BackStage

Posting from Seattle! Thanks CJ for the great suggestions. I touched Lenin’s finger, climbed on the troll, and bought some great fruit at Pike’s Place Market (among other activities).

Today I went to the Experimental Music Project in Seattle. It was as good as advertised. There was live music where the musicians traced the roots of American music trends. Attached to EMP is the Science Fiction Museum, which I loved. Just thought I would share this:

Also, not Sci Fi related, but I also came across the following:

I spoke in my broken Spanish to one of the workers who said it was okay for me to take the picture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t much get past “My name is, What is your name, Pleased to meet you” to ask him about his experiences and what type of work they were looking for. He did tell me I had a beautiful name, and I was a little happy I managed to converse with him at all.

So, I’m going to Seattle this weekend. I know some of my regular readers are from this area. Any place I must see?

I know, I have to, by obligation, go to the top of the Space Needle. I’ve been to the top of every other tall structure in this hemisphere, so I’ll finally have a complete set. I’m thinking the fish market is a must. But, outside of watching horrible reruns of Real World Seattle and Fraiser, I have little knowledge of the place. I’m not sure where else I should go.

Update: Read this over at scatterplot.

Well, the ScatterEffect is at it again. I think there is also a Law and Letters Effect, or the BelleEffect, but it led to some interesting commentary on my original post on teaching Race and Ethnicity to undergraduates.

I write about the relationship between teaching discrimination and politics:

“Rather, I would hope, showing the data and evidence that does show that there still exists race discrimination should challenge the assumption that we are meritocracy and that we have equality for all. What you want to DO about it — that’s political. My job is not to answer that question, but give students the tools to answer it themselves.

Anomie, always thought provoking, responds:

Not to hijack the comments thread (maybe this would be better answered in a separate blog post), but what’s your thoughts on displaying your political beliefs in class?

I have a tendency to be upfront about them, but also give the pros and cons of every side to the best of my ability. Based on student evals, I seem to do that fine. They know what I think but they don’t feel like I’m pushing that belief on them. (I ask at the end of the semester to be sure).

But some people argue you should keep you own beliefs out of the class. Present the facts and the political attitudes toward how those facts should be dealt with (and the meaning behind them: i.e., is there inequality because of racism or because white people are just plain better/harder working/etc.?), but be agnostic regarding which answer you side with.

I take the more open approach, much like a qualitative researcher would be expected to state their biases so that the reader could situate their findings, so should the professor state their biases so the student could situate their learning.

But I’m not entirely sure yet…

Me either Anomie. But, perhaps the ScatterEffect and BelleEffect will help us out on this one.

So far, my feelings are to be as open as possible. I cannot be agnositc on statements like:

is there inequality because of racism or because white people are just plain better/harder working/etc.?

because of the evidence that points towards racism and discrimination as the underlying cause of thing such as pay equity issues. To me, that issue is not a political one. It is a social reality. Otherwise, what are you teaching? A series of statistics? Moreover, a series of statistics that does not even include the concept of statistical control?

I am open to being wrong about this. Perhaps it is a political issue. If it is, I would be harder to convince that it should be. But, perhaps even it should be. It seems to me that politics comes in when you argue about what should be done about the underlying social reality — that discrimination exists and results in negative impacts where it works. Whether that means you should have affirmative action programs, Title IX programs, if it is appropriate to work towards equity rather than equailty — I think that is politics.

I have no problems telling my students where I come down on the political issues. In fact, I agree that we should be open about them. I do stress, both verbally and in my grading, that I will not grade based on my political beliefs.

On my original post on Race and Ethnicity, Educatorblog gave the suggestion (and a link to materials) for having a debate in the classroom. I have used this approach before, and really like it. Not only does it work as a classroom activity, but as an assignment as well. I try to stress that there is a big difference between understanding the social reality and coming to conclusions about what should be done about it. I do want students to come to their own decisions on this matter, to form their own ideas about policy and approaches, but want them to do so on solid ground. Meaning, I want them to understand the social reality behind politics.

A paper assignment on say affirmative action can bring this home to students. Have them discuss the social reality, then discuss affirmative action with all its possible benefits and its problems, and then take a position on what they believe about the effectiveness of the policy. Former students of mine can tell you, no matter what position they took (on affirmative action, gender equity in sports, or other assigned issues), they were graded on their argumentation and grasp of concepts. Some of the best papers were those who took the opposite position than I would have. I think the key here is to have a solid grading ruberic — and also transparency surrounding that ruberic. I have had this assignment for three semesters of social problems. Each student does two issues (out of four, they get to pick). So, in total I’ve had over 1200 of these papers that I’ve graded (taking all sides of the issue). Never once has a student accused me of grading unfairly because of my politics. I think it is because I stay as transparent as possible throughout the assignment and grading process.

