Robin Wall Kimmerer's GVSU presentation 11/8/23
Robin posed the Indigenous paradigm of nature as "subject" (instead of object) and an ecosystem as a "community of sovereign persons," not a machine model. Animals and plants, etc., as relations/relatives and teachers, and with people pronouns, not "it." Land is not a "resource" (aka "'raw material' that we can use to make something that we want" or "property" that we can purchase with "exclusive rights to its use" and that "we can choose to wreck," or "capital," a "commodity, a warehouse full of raw materials." Instead, nature is "Mother Earth" and "provides gifts like water, oxygen, pollination, fertile soil..." and we have an obligation to take care of her lovingly. "From an Anishinaabe perspective, land is our identity. Land is who we are. We're inseparable from the land, in our stories, in our bodies, in our spirits. Land is thought of as our sustainer, the ones who care for us and gives us every single thing that we need, because the land is not only our home but the home of our more-than-human/non-human relatives as well." (aka land as residence) "Land is our connection to our ancestors, who brought us to the place, who kept this place for us. It is also a connection to the ancestors that we will become. We will be ancestors of this place - we have to be accountable to the future. Land is understood as the teacher, the library, as the source of knowledge. Land is understood as the pharmacy- it's the healer of ills that are physical, emotional, spiritual. This is where our wellness comes from, through the 'plant medicine.' When you take that [Anishinaabek] word apart, it means 'the strength of the earth.' ... Land is enspirited, land is our home; land is never the place to which we claim rights, that we have purchased. Rather, it is the place for which we accept moral responsibility, for all of the gifts that are around us, because the land is sacred. ... When you look at these 2 maps...do you feel more at home with one of these ways of knowing?" [Yes, I always have!] "Do we get a choice about which of these frameworks we [use to] think about land? ... We can choose to live as if the earth is a sacred gift, or we could choose to live as if it were a warehouse full of natural resources. We have that sovereignty, to decide which way we want to think, and that can make all of the difference. Is the land primarily a source of belongings, or is it a source of belonging? ... We can bring together the tools [of Western science and Indigenous knowledge] to care for the earth. ... 'two-eyed' seeing or using two lens ... to see how to care for each other using these 2 paradigms of knowledges." Also, the UN published a report in 2019 saying that "Biodiversity decline is lowest in indigenous lands." ... "We are in dire need of cultural evolution, away from the idea of always taking to always giving. For that, we need intellectual diversity [or] pluralism.... We can't let our universities be intellectual monocultures any longer. We have to defend biodiversity, genetic diversity, species diversity, landscape diversity, and knowledge diversity as well, in our sustainability efforts. ... Spurring the imagination for sustainability solutions with an alternative to the dominant materialist worldview. ... to be guided by Indigenous science ... to answer the question of 'What does the Earth ask of us?, and how will we give it?' [with our own gifts: gratitude, justice, science, arts, restoration, farms, policy, regenerative policies, respect, landcare, education] ... Raise a garden, raise good children, and raise a ruckus! ... We are given gifts and the responsibility to use those gifts ... the birds were given the gift of that gorgeous song and also the responsbility to raise our hearts up in the morning and sing the sun up. Gifts and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin. So to be an educated person, is to know what their own gifts are and how to give them to the world. ... We live in a time when everybody's gift, to one another and to the earth needs to be given. How do we reciprocate the gifts of the earth? ...With the gift of language.... [To use] 'it' is to demean you, take away your personhood, disrespect you. You are just a thing. In English grammar, we never say it to our own species, and we say it to everyone else. ... Objectification...is important if you want to control the world. This is why [Indigenous languages are] dangerous - a language of animacy, of relatives. Can you inflict great harm on the land if you call the land your relative? You can't. But if you call it 'it,' you get a free pass. = Linguistic imperialism. ... We [Potawatomi] hear the blue jay with a different verb than we hear an airplane, because one of them is alive. One of them is a being, and we do them the respect of recognizing - animacy in the language. ... For living beings, we honor them and speak of their lives because they are persons, because they are our relatives. ... Is there medicine for the English language? ... Consequences of objectification = moral exclusion = we don't have to care about you as much because you are just a thing. ... What would be the word for a being? Bmaadiziaki = a good being of the earth [akii = the earth].... Could we