes community arts initiatives (Braden 1983, Barndt 2006), research projects utilizing “photovoice” (Wang and Burris 1997, McIntyre 2000) or “talking pictures” (Bunster 1978) techniques, and popular education practices (Barndt 1991). Where critical, school-based learning does exist it is often disconnected from similar practices happening both locally and around the globe (Isherwood and Stanley 1994, Brake 1996, Kist 2005). It is not clear whether community-based practice fares any better (Augaitis, et al. 1995). This project will document examples of photographic practice in public education and community-based settings from the Toronto area in order to articulate a critical visual pedagogy of photographic communication.

This doctoral research project has two primary aims. First, to depict what current practices of photography-based education look like in order to describe the various agents involved, the various pedagogical and technical activities in which they are engaged, and the stated aims and goals of such practices. Attention will be paid to the various traits that align or distinguish public education from community-based practice, and vice versa. Secondly, this research will assess the significance of photographic learning, both in local settings and more broadly across the Ontario education system. I will analyze what factors constitute critical photographic learning for teachers, students, community members, and at a local level, while also considering what such a visual pedagogy both offers and demands of a publicly funded system. Ethnographic interviews with key stakeholders from schools and communities from the Toronto area and photographic documentation of these learning spaces will contribute to this descriptive and analytical survey of the practices, agents, and technologies involved in photographic education. In addition, several action research projects will be initiated at these sites in order to develop of a theoretical framework which situates a critical visual pedagogy within discourses of institutional change and broader practices of social activism.

The goal of this research is to describe and articulate an alternative educational practice which emphasizes visual dimensions to learning in addition to traditional language- and text-based practices. The study will fill in a gap between media literacy education research focused on formal school settings and action research found in community-based practices. The notion of a “critical visual pedagogy” I will develop is clearly indebted to educators and scholars in the Freirian tradition, for whom becoming literate is an emancipatory process and “naming the world” (Freire 1970) is inextricably linked to the speech acts implied in the “photovoice” (Wang and Burris 1997) or “talking pictures” (Bunster 1978) methods I intend to employ. Yet this concept is also related to the tradition of critical theory, particularly as it has been applied to studies of power relations in institutional organizations (Smith 1993, Darville 1995), state-based systems (Lloyd and Thomas 1998, Sears 2004), and media networks (Enzensberger 1970).

Bibliography

Augaitis, D., Falk, L., Gilbert, S., & Moser, M. A. (Eds.). (1995). Questions of Community: Artists, Audiences, Coalitions. Banff: Banff Centre Press.

Barndt, D. (2006). Wild Fire: Art As Activism. Toronto: Sumach Press.

Barndt, D. (1991). To Change This House: Popular Education Under the Sandinistas. Toronto: Between the Lines.

Braden, S. (1983). Committing Photography. Pluto Press.

Brake, J. (1996). Changing Images: Photography, Education and Young People. Salford: Viewpoint Photography.

Bunster, X. (1978). Talking pictures: field method and visual mode. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 5(1), 37-55.

Darville, R. (1995). Literacy, Experience, Power. In M. L. Campbell & A. Manicom (Eds.), Knowledge, Experience, and Ruling Relations: Studies in the Social Organization of Knowledge. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (pp. 249-261).

Enzensberger, H. M. (1970). Constituents of a Theory of the Media. New Left Review, 64.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Goldfarb, B. (2002). Visual Pedagogy: Media Cultures in and Beyond the Classroom. Durham: Duke University Press.

Isherwood, S., & Stanley, N. (Eds.). (1994). Creating Vision: Photography and the National Curriculum. Manchester: Arts Council of Great Britain.

Kist, W. (2005). New Literacies in Action: Teaching and Learning in Multiple Media. New York: Teachers College Press.

Lloyd, D., & Thomas, P. (1998). Culture and the State. New York: Routledge.

McIntyre, A. (2000). Constructing Meaning About Violence, School, and Community: Participatory Action Research with Urban Youth. The Urban Review, 32(2), 123-154.

Newbury, D. (1997). Talking about Practice: Photography Students, Photographic Culture and Professional Identities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18(3), 421-434.

