Skipping March 8, see you April 5
Dear friends,
Thank you so much to everyone who joined our February session! It was a special joy to have Jade E. Davis join us to talk about her forthcoming book, The Other Side of Empathy. I carry from that discussion the firm emphasis that it is ok just to care. And that, in fact, the rhetoric around empathy may lead us in the opposite direction.
These newsletters have been feeling quiet lately; lots has been going on, but not much has been finding its way to this particular space. I've been teaching a graduate class (Power, Precarity, and Care in the Digital Humanities); I've been co-leading a series for the Association for Computers and the Humanities, called Making DH Work for Us: Labor, Care, and Careers); I've been working on a handful of writing projects including my mushroom book (the current working title of which is Unexpected Flourishing: Academia, Mycology, and Growth from Decay—feedback most welcome). I've also been spending a great deal of time editing and reviewing for others. As new growth begins to emerge from the soil, it's also a season of review and revision, of reexamining what we've planted and doing what we can to help it thrive.
And, because caregiving and embodiment is part of what I'm trying to bring into this space, I'll also say we've been grappling with bouts of mild but irritating illness, competing schedules, and time out of school. For all those reasons, I'm going to cancel the March 8 session, where we were going to discuss Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron. I hope you will read it anyway! It is giving me so much to think about surrounding the very real, material colonial practices involved not only in creating pollution, but also in trying to clean it up. As I've begun exploring environmental humanities scholarship more deeply, the imperative and impossibility of building and maintaining an ethical relationship with the land has grown ever stronger.
So, I'll carry those ideas with me into our subsequent discussion on April 5, 2023, at 3pm EDT (that 'D' brings me joy!), when Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Carrie Smith, and Kendra Sullivan will co-lead a discussion on engaged and activist administration. More as that date approaches.
Odds and Ends
The next event in the ACH series I mentioned is called "Alt-Ac Careers for Humanities PhDs," and it takes place on Tuesday, March 21 at 1pm EST. There are so many fantastic people involved! Details and registration are here.
I'm in the early stages of putting together a proposal for Triangle SCI that builds on what Inkcap is and what it might become. If you are interested in being a part of the proposal, which is towards a fully funded four-day working retreat in North Carolina, let me know!
Weekly writing sessions are continuing. If you're interested in joining a small group of us on Fridays from 2-4pm, please reply and let me know.
Warmest,
Katina