use this pronoun, our relative, kii, is eating berries? Kii is having a feast, not 'it.' Could we have a new pronoun that does not 'it' the world? ... He, she, kii, and it - we're simply expanding our range of pronouns so that we could speak respectfully of the living world. [me: "key?" Why not "per"?] ... Prounouns as the revolution, as a way to reanimate the world, and uses language for healing. One of those ways [to pluralize in Anishinaabemowin] is to add an 'n.' Earth beings plural = kin, e.g., 'Our kin are flying south for the winter.' ... Change our way...to one of inclusion, kinship, and love for our relatives, not call our relatives 'a warehouse full of commodities.' Indigenous languages as a pathway for the healing of the earth. ... The Rights of Nature movement: creating a new system of jurisprudence with roots in an ancient paradigm. September 2019: The Klamath River now has the legal rights of a person in Yurok tribal constitution, to be a sovereignty, to be a being, a legal being, a person [instead of a corporation having those rights]. ... White Earth Ojibwe recognized the rights of manoomin...means you can go to court...manoomin sued the oil companies, the pipeline companies. This evidences the power of Indigenous languages and science and worldview to fundamentally change the world that we live in...and it is an invitation...to make a choice about how you want to live. In alliance with our relatives, or to continue to treat them as 'it' and natural resources. I think it's safe to say that our future depends on how we answer that question, 'What does the earth ask of us?'"
Q&A:
A: "There is a beautiful, respectful, coherent way to be in the world. ... It's really important to think about creating it for ourselves, not appropriating it from somebody else. ... is a deeply human way to be, so it's a reclaiming that humanity."
Q: How can research best be used as a tool to power our humanity?
A: Needs to be community-led, a co-creation of the research question, approach, guided by community needs and values. Too often we've had an extractive approach to knowledge - we go in to take knowledge ... the most important thing is to have cultural humility, to listen to people, put on those glasses and look at the world differently.
A: Biden issued a memo that says Indigenous knowledge must now be elevated in all federal land management decision making. ... This is inter-generational work...just as our ancestors made the way for us, we make the way for others, so you have to take the long view. Having said that, though, 'be patient' does not mean 'be complacent.' It means, 'work hard.'
A: Do we have to undermine 'certainty' to have a worldview shift? Yes, we do.
Q: How should we think about our relatives who are invasive species? ...a being that is reducing biodiversity
A: I've had a lot of time to think about this while I'm weeding garlic mustard out of my garden and the woods. ... Plants are our teachers, beings with their own purpose...I'm troubled by the knee-jerk reaction that says, 'Get rid of it.' Colonizing species who come here and take over...it can be a problem! ... Ask the plants why they are here, what they want, what are your responsibilities? And then recognize that the plants are doing really well there, [and ask why]...so do we blame [the invasive plants] or do we clean up the water? Let's think about what those plants are telling us about our own relationship to place. As I'm weeding garlic mustard, I try to be gentle and respectful and tell them, 'I'm not trying to exterminate you. You can have the ditches and the hedgerows, but you can't have my trillium woods.' One of our jobs as human people is to help create balance.
Re: eating when the whole world is your relative/s: do it honorably - ask permission, don't take too much, give something back. Those lives are a gift to me and what do I do about that?
Re: seeing the being in an industrial world: it takes an act of imagination to remember who this is and try to apply the principles of an honorable harvest to everything that we take from the earth. ... Convenience is a disease of our society. We want things fast and we don't care about the consequences. ... Those things save us time and end of costing us quality of life.
Spring, Robin, & Faye Yang. Untangling Ethnoracial Underrepresentation in Adland: The Role of Political Bias and the Potential of Multicultural Education. Advertising & Society Quarterly, Vol. 24, Issue 2, Summer 2023. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/21/article/905725
9/15/23
Hi Robin and Faye,
I enjoyed reading your co-authored article, and congratulations on its publication! I had seen the videos before and think they’re really effective – why not use those in classes, too?
I also think that part of hiring practices (and teaching students about equitable hiring practices) should include the following (we do this in the Libraries):
- Put every required and preferred qualification into a spreadsheet for evaluating candidates and have the committee discuss the rubric (e.g., possible points or if it’s a Y/N answer)
- Put every required document into the spreadsheet and assign points for the items that need to be addressed (e.g., in the cover letter, address X, Y, Z = 3 points).