PhD Comics often are quite succinct in explaining graduate student life. And, this week’s comic is a good explanation for my post today:

And now for some Low Brow entertainment:

Blue sent this to me. Hat tip to The Edge of the American West.

As seen on In the Form of a Question:

Online miniseries from the creators of Firefly (best TV show ever).

Info here. Watch a teaser here.

I know where I’ll be these days:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

Shiny.

Lately I have been obsessed with the ASA job boards. This is for one very solid reason–I must needs find a job. Between looking at postings, looking at the departmental websites, and being terrified that the only job offer I could possibly get would be at a teaching college in Texas (no offense Texans, just the one place I really REALLY don’t think I’d ever want to live), I’ve spent very little time thinking about what to do if I ever DO get a job offer. Thankfully, part of my fellowship includes taking part in seminars on the academy — including how to get a job. Today’s seminar was on Gender and the Academy. While there were several interesting points, there were two that I was most interested in.

1. Letter of Recommendation Writing:

Letters written for males and females differ greatly. As evidence, see this article, abstract below, by Trix and Psenka:

This study examines over 300 letters of recommendation for medical faculty at a large American medical school in the mid-1990s, using methods from corpus and discourse analysis, with the theoretical perspective of gender schema from cognitive psychology. Letters written for female applicants were found to differ systematically from those written for male applicants in the extremes of length, in the percentages lacking in basic features, in the percentages with doubt raisers (an extended category of negative language, often associated with apparent commendation), and in frequency of mention of status terms. Further, the most common semantically grouped possessive phrases referring to female and male applicants (`her teaching,’ `his research’) reinforce gender schema that tend to portray women as teachers and students, and men as researchers and professionals.

One of the speakers (a sociologist who studies inequality in organizations) suggested that in order to handle this occurrence, you should have a frank and open discussion with your letter writers about what you want them to include. Rather than just give them your vita and your statement for the job, give them talking points — the things you would like them to stress. Of course you can’t demand they address these things, but it is beneficial for two reasons: (1) You can get a better letter that includes the information that is most relevant to the job search; and (2) It makes it easier on the letter writer — especially those who are not intimately familiar with your work.

2. Job Negotiation:

Women tend not to negotiate like they should when they are offered a job. Keep in mind, if you ARE offered a job, the place REALLY WANTS YOU. It is a long process to pick a candidate, and if you are the candidate picked, they do have some investment in getting you to accept. This is highly important because of the Matthew Effect. Basically, if you start out with a lower wage or getting little, you will continue to get little as you advance. Women (and anyone, really) who do not negotiate a good and competitive starting salary, will continue NOT to get all they can as the years go on. This is one reason for the discrepancy between men and women in terms of salary (of course, it’s not the ONLY reason by far).

The speakers suggested the book, Women Don’t Ask. I haven’t read this yet, but feel I should in short order, as I am hopefully about to have to do some negotiation in the next few months.

Some pointers:

• Wages: Call the library and find out what recent hirers have gotten from the department that is trying to hire you. Adjust this for inflation. You should be asking for that much to start.
• If you get an offer, call everyone else that you have applied for and let them know that you have an offer on the table. Tell them you were excited about their job opportunity, and want to know where they are in their decision. This is important for many reasons. You may want a different job more. With more than one offer you can play them off each other. Remember THIS IS A NORMAL CONVERSATION TO HAVE with the chair of the department.
• If you can’t negotiate money (and even if you can), there are other things to negotiate for. Partner accommodation, Family Leave, teaching releases, sabbaticals, computers, tenure clock put on hold if you have children, and more. These are options to think about.

The important thing to remember about negotiation is that you can’t get it if you don’t ask. You are not a bitch for asking, but you are an idiot if you don’t. That was my favorite quote of the day.

Just keep telling yourself, they want me here. They WANT ME.

That’s right. I’m dropping out of grad school. Forget that I’m ABD with only one year of school left. I’m dropping out to join the team at National Geographic as a wilderness photographer:

Okay, so maybe I’m full of shit. But, I am absolutely in love with the Northwest. I don’t know how I’m going to return to the Midwest. If it wasn’t for Blue, I may just go renegade, learning sociology by stalking professors here… But, perhaps that’s not such a good idea.

How much of your professional dreams would you give up to live in the region you wanted to?

