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Field Post #1

By Natalie J
February 19, 2017 - 14:19
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I have been to my field placement at a science and inquiry based magnet school two times so far. The atmosphere is fairly relaxed and the student body is quite diverse and composed mostly of students of color. I was surprised to see that many students walked into class with earbuds in and phones and laptops out. Most of the students kept these items out throughout the class and some didn’t take off their earbuds even after class had begun. The first class was Anatomy and the second was Bio-Chemistry. Given that I am more of a social science person, I was a bit out of my element and was relying on my memory of these subjects from high school.

Neurodiversity

By jhernan3
February 18, 2017 - 16:56
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I think the theme for this week's readings were a nice continuation of last week's. I was particularly interested by how the theory of Theory of Mind has worked to dehumanize, erase, and attack neurodivergent people, particularly and especially Autistic people. It is such a violent idea, yet scholars have thrived off of it. 

I continue to wonder how academic institutions are built to exclude neurodivergent people, and wonder how those institutions can change to allow greater access. I am not satisfied with the excuse that academia by necessity cannot include neurodivergent people.

Reflections on more reflecting

By m r r
February 16, 2017 - 23:47
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Reflections on reflecting again, always

 

Reflecting on others’ reflections, narratives, orally spoken personal stories, you name it, it’s good that we are continuing to ask questions about the ways we do this. I still feel a gnawing in my mind about the wormhole that is defining all of these words and actions.  Everything we say feels very “meta” yet I know it is all too real, the things we are discussing.

 

Reflection 2/16

By droomes10
February 16, 2017 - 23:36
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February 16th, 2017

 

Our discusion about Frederick Douglass's narrative has stayed with me throughout the week. The part of the discussion about the distance between the writer and the written self was particularly interesting. It reminded me of Timothy Mitchel's 1991 text, Colonising Egypt. The text describes the birth of museums from World Exhibitions and provides a historical analysis of the western gaze. Colonising Egypt has a chapter that focuses on the experiences of an Egyptian delegation sent to Europe in the 19th Century. The text describes how the delegates could not avoid being transformed into exhibitions while walking through Eueopean cities. People would stare at them as if they were artifacts.

On devaluing illiteracy...

By S...
February 16, 2017 - 23:08
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I've been thinking a lot about the implied value that literacy = worth/intelligence/personhood. I think it's safe to say that European/US culture both hold this implied value. Conversely, these societies equate illiteracy with worthlessness/unintelligence/illegitimacy as a person.