- Make sure the job ad matches your spreadsheet before it’s posted!
- Decide ahead of time what you’ll do when a candidate looks excellent but didn’t submit a required doc. Contact them and ask them to submit it, or not?
- Make sure the interview questions directly relate to the required and preferred qualifications.
We do our first interviews via Zoom with cameras turned off – so essentially a phone call via the Zoom platform, to help us with listening beyond the impressions that sight gives us. In this, we try to mimic as best we can the process of music, which has candidates playing behind a screen.
FTLC Conference on Teaching & Learning, 2023
Keynote:
James M. Lang was the keynote speaker and talked about teaching as "the art of directing attention." He said that our brains love novelty and we're information-seeking creatures. Foraging for food has become foraging for info. Our
attention cycles: we pay attention and drift away every 30 seconds or
so. When watching video lectures, viewers will watch a maximum of 9
minutes but 0-6 minutes is the optimal length. Paying attention is exhausting!
Distraction is the norm, and attention is an achievement. Multiple steps are required to ensure attention. We can ask students what helps them pay attention.
To gather attention at the beginning of a class session: greet each student as they enter, ask about their progress with the assignment and if they have a topic in mind - then ask permission to call on them and use their topic to demo searching process. Disciplinary courses can use a "microbe of the day" activity, but what would work for us as an ice-breaking activity?
Calling someone's name activates their attention. What about providing students with heavy-duty pre-folded name tent and having them write their 1st name, then hang it over the top of the monitor? But don't "cold call" - ask them to write their questions, comments, etc., before we ask them to speak.
For English, a poem has "attention spots": opening line, closing line, detailed imagery, metaphors, and any unusual language or syntax. What are information literacy "attention spots?"
A religion class had students read the same Bible verse every week and write a 2-page essay about what they noticed. What in information literacy is worth revisiting every week?
Physical presence draws attention: move around and invite students into conversation.
To close a class with attention: Ask how the session is relevant to students, personally or in their community? Or, how does what they learned connect to another course they have?
Incorporating Native American/Indigenous Knowledge, Voices, and Perspectives: An interactive workshop with GVSU Native American Advisory Committee Members (Julia Mason, Rob Larsin, Patty Bolea
There is no equity between the 12 federally-recognized tribes in MI, e.g., northern tribes' casinos don't benefit the individual tribal members.
Issues that Indigenous students face: identity crisis, high suicide rate, missing/murdered Native women and children, and the profs/univ may not honor the fact that ceremonies are religious observances and so they should provide accomodation.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants. Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Skywoman Falling. Ancestral gardener for communal well-being of all creation vs. Eve. Gift economy - shared gifts, reciprocity, our lives and spirit depend on the land. Look to other beings for guidance and examples.
Council of Pecans. "Nut trees...produce at unpredictable intervals...cycle known as mast fruiting" (14). All of the trees in a state produce in the same year - they act as a collective, communal generosity, in a gift economy. How do they communicate? Type of weather, wind carrying pollen = pheromones, fungal network.
The Gift of Strawberries. "A gift comes to you through no action of your own, free, having moved toward you without your beckoning. It is not a reward; you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it" (23-24). Gifts create relationships, bonds between people; the "currency...is...reciprocity" (28) and responsibility. Something sacred cannot be sold. The more it's shared, the greater its value - land, for example, unlike a "property economy" (27).
Asters and Goldenrod. "Science was not about beauty" (41) - except that that is exactly how quantum physicists and mathematicians choose theories - by their beauty. "Plants were reduced to objects" (42). About botany - "Yes, I have learned the names of all the bushes, but I have yet to learn their songs" (43). The way Robin describes her university botanical science profs and her learning reminds me of the "Biology of Plants" course I took as part of Gen Ed at WMU in the 1980's. It divorced science from the environment, the beauty, and amazingness of plants. Plants were treated as micro-cellular, chemical structures rather than as whole living beings in their own right, with preferences for where they grow and whom their neighbors are.
"Science [separates] the observer and the observed" (42) - now we know that the observer and observed cannot be separated - each affects the other (how the observer observes determines the form that the observed takes!).
