I’m happy to give extra credit to students who can attend this event and write a reflection -

Tuesday, March 13th, 6:00 p.m.

Gallery Room, Hatcher Graduate Library

This event is free and open to the public.
Food will be provided.

 

Interested in Participating? 

Email Nick at 

nbwats@umich.edu

Join us for a student speech event to raise awareness around disability, mental health, and other differences on campus.

Here’s the show I mentioned, which is partially a riff on what we were talking about today (hello, Irigary!) and partially a satire of shows like Serial.

This film came up in our discussion on Wednesday. Marlee mentioned shaving down (and growing out body hair) for swimming, and I was reminded of a quote later in this film. A woman says something like “how incredible is it that me letting my hair just grow out of my head is a revolutionary act.”

I’m happy to give extra credit to anyone who attends and writes a reflection.

Please join SAPAC's Consent, Outreach, and Relationship Education (CORE) Volunteer Program in welcoming Alex and Effee to campus for a talk about the intersection of queer, trans, and PoC identity and healthy relationships. Following the event, there will be a QTPOC safe space and refreshments will be served. We will be in the Anderson Room of the Michigan Union!

Interested in learning more about our speakers? Please visit alexandeffee.com

Cosponsored by the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI), University of Michigan Spectrum Center, and Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA). Thank you!



Artwork by: Wang Zhao

Another wonderful extra credit opportunity!



I'd like to let you all know about an exciting event oSTEM is hosting next week!

LGBTQ+ History Seminar
On Monday, you are invited to The Lavendar Scare: a seminar on the history of LGBTQ+ people in national defense positions, presented by Chris LaFleur of Sandia National Labs.

The seminar will be held Monday, January 22 from 7:00 to 8:00pm in the Vandenberg Room of the Michigan League. Light snacks will be provided.

Well Wishes,
The oSTEM Board

Another great extra credit opportunity:





Care as Labor, Care as Ethics: Feminism and the Documentaries of Kamanaka Hitomi
Margherita Long  


Associate Professor, East Asian Language & Literature, UC Irvine 

Thursday, January 18, 2018
11:30 am-1 pm
Weiser Hall Room 110
 
This talk introduces two post-Fukushima films by Kamanaka Hitomi (1958-): "Living Through Internal Radiation" (2012), and "Little Voices of Fukushima" (2015). In interviews, Kamanaka explains that the aim of both was to increase radiation literacy by conveying the truth fully and accurately. Yet regardless of high radiation readings, she emphasizes that neither her films, nor the community discussion spaces she cultivates in trademark local screening events, will ever judge exposed people for evacuating or not. How do we resolve the contradiction? This talk expands the insights of a biopolitical reading with an eco-materialist focus on affective labor and nuclear carework. 

Margherita Long teaches Japanese literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Irvine. Her talk today is from an in-process book manuscript titled "On Being Worthy of the Event: Thinking Care, Affect and Origin after Fukushima"

As I said in class, I’m happy to give extra credit to anyone who attends an event and writes a reflection about it.

Chandani sends in information about the many events scheduled for Martin Luther King day:

Keynote-specific info:
MLK Day (jan 15th)
Hill Auditorium, starts at 10am (doors open at 9:30am and it will fill up quickly)
Keynote Speaker: Hill Harper
See website for more info: http://oami.umich.edu/um-mlk-symposium/memorial-keynote-lecture/

Add'l info:

Finding events to go to:
http://oami.umich.edu/um-mlk-symposium/events/

• Most events are free, open to the public, and have free food!
• Be sure to check if the event needs an RSVP or ticket ahead of time

Getting your student org involved:

1. Host a watch party on MLK Day (Jan. 15th) and discuss the keynote with peers: http://oami.umich.edu/um-mlk-symposium/watch-party-toolkit/
2. Attend events together as a group (event page)
3. Submit an event to be posted on our website: http://oami.umich.edu/um-mlk-symposium/events/submit-an-event/

1. 1. Consider collaborating with other organizations to increase your outreach!

1. Structuring your event - idea sheet
2. Funding opportunities and possible locations for your event sheet

If you look on our website, you’ll see that events are happening as late as March -- even if this isn’t something you’ve considered until now, I encourage you to plan an event for this year and take advantage of the funding opportunities and free publicity we provide!

Getting involved as an individual:

• Join the MLK Symposium Planning Committee - email mlksymposiuminfo@umich.edu to be added to the listserv

• • Monthly meetings on Thursdays in Trotter (1443 Washtenaw Ave): 12-1pm
• • FREE lunch!
• • Give your input on the Symposium’s theme and booklet and plan for the upcoming Symposium

• Download the FREE app to get event reminders, stream the keynote lecture and more!