Sears, A. (2003). Retooling the Mind Factory: Education in a Lean State. Aurora: Garamond Press.

Smith, D. E. (1993). Texts, Facts and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of Ruling. New York: Routledge.

Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, Methodology and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369-387.

thoughts on timing, scheduling, and self-discipline

it was a nice breakfast/brunch we had the other day, tho' i think i was a little insistent in my talk of timelines and scheduling and work habits. that said, i thought (or 'thot') i'd put my money where my mouth is & post about my attempt at planning a weekly schedule. having just been accepted to present at Congress at the Canadian Communications Association (CCA) conference in June in Vancouver, i figure this is better done now than later.

so first, i thought about what a reasonable work week would be. 10 hours per weekday plus another 10 over the weekend is a 60 hour work week, but with reading and writing constituting a big chunk of that, it isn't an overwhelming schedule, I believe.

Then I thought about what that would be (w/ a running total at the end of each point):
+ 10 hours a TA-ship (that's the easy one, and it gives me bonus time in the summer, or if I choose not to do a TA-ship one semester: 50 hours remaining)
+ 2 hrs/day writing = 14 hrs. (i thought whether this would be lumped into weekends or free days, or rigidly scheduled into the activities of each day. i don't yet have an answer for that, but the 14 hour weekly max. gives some flexibility: 36 hours remaining)
+ 2 hrs./day reading = 14 hrs. (this includes researching, annotating, and note-taking, which might also be considered writing, tho' i'd like to develop a habit of doing research directly into the computer, so i don't have to filter through post-it notes at a later date. i've had success doing this with précis-writing, tho' it's not yet instinctive enough a practice. "writing" proper i'd like to devote to synthesis and analysis and more creative activities: 22 hours remaining)
+ 3 hrs./weekly supervisory meetings (maybe ambitious, but i would like to be working closely with my supervisor[s], either supporting their work through my collaboration, or discussing my own progress with them. i'd like to institute this early and make it an ongoing activity... i guess the challenge is getting my supervisor to buy in: 19 hours remaining)
+ 6-9 hrs./weekly in-class, coursework (this may include course audits, unaccredited coursework. ideally i'll be taking two in a semester, tho' three courses may be a necessity at times. in any case, i'll say 9 hours to give myself some space to do readings without cutting too deeply into my own research: 10 hours remaining)
+ 7 hrs./weekly peer meetings (the formal side of socializing, this would include TA development activities, participation in grad student association meetings, peer presentations of work-in-progress, local symposiums/panels/etc., gallery openings, and so on. i've averaged an hour per day on this, tho' it'll likely cluster: 3 hours remaining)

So the grand total is 57 hours, meaning I have 3 to spare! Of course I'm not factoring in transportation in this equation, and 3 hours hardly counts for that. But as a set of upper limits, hopefully that makes sense.

the question now is whether i "enforce" my restrictions, and how do i do it? (apologies in advance for sounding so anal in this section, but i'm just trying to work a problem through.) for example: say there's a number of interesting peer activities going on in a week that would take me above my alloted 7 hours: do i say no to them? do i cut into my reading or writing or some other time to attend? do i "bank" hours from week to week, or does each week start as a blank slate? how do i determine when things need to change—do i redo this weekly plan every few months or so?

many questions. i only hope by addressing them like i have here that i'm working toward a viable solution rather than a compulsive disorder (the use of the term "self-discipline" in the title makes me feel really squirmy...)

thanks for joining the publicators (we used to be called the applicators)

so the idea was for four of us to develop a support mechanism and platform for exchanging gripes with the process as we went through the task of applying for PhDs.

the whole endeavour proved so successful (although none of us has, as of yet, received word about any scholarships or PhD programs, so the success is entirely subjective), that we decided to continue our collaboration as we try to present and publish our work in a variety of forums.

this blog, then, is a way for each of us to collect and test out our thoughts on the various, multi- and interdisciplinary, and often mutually exclusive topics in which we are interested.

think of it as a kind of Three's Company meets Perfect Strangers meets Golden Girls, although a little more dry since we're talking about academia, but with the potential at least for great slapstick and general amusement...