Complementary colors like yellow and purple - "putting them together makes each more vivid; just a touch of one will bring out the other" (45). "Growing together, both receive more pollinator visits than they would if they were growing alone.... It's a question of science, ...art, and...beauty...both material and spiritual" (46). She asks if science and traditional knowledge can be complementary and reciprocal, "a new way of being in the world," a "beautiful path" for the "whole human being" (47). YES.
Learning the Grammar of Animacy. Listening to the sounds of nature - "we are never alone" (48).
Anishinabowin languages are 70% verbs, versus English, which is 70% nouns (53). Bodewadmimwin (Potawatomi) divides the world into animate and inanimate. Every part of speech is developed according that idea (53). "The language is a mirror for seeing the animacy of the world, the life that pulses through all things.... We use the same words to address the living world as we use for our family" (55). I.e., plants, animals, rocks, mountains, water, fire, places, songs, drums, stories (55-56). "Maybe a grammar of animacy could lead us to whole new ways of living in the world..." (57-8).
Amy and I speak of birds as people.
The Three Sisters
What kinds of corn, beans, and squash work? Heirloom varieties of corn or popcorn, climbing or pole beans, either winter (including pumpkins) or summer squash. The Three Sisters of Indigenous American Agriculture strives to "elevate Indigenous authors and practitioners whenever possible." Wikihow has more info on planting.
The Honorable Harvest
"Wild leeks and wild ideas are in jeopardy. We have to transplant them both and nurture their return..." (201). The following are some of the native flowers we're trying to encourage in our yard:
- 2 American Winterberries Ilex verticillata
- Bee Balm / Bergamot (purple) Monarda fistulosa
- Bee Balm / Oswego Tea (red) Monarda didyma
- Big Bluestem tallgrass Andropogon gerardii
- Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
- Common Milkweed Asclepias syriaca
- Compass Plant Silphium laciniatum
- Cut-leaved coneflowers Rudbeckia laciniata
- Daisy Fleabane Erigeron annuus
- Dutchman's Breeches Dicentra cucullaria
- False Sunflower Heliopsis helianthoides
- Fringed Bluestar Amsonia ciliata
- Great Blue Lobelia Lobelia siphilitica
- Hyssop: Purple Giant (aka Anise Hyssop or Licorice Mint) Agastache rugosa & scrophulariifolia
- Indian Grass Sorghastrum nutans
- Jack-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema triphyllum
- Joe-pye Weed Eupatorium maculatum
- Marsh Blazing-Star Liatris spicata
- Michigan Lily Lilium michiganense
- Missouri Ironweed Vernonia missurica
- New England asters Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
- Pokeweed Phytolacca americana
- Tickseed Coreopsis Coreopsis palmata
- Trillium
- Turtleheads Chelone
- Wild Blue Phlox Phlox divaricata
- Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum
- Wild Ginger Asarum canadense
- Wild Petunia Ruellia humilis
Old-Growth Children
After clear-cutting or fire in a forest, "early successional plant species arrive...known as opportunistic, or pioneer, species" (283). "[M]any are berry makers" (284) like blackberries. Reading Braiding Sweetgrass has made me more thoughtful when I walk in the woods and fields. For example, at Blandford Nature Center (BNC), I noticed that there was an abundance of low-growing blackberries this summer, and asked my naturalist friend Bill Breyfogle, "Could they be responding to the drought, as if a fire had gone through?" He replied, "I would guess that the blackberries are dew berries. There are many varieties of blackberries and dew berries are a low growing vine-like kind" (personal communication, 7/21/23). I used the University of Michigan Herbarium to look up dewberry, blackberry, and raspberry. They are all Rubus: R. flagellaris is Northern Dewberry, R. allegheniensis is Common Blackberry, and R. occidentalis is Black Raspberry. Only the raspberries occur at home, but all 3 are in the BNC. I also asked Mr. Breyfogle about the twisted, dead trees in the area of BNC that I call the "haunted forest" and he guessed that they were Catalpas (C. speciosa), "planted 100 years ago by farmers to be used as fence posts...they don't rot very fast." This stand was not harvested, and there are a few still living. Their flowers (credit: USGS via Wikipedia) are amazing.
