Anne Dalke's blog

“My Struggle” has set off a debate about which genre it properly belongs to. The original Norwegian version put the word “novel” on the title page, implying a certain distancing from the real events the book portrays, but that designation has been removed from the American edition, a decision that Mr. Knausgaard attributed to his American publisher, Archipelago Books.

“It was a conscious choice not to label the book for the reader,” Jill Schoolman, the founder of Archipelago, wrote in an e-mail. “I feel that ‘the project’ dwells comfortably between (and embraces both) fiction and memoir. (Aren’t they always inextricably entwined?) Why try to define or label the work?”

--from He Says a Lot, For a Norweigan.  Books. The New York Times (June 18, 2012)

the notification system...

Let's talk about re-entry? See this, from Brent Staples, A Fair Shot @ a Job, NYTimes (April 21m 29012):
According to a startling 2011 report from the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, about 90 percent of companies are using criminal background checks in hiring decisions and about 65 million people have criminal records. The group found that companies of all sizes routinely deny people with records any chance to establish their qualifications, even for entry-level jobs like warehouse worker. These blanket exclusion policies flout the E.E.O.C. rules. They also ignore research showing that many offenders who stay out of trouble for even a brief period after their original crimes present little or no risk to employers.

(when you drop by to post on Sunday evening) to include a link to whatever text, images or videos or audios you've been using to "set the scene" for our class meetings. Thanks!

Wil Franklin just shared with me a rather remarkable New Yorker piece by Jonah Lehrer, The Truth Wears Off: Is there something wrong with the scientific method? (December 13, 2010). I urge you all to read it, and bring your reflections to class, or post them in this space...

When dchin and epeck read us And Tango Makes Three on Thursday, I mentioned a webevent, created by a student in the core course in gender studies last semester, which might interest you all: it's about Making Sense of the "Gay Penguin" Controversy, and it questions the wisdom of "anthropomorphising animals to contribute to a conversation about human" behavior.

If you are interested in thinking some more about (and creating new) texts to teach children about gender variance, you might find inspiration in a couple of other projects created for that class; see, for example,
Mommies, Daddies, Families,
A Rainbow of Sex Difference,
The Stories We Tell Ourselves and
A Handbook for the Boy Scouts of America....

Sunday night, along w/ your usual reflections on the week past, please post here three "gender" terms you want to understand better/be able to use. Please tell a brief  'story' about each one: a time you yourself misused the word, or were confused someone else's use, or ....? In other words, tell us why knowing how to use this word matters to you...

How Not to Study Gender in the Middle East

Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed solo performer. Hailed for their humor and passion, Miller's solo theater works have been presented all over North America, Australia, and Europe at such prestigious venues as Yale Repertory Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He is the author of the books SHIRTS & SKIN, BODY BLOWS and 1001 BEDS, which won the 2007 literary prize for best Drama-Theater book from Lambda Literary Foundation. Miller has taught performance in the theater departments at UCLA and at Cal State L.A. He is a founder of two of the most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA.

Deadline to apply:  Rolling deadline. Early applicants will hear starting March 26. Please apply via email to Sharon Ullman at sullman@brynmawr.edu with “Tim Miller Workshop” in the subject-line.