So, I’ve been gone for a while. I got to my fellowship, and they hadn’t arranged internet for us. So, it’s been spotty. I haven’t been able to write a post, much less read other people’s posts. But, I have done a lot of walking, and have to share this:

Imagine walking on your campus, all you can see is the normal buildings, and you make a turn and BAM you see the hills rolling into the distance. Damn, I love it here.

This campus is by far the most beautiful campus I’ve ever been on in my life. In fact, I’m hard pressed to remember any place I found more beautiful.

As I get settled in, I’ll post more. More to the point, I’ll start reading all of your posts more.

I’m not talking about the statistics*, of which there are many, that indicate that depression is common for graduate students. I’m not talking about the fact that we are in a profession where, according to Gary Alan Fine, 90% of our work will be judged unworthy. Our lack of lives outside of school, our inability to not feel guilty when we aren’t working constantly, our (often well founded) fears that we will not get the jobs we want… What I’m talking about are the unending leave takings that occur.

We enter into grad school, and through out our time as apprentices, we meet amazing professors, some truly inspiring undergraduates, and (perhaps most of all) fellow graduate students who will become our colleagues. And then, year by year, graduation by graduation, these people go away. Often, you are left behind — until, one day, you are the one who leaves.

Today I’m flying to my fellowship. When I get back, several people will be gone. One, at least, I didn’t get to know as well as I would like. The other, I have no words for how much I will miss him. And while I have no doubt we will still see these professors and graduate students at ASA and through travels, still contact them over email with questions and perhaps work together on projects, perhaps exchange cards and telephone calls, we will never again struggle through classes together. Or pass each other in the hallway and remark on how tired the other looks. We will never again be able to stop at each other’s desks and distract each other from getting work done.

Perhaps leave taking is just a part of life. Those of us who have lost loved ones, sometimes way too early and in circumstances that are almost more difficult than the losing itself, are constantly aware of this loss. Academia seems, to me, to heighten loss. It’s inevitable, year after year. And, I imagine it continues as we become professors and meet students who we will mentor and watch grow. Teach them all we can, and watch them leave. Not that there is not joy in this as well, but… it’s depressing.

In high school, I had a group of three friends who were incredibly important to me (not the only friends who were/are… but speaking of this one group in particular). Each was a different year in school (I was a freshman when the oldest was a senior). Each year, one of us left. In order to keep contact, we play Book of Questions over email. This has continued off and on now for around 11 years. We have gone through marriages (oddly, no kids), divorces, deaths of parents, graduations, new jobs — in short, from being 14 to being 29 (for me–add four years for the oldest). I think we’ve been through the book three times. It’s interesting to watch how our answers change. But, throughout all of this, it has highlighted to me as much as we try to stay in contact, our daily absence has made it impossible in any true nature. I wasn’t there when my friend went through her divorce. I wasn’t able to be there when her mother died (except via email), or when she married her wife. I wasn’t there when my oldest friend lost his mother. I could go on.

Friends we make in graduate school are perhaps a bit different than those we meet as children or teenagers. Yet, if we’re lucky, they are no less important. They challenge us mentally, teach us to think in new ways. My first year of my PhD program, I went through a horrible, life altering event — my mother committed suicide. For about a year, I barely held on to my own life. Thank God for Blue. I went to class, I did my homework, but all passion was gone. I was on autopilot. Enter Killa and Columbus — two graduate students in my program (my BrainTrust).

Killa is simply one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She’s kind, funny, and incredibly bright. She is my own personal cheerleader (even if I haven’t seen her in the outfit… yet). She has taught me about the kind of person you should try to be. While I could sing her praises for hours, it’s Columbus who is leaving, and he who inspired this post. To him I say:

Thank you. You are a constant inspiration to me to try to be better, to try to be more. You brought me back to sociology, to my passion just through being who you are. Through learning, you are constantly teaching me. To know you has given me constant surprise and joy. And, as much as I know we will continue to work together, my world will be less without having you here. Most of all, I wish you luck and happiness. I will miss you.

While academia is a constant source of loss, at least we know that we would not meet such people if this was not the circle in which we moved. The truly amazing, wonderful, intellects that sometimes we get to call friends.

*”Perhaps such figures help explain the recent finding that “depression and other forms of mental distress” were a serious problem in a study of more than 3,100 graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley. According to the study: “Nearly half of all survey respondents (45 percent) reported an emotional or stress-related problem that significantly impacted their academic performance or well-being.” Another 67 percent reported feeling hopeless at times, 95 percent felt overwhelmed in graduate school, and 54 percent said they had felt so “depressed that it was difficult to function.” About 10 percent had seriously considered suicide, and one in 200 had actually attempted suicide in the last year.” Also found here.