Little Voice by Ruby Slipperjack (Coteau Books, 2001)
Part of a series designed to provide Canadian children (of neither French nor English descent) with novels mirroring their own life experiences. Little Voice is set in northern Ontario, and Ruby Slipperjack is an Ojibwe writer/artist/hunter of the Eabametoong First Nation, Fort Hope Indian Band. It's when Ray (Little Voice) stays with her grandmother that she learns traditional Anishinaabek ways of living in a small community, like helping each other without being asked - but just seeing what needs to be done, not knocking on a door but making noise outside and then entering, why people avoid her grandmother except when they need a midwife, and why she feels so isolated (she will also become a midewiiwin).
I learned from this excellent book that in Anishinaabe culture, it's very rude to ask questions, especially of strangers, but also for learners of their teachers/elders. Indigenous students may have trouble asking questions or asking for help. How to address this in library instruction sessions, and mentoring? In China, it conveys disrespect, implying that the teacher wasn't perfect. Is the same true for other Asian or Indigenous peoples?
E.g., "In the university culture, asking questions conveys respect by showing that you were paying attention and are curious about an aspect of the topic. Also, asking personal questions is seen as a sign of interest in the other person and that you'd like to get to know them better."
6/7 Music Collection Management
I'd like to know what the objectives and assignments are in Music and how the Music and Gen Ed students complete their assignments and study in music courses.
E.g., do they have to read a score (sheet music) and listen to or watch a recording at the same time? How do they get these materials (web – if so, what specific sites? library)? How do they use the materials (look at printed sheet music while watching/listening to a music performance; look at a digital/online score while watching/listening to a music performance)? Do they toggle between tabs if they’re using all online tools?
Also, what might make any of this easier for them?
How do I find this out?
Answers may help me make decisions about physical vs digital scores (e.g., Music Online: Classical Scores Library via Hathi Trust), CDs, etc.
how (Music and Gen Ed) students complete their assignments
- Search the literature - done - see below
- ask music faculty (e.g., Beth G)
- look at syllabi & assignments
- talk to students?
- examine libguides
- ask music librarians via MLA-L - done
Lit search result:
"To compare the library holdings to the performances being given at Rowan University, the author completed the following steps:
(1) Gathered the recital programs,
(2) Entered information from the programs into a spreadsheet,
(3) Compared the selections performed to the holdings in the collection,
(4) Analyzed the data based on instrumentation and year of the most recent edition in the collection, and
(5) Used this data to assess the collection, communicate with faculty, and order new scores for the collection" (p.5).
"Fifth, and finally, the author ordered selected titles to supplement the collection, prioritizing pieces performed multiple times, pieces for underrepresented instruments based on the analysis, and composers from underrepresented groups" (p.7).
"Multiple performances of pieces from these editions [Schirmer, International, Dover] at least merited a consideration for purchasing newer editions or more scholarly editions of these pieces if the budget allowed" (p.9).
"The list served as a helpful collection development aid for the librarian." ... It "also suggests that repertoire selected was at the correct performance level for a primarily undergraduate student body, and would likely be used if available in the collection." ... However, the list "mostly represents pieces performed in junior and senior recitals, which misses many of the pieces learned and performed earlier in students’ lessons" (p.11).
"More detailed questions about repertoire and student usage of collections may provide more insight into areas that need developing and whether students do truly need their repertoire in library collections. Discussions with faculty about their personal collections and student usage may also be of interest in deciding where librarians prioritize spending for their collections" (p.12).
Johnson, Kirstin Dougan. The Changing Face of Academic Music Media Collections in
Response to the Rise of Online Music Delivery. Notes, Volume 77, Number 2, December 2020, pp. 191-223. https://doi.org/10.1353/not.2020.0092
Corinne Forstot-Burke, “Turn Down for What: A Study of Physical and Streamed Media Usage at the University of Kansas Libraries,” Music Reference Services Quarterly 22, no. 4, (2019): 189–208.
use of physical media formats ... 85% drop in cd circulation and a 77% drop in DVD circulation from 2009–2017, & a significant downward trend in the use of the library’s subscription streaming audio databases.
Joe Clark and Amanda Evans, “Are Audio Reserves Still Relevant in Libraries?” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, and Electronic Reserves 25, no. 1/2 (2015): 1–14.
YouTube, Spotify, & even Naxos preferred over cds.
Joe Clark, Sheridan Stormes, and Jonathan Sauceda, “Format Preferences of Performing Arts Students,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 44, no. 5 (2018): 620–26.