• • Get our guide here: https://guidebook.com/g/umichmlk

Android and iOS users:

1. Tap the "Download" button to download the free Guidebook app
2. Open Guidebook and you can find our "University of Michigan 2018 Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Symposium" guide

I’m happy to give extra credit to anyone who attends this event and writes a reflection about it.

adrienne maree brown  

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

The School of Social Work invites the community to a lecture by adrienne maree brown, inspired by her most recent publication, "Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds".

January 24th, 12:00 - 2:00PM
SSWB Educational Conference Center (1840)

Emergent Strategy
presents a visionary tapestry of grassroots organizing practices, principles, and tools that advance transformational growth through interdependent human interactions. Inspired by the collaborative possibilities evident in diverse and complex environmental ecosystems, her lecture will explore ways in which social justice advocates, organizers, activists and facilitators can embrace iterative pathways toward liberation, that are harnessed by intentional adaptations, and relational models of change.

adrienne maree brown is author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is a writer, social justice facilitator, pleasure activist, healer and doula living in Detroit. She attended the Clarion Sci Fi Writers Workshop and the Hedgebrook Writers Residency in 2015, and Voices of Our Nation in 2014 as part of the inaugural Speculative Fiction Workshop. She was a 2013 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow and a 2013 and 2015 Knights Arts Challenge winner, writing and generating science fiction in and about Detroit. She was the Ursula Le Guin Feminist Sci Fi Fellow, and a Sundance/Time Warner
 2016 Artist Grant Recipient.

Lecture: 12:00 - 2PM January 24th, Educational Conference Center

Book signing will be hosted 1:30 - 2:00PM.

Book purchase will be available from 12:00 - 2:00PM

Co-sponsored by: The School of Social Work Community Action Research Learning Community, The Community Action and Social Change Undergraduate Minor, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Allied Media Projects, and Literati Bookstore

I’d be happy to give extra credit to anyone who attends these events and writes a reflection about them.




Cosponsored MLK Event
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color

Thursday, January 18
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery
(Room 100)

Andrea J. Ritchie
Researcher in Residence, Barnard Center for Research on Women

Drawing from her recent book, Andrea Ritchie examines how Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color experience racial profiling, police brutality, and immigration enforcement. Placing stories of individual women—such as Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Dajerria Becton, Monica Jones, and Mya Hall—in the broader context of the twin epidemics of police violence and mass incarceration, Ritchie documents the evolution of movements centering women’s experiences of policing and demands a radical rethinking of our visions of safety—and the means we devote to achieving it.

This event is part of the university's annual MLK Symposium. Presented with the Departments of Political Science and Women's Studies.


Cosponsored Event
The Other America: Still Separate.
Still Unequal.

Friday, January 19
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Michigan Union
(First Floor, Kuenzel Room)

REGISTRATION

This interdisciplinary, day-long event will focus on racial inequality as it manifests in relation to the lived experiences of Black Americans. Throughout the day, panelists will discuss the criminal justice system and state violence against Black people, economic inequality and immobility, inequities in healthcare and education, and issues pertaining to race and the environment. The event is free, open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the College of LSA, Poverty Solutions, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, Political Scientists of Color, Rackham Graduate School, School of Public Health, and Departments of Political Science, Psychology, Sociology and History. 


IRWG Event
Raised Right: Fatherhood in Modern American Conservatism

Tuesday, January 23
3:10 PM
Lane Hall
(Room 2239)

Jeffrey R. Dudas
Associate Professor of Political Science, Affiliate Faculty of American Studies, University of Connecticut

How has the modern conservative movement thrived in spite of the lack of harmony among its constituent members? What, and who, holds together its large corporate interests, small-government libertarians, social and racial traditionalists, and evangelical Christians?

In his new book, Raised Right: Fatherhood in Modern American Conservatism (Stanford University Press, 2017), Jeffrey R. Dudas, pursues these questions through a cultural study of three iconic conservative figures: National Review editor William F. Buckley, Jr., President Ronald Reagan, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Examining their papers, writings, and rhetoric, Dudas identifies what he terms a "paternal rights discourse"—the arguments about fatherhood and rights that permeate their personal lives and political visions.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Department of Women's Studies, and History Department. 