Students access audio through non-library streaming sources (amount of content available, convenience, and good user experience. Students indicated that they had experienced problems with library streaming apps such as Naxos)
Joe Clark, Jonathan Sauceda, and Sheridan Stormes, “Faculty Format Preferences in the Performing Arts: A Multi-Institutional Study,” College & Research Libraries 80, no. 4 (2019): 450–69.
faculty instead pointed students to non-library resources like YouTube and Spotify. ... Although faculty expressed a preference for library resources due to quality and reliability, the majority reported using freely available media from the internet in classrooms and teaching, citing convenience, speed, ease of access, breadth of content (both in type and in going beyond the library’s holdings)....
—the ability to easily access content from anywhere tops even superior sound quality found in physical formats
Let's have shared consortial media & score retention & repositories (Carolyn Doi and Sean Luyk, “Sounds of Home: A Survey of Local Music Collection Management Practices in Canadian Libraries,” CAML Review 47, no. 1 (2019), 11–47, http://dx.doi.org/10.25071/1708-6701.40344)
Decided to focus on keeping the materials that are used (or reference) in the open stacks (M3, items for MUS 119, things that have circulated) and ok the rest to go to the ASRS. Shelby asked me to give a list of things to go into the ASRS - I think Patrick could do that.
"citations honor intellectual property, demonstrate the ... relational nature of scholarship, demonstrate value as academic currency..., and lend credibility and authority"
To me, considering Indigenous ways of teaching and learning, the most important part of this is that citations show the relationships between scholars' ideas, including the conversation the learner has with those sources. Citing is a way of showing respect to one's teachers, for any format (e.g., oral, written, performed, artistic) teachings. The rest is "property economy" as Robin Wall Kimmerer calls it in Braiding Sweetgrass (p. 27), although pointing to more inclusive practices can be helpful, too (Chenevey's references 9-14).
Cool article about what the orchestra librarians do, how they do it, timeline for their work; relationships with music artistic directors, conductors, and section heads; how a search is done to find a new librarian - similar to any orchestra member.
4/19-4/20 LILAC Conference, Cambridge, UK
Conference attendees were not only from the UK, but from Europe and the U.S. I met many librarian scholars in person, including Andrew Whitworth, who contributed a chapter to Informed Learning Applications: Insights from Research and Practice, the edited book that resulted from my 2017 sabbatical in Australia.
Sessions that were particularly informative were:
- Mary O'Hara, "Extending the impact of one-shot teaching interventions through reflective practice. Librarians should put single session instruction into context for students with focused questions, helping them look: backward to recall what they already know, inward to the current situation, and forward to using their previous knowledge in a new way.
- McKinney, P. Peacock, C. & Cox, A. "The information literacy practices of LGBTQ+ students' self-tracking: attitudes to data collection, data privacy and data sharing." Information literacy could enhance LGBTQ+ users' empowerment in achieving health goals, and in understanding of data privacy issues and inaccuracies (e.g., fitness apps are very binary and male-oriented, record data inconsistently and incorrectly, and report to social media).
- Ball, C., Peach, T., Pennington, D. & Price, L. "Are referencing styles an oppressive information practice?" Reference/citation/bibliography systems are based on Western norms and Roman characters. This is problematic for Chinese names that may be transliterated in different ways or when transliterated, stand for many different Chinese names. Forcing names into Roman characters can be dehumanizing, e.g., determining gender is problematic for Westerners looking at East Asian names; Asian names are often transliterated as beginning with "X," "Y," or "Z" and are cited less often than names beginning with "A," "B," or "C." These are some of the factors prevent us from having universal author records that we can share between computer systems. A different Western effect comes from the notions that an idea can be owned and can be attributed to a single person. How could we create a system that could be as flexible as needed and yet have a minimal effect on users of the system?
I want to use some of the questions from Mary O'Hara to frame library instruction sessions: having students answer anonymously, e.g., "Beginning of class period: Share 1 tip for finding library resources that works for you." Middle of session: "Think/pair/share how to put your new knowledge into practice " End of session: Identify next steps for your research (e.g., practice X or review Y or make an appointment or meet with a Research Consultant or Librarian Z).
Corin Peacock from the UK and a Dutch librarian, Nathaniël Linssen from Leiden University, and I traded contact information so we can keep in touch about nonbinary and transgender issues in higher education and academic libraries.
Many sessions simply reinforced ideas that I already teach and discuss with colleagues. It takes a community.
4/12/23 "Let's Talk about Sappho!" Diane Rayor
Rayor, Diane J., trans. & ed. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2023.
Sappho was famous and popular in her own time - about 600 BCE - but her works were lost over time - censorship by monks and crumbling papyrus. Papyrus survivied in desert places but the Isle of Lesbos was damp. Now, infrared technology lets us see more in the papyrus fragments than ever before, and there will be more Sappho available in future years. There are also fragments on potshards, in books quoting her work as an example of dialect, etc. Her poems sound very intimate but were all performed in public with a lyre. She was aristocratic, but no father or husband were ever named in any work, including scholars' works. She is the earliest Greek woman poet whose work survives. In translating Sappho's poetry, Diane looked for words used elsewhere, for context, like "peedos" which means "child" without specifying gender, but Diane chose "girl" in her new translation of #102, having a new understanding of Sappho.
On Lesbos, it seems like women had more free time and flexibility during Sappho's time. There's a lot of erasure in the scholarship about her, and bias - e.g., the idea that the "girls" were Sappho's students and/or that she trained them for marriage (as in Colette's writing, based on earlier, male scholarship). But Sappho's words are clearly addressed to females, her poetry for females. There is a whole community of women in the poems caring for each other.
Kate Reading did professional recordings of the poems and they're freely available from Cambridge Univeristy Press!
4/12/23 Student Scholars Day
"The College Experience: An Expose of Challenges Faced by Indigenous University Students in Nicaragua" presentation by Bradyn Mills [Brady who worked in the UL for several years; PR major]
Indigenous students may not have any Spanish prior to enrolling but are expected to learn in Spanish, including the vocabulary of a technical field. University may be a two-day journey from their home [village]: in a canoe for 12 hours the first day, then in a bus for 12 hours the second day, and that transportation isn't covered by the university. Tuition, housing, and a little food is covered, but nothing else. Students go from a rural to an urban life and experience a vastly different lifestyle, values, and religion/worship. They experience a lot of racism. 100% of them plan to return home after they graduate, from a sense of love, cultural pride, and the wish to help their community.
"This year, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship is collaborating with the Chicago Field Museum (CFM) to host a panel of museum staff, scholars, and community members. Moderated by Levi Rickert, Editor-in-chief of Native News Online, the panel explores the process the Field Museum took in creating the Native Voices exhibit as an example of decolonizing and the importance of storytelling. Panelists will discuss how researchers collaborated with Native and Indigenous communities and incorporated research and artifacts collected from a western and colonial methodology to reimagine the process of museum curation."
Panelists: Alaka Wali (A) (from India originally), Curator emerita of North American Anthropology in the Science and Education Division of the Field Museum; Karen Ann Hoffman (KA) (Oneida Nation in WI), a Haudenosaunee raised beadwork artist whose work appears in the exhibition; Dr. Eli Suzukovich III (E) (Little Shell Band of Chippewa-Cree), Research scientist in the Negaunee Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum, working within the North American Collections curation unit; and Jason Wesaw (J) (Turtle Clan, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Multi-disciplinary artist.
Alaka: How could we address trauma, re-envision the collections, and collaborate to let the Indigenous peoples have power?
Karen Ann: Important Indian business! The Museum shifted its worldview to work with them, shared power, learned to treat art and artifacts as living, breathing beings.
Jason: Grew up with traditional knowledge keepers. He recasts traditions into contemporary work. The "Native Truths" exhibit is the story of this country.
Eli: Each object tells a story, so the exhibits have fewer objects than in the past. They curated about 15 years of exhibits in 4 years. They reversed the traditional decor to have white ceilings and wood floors (sourced from the Menominee Tribal lumber company, now a "preferred contractor" for the CFM). Labels are in tribal languages! The CFM is still building and has ongoing relationships with the tribes who worked on the exhibit.
Alaka: CFM didn't start with an idea of what they wanted to do, but went to the American Indian Center to begin to establish relationships. We can't separate research from the personal impact on people and the self. CFM let people into the collection to handle artifacts the way they wanted to.