Cosponsored MLK Event
Trans Health Activism in Detroit: Moving Forward Together

Friday, January 26
2:10 PM
Michigan League
(2nd Floor, Vandenberg Room)

PANELISTS

Amara Marley

Brandi Smith

Lance Hicks, MSW

Tyffanie Walton, EIS

Moderator: Maureen D. Connolly, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Henry Ford Health System

Detroit transgender and gender nonconforming communities are leading a movement to demand safety, opportunity, and access to health and wellness services.  This panel will discuss the work being done as part of that movement at the Ruth Ellis Center, a youth social services agency that serves LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness and residential instability.  Speakers will include leaders from the Ruth Ellis community, as well as members of the medical and behavioral health teams.

This event is part of the university's annual MLK Symposium. Co-sponsored by the Department of Women’s Studies, Child and Adolescent Gender Clinic at Mott Children’s Hospital, the Spectrum Center, the Center for the Education of Women, and the College of Pharmacy.

Growing up, the author joked she was the perfect son: intelligent, ambitious, independent. How different might her life have been?

From The Guardian, August 2017.

Because I mentioned this in our first meeting, I wanted to follow up. As I told you, when I talked with this reporter - who was clearly trying to get the story right - I wanted to use the term “orientalism” as a key term to describe my reaction to this (insane and yet totally expectable) Logan Paul story. As we discussed, sometimes theory and theoretical terms help and sometimes - especially when your interlocuteures don’t understand the terms you use - they really don’t. To me, the general American interest in this story is equal parts orientalism and a particular kind of toxic White masculinity via YouTube celebrity.

Inside Japan's 'suicide forest'
By Michael Nedelman, CNN

Updated 2:32 PM ET, Thu January 4, 2018

[...]
But when it comes to the now-viral YouTube video, the story is less about what sets Japan apart and more about how it's often perceived as "other" by Americans, like 22-year-old Paul, according to one anthropologist.
"His motivation to go to this particular spot is not an accident," said Allison Alexy, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Michigan who specializes in contemporary Japanese culture. "It is part and parcel of a larger American fascination" with Japan.

Do you know what it feels (and sounds) like to talk on the phone with someone who is watching tv or doing something else? That’s the feeling I’m trying to banish from our classroom. Although I know that people’s minds always wander - and that can be a wonderful thing! - I don’t want our preciously few hours together to have to compete with whatever’s happening on facebook, snapchat, or whatever app the cool kids are into these days.

Given my sense of the rewards for making our class free of digital technologies, what is my policy on tablets or e-readers (like ipads)? I understand that they can be really helpful although I am still convinced that almost everyone has higher reading comprehension on paper.

I am trying to avoid a situation in which students are more absorbed in their technology than the conversation or their own thoughts. If you can have an e-book in front of you and not be at all disassociated from the class, you are allowed to use it. However, please know that if I have to ask you to stop messing with whatever technology is near you, I will ask you not to bring it back. Therefore if you think you might have a hard time not using the e-book for anything other than looking up a quote or following along with someone else’s point, I recommend you print the readings on paper.

Also, please remind yourself that our phones, especially, are now literally being designed to make you never want to let it go, so you might feel some pangs of discomfort or confusion.

Despite my own use of technology in and out of the classroom, I have a strong restriction against students using laptops or tablets* or phones in class. At the beginning of the semester, I want to explain my reasoning behind this policy.

I believe that it is incredibly hard not to multi-task when you are sitting in front of a screen, be it a TV or computer screen. And, although multi-tasking might feel good to some people at some moments, every piece of evidence I have ever read or experienced convinces me of the opposite. Multi-tasking hinders listening, thinking, engagement, and learning, all of which we are trying to maximize in the classroom.

More and more research makes clear that laptops do not help us think or learn in a classroom. Laptops, tablets, and phones are extremely distracting, both to the person using the person using them and, perhaps more importantly, the people around and behind the user.

Therefore, in my courses, I prohibit the use of laptops, tablets*, and cell phones for all students except those with demonstrable medical needs to use them. If you fall into this latter category, please email me within the first week of class.

To be clear, I think technology can be a wonderful thing and I have no problem with video games or blogs or cat videos, but only in the right context. I do not believe that having access to the internet’s firehose of information is good while you’re in a (brief) class session trying to think, listen, and share your ideas.

* I will permit students to buy and read e-versions of course books on a tablet, but if you bring that tablet to class you must only use it for looking up the reading.

Research that supports this policy:
Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting.

From Facebook to Folsom Prison Blues: How Banning Laptops in the Classroom Made Me a Better Law School Teacher.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

I found this interesting presentation from Amy Sherald, whose painting is elsewhere on this course website. You might have heard Sherald’s name when Michelle Obama picked her to paint her official portrait.