Karen Ann: Felt trepidation until another Native woman called and invited her to visit her home, and then introduced her to Alaka. Conversatons with CFM were based on "yes" and how she wanted her pieces treated, e.g., use the proper gender for a piece instead of "it."
Eli: They found a person who claimed to be Native but wasn't. They removed the piece from the CFM and put up a sign about this on the case. CFM admitted the mistake, which makes it ok for smaller museums to do so too. The Native American Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 is what makes this a crime, and the Act is being revised now (accepting comments). Karen Ann: Use the Indian Arts and Crafts Board directory!
Jason: Are we familiar with the term "Pretendian"? Indicates those who benefit from falsifying their family histories/ancestry in order to speak as a Native American when they're not.
Alaka: On progress versus process - is the exhibition done or will it evolve? The latter! Can't finish with an exhibit but can continue to work with Native communities and use the CFM's resources to do so, e.g., supporting reclaiming land, recontextualizing the presentation of digital objects by telling the history and stories that surround them - giving them a local context. Indigenizing the care of the collections.
Eli: The old exhibit never changed, for 70 years. The current one will change, e.g., the exhibit on lacrosse is complex, involves multiple tribes, takes time, and prompts new questions. CFM commissioned items instead of borrowing them.
Q&A answers:
A: "Warrior Women" was the first exhibit curated by a Native American woman. KA: The mundane is where the sacred happens. J: Communities are subcultures within society. When in the "outside world" have to be protective of their identity, but art starts conversations and deeper examination of painful things so people can come to peace sharing. KA: Know that Indian people are in the future tense. E: Won't see what you expect [in the exhibit] but take it in and feel. J: [The exhibit is a ] conversation starter to dispel preconceptions. Each band has a different history. A: In a world of chaos and turmoil, what will give you hope to create change? Feel power to accomplish change. KA: [How to establish a relationship?] Lead with love: wash dishes, weed someone's garden, carry firewood.
3/20/23 Panel Discussion with Dori Tunstall: "Decolonizing Design, Academia, Business"
Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She is a recognized leader in the decolonization of art and design education. With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.
My notes:
Dori: Decolonizing means putting Indigenous first and talking about the land.
Universities hire "super tokens" - we need cluster hires instead.
Dwayne Tunstall, CLAS Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence: First, you have to see yourself as living in a colonized nation. Will we make things better?
Anmol Shrivastava, Visiting Professor, VMA: Move away from the concepts of "high" or "right" design!
Artists Creating Together (ACT) leader: Shaping spaces comes down to power. Design incudes systems, experiences, designing with people.
Vinicius Lima, VMA: Successful design isn't "rules-based."
Dori: We have to be open to new/other ways - conditions of possibility. Different relationships move people away from causing harm and spark imagination.
Dwayne: Administration is responsible for how structures harm/oppress people.
Vinicius: Design means exploring a problem, not only finding a solution, and is never really finished.
Artists Creating Together (ACT) leader: We're all afraid of "doing it wrong." But we admit we're learning (& it's a process). What are the repercussions of our actions? Get used to admitting mistakes.
Dori: What we do and make has power. Morality and ethics underlie making things manifest. Have to live in a good way to not corrupt the universe.
How do we recruit and retain faculty of color? Change the criteria: BIPOC faculty hires could be academics OR practitioners who know how to disseminate but not necessarily in scholarly ways (could be trade pubs, for e.g.). Are they connected to the community? Don't have to have PhDs. Hire in clusters/cohorts, which supports community and culture, so they're not alone. These practices literally changed the complexion of the faculty at Ontario College of Art and Design University. Emphasize service as giving back to their community. They are not super tokens. Have a subculture of caring - the whole institution is accountable. Urgency is a white supremacist notion! Practice caring, compassionate flexibility instead. Decolonial love liberates us.
This event challenged my comfort zone - the film was about African American transgender women going about their lives in Detroit - it was funny and poignant - but there were trans cultural things happening that I didn't understand (I wished for captions). Ahya Simone answered questions from the event coordinator and then from the audience. She played and sang her original compositions on the harp.
Walking back to my office through the Kirkhof Center, some of the African American student athletes from the Writing 130 class I worked with this semester called out to me. They wanted to connect, get my name again, my office location, and when they could come in for help. Pretty amazing and wonderful feeling.
