Rocking the Academy

Season 2: #8 - Chris Newfield, The Great Mistake

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Chris Newfield, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 1 Apr 2020 15:00:03 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

There is too much acceptance and fatalism around institutional politics in higher ed.
The cultural history of the white middle class, which benefited from society's largesse, received much for free and thus didn't have the cultural experience of fighting or struggling for what they got.
There is a racist aspect to the defunding of government institutions, where support has been removed as demographics have become less white.
Submissive individualism is the white middle class's psychological formation.
These phenomena have disabled post-1960s university activism.
Another reason for the acceptance of institutional politics is the division of faculty into tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty.
Faculty have a professional obligation to do some kind of workplace democracy but have abandoned policymaking and the institution is weaker as a result.
Service has been feminized, which has split service from institutional politics.
There is routinization of administrative work that authorizes defeatism and localism around policy discussions.
The white middle class default culture of academia simply does not want to engage in the conflict needed to create change.
The student financial aid system is bigoted against new entrants - students of color, first generation students, students from low-income families - because it sets up different financial outcomes and a radicalized caste system between those who do not have to borrow and those who do.
Debt-free college for all has to be the primary policy goal and tuition-free public education is the way to get there.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license

Season 2: #7 - Ashley Gray, American Council on Education

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Ashley Gray, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 15:00:05 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Imposter syndrome is real and it's important to celebrate your successes.
Only 5% of all college presidents are women of color.
"Mesearch" is a strategic way to undertake research while looking towards long-term goals like joining higher education leadership.
ACE is the foregoing professional association for higher education leaders in the United States.
We need to have a conversation about public trust and higher education.
What trust looks like in higher education varies based on race, socio-economic status, first generation college student status, and the intersections of these and other margins.
Student loan debt impacts people of color differently than white students.
Student loan debt impacts Black women significantly more than any other racial or gender group.
We need to refine what the margins look like in higher education and the language we used.
"Minority students" are not "minority students" -- they are part of historically minoritized groups.
The American Dream does not look the same for all people and varies depending on race, class, gender, sexuality, and other margins within higher education, as well as the places where people's identities overlap.
Student loan debt elimination is a critical conversation.
Trust looks different for every single group.
The public needs to articulate what they want from higher education.
Higher education institutions need to examine whether they can meet the public's needs and what their goals are in meeting those needs.
Intentional self-care is critical because racial battle fatigue is real.
Systems of oppression weren't created overnight and won't be dismantled overnight, but we can recognize where our calling is to fight oppression.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 2: #6 - Katina Rogers, Futures Initiative, CUNY Grad Center

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Katina Rogers, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 15:00:01 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Katina's journey from comparative literature Ph.D. to advocate for transforming graduate education.
The role of foundations in shaping scholarly fields.
The need for graduate training to shift to be more intentional about what post-Ph.D. career paths might look like.
The significance of professional associations for setting norms and expectations in disciplines, from adjunct wages to evaluation and dissemination of scholarship.
Universities should receive enough public funding that they don't need to rely on private support.
Private funding is not a solution to the challenges of higher ed today.
The Mellon Foundation's shifting priorities to support community colleges and access oriented institutions is important to ensuring that private funding doesn't reinforce hierarchies and prestige.
A key problem in discussing graduate education in careers is that the conversation gets separated from questions of equity, inclusion, and labor structures.
Even institutions that prioritize access can be governed by structures that govern elite institutions, even when they don't serve the values of the institution.
Failure to re-evaluate alignment of structures and values leads to status quo acceptance of everything from requirements for tenure and promotion to what a dissertation might look like to what graduate education and faculty careers look like.
The importance of revisiting tenure and promotion criteria when strategic planning to ensure faculty are positioned to help with university goals.
Within CUNY, as at many institutions, the structure of the institution becomes increasingly white and male in areas of more traditional prestige.
The importance of the humanities for community college students at a time when vocational education is being emphasized.
Hope can be understood as a discipline that we practice.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 2: #5 - Lavelle Porter, The Blackademic Life

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill, Lavelle Porter) — Wed, 4 Mar 2020 16:00:10 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Lavelle's recently published book The Blackademic Life: Academic Fiction, Higher Education, and the Black Intellectual .
Lavelle's favorite Black academic novels, including The Mad Man, Erasure, Glyph, I'm Not Sidney Poitier, and The Chosen Place, The Timeless People.
Lavelle's motivation for writing the book and his journey.
Responses to the book related to the current political climate and the current moment in higher education.
How Lavelle used his acknowlegements as a space to address the experience of writing while working at a teaching-intensive institution.
Historical changes to the experiences of Black academics and experiences in historically Black colleges and universities vs. predominantly white institutions.
The biggest challenges facing Black scholars today and the role of allies in improving working conditions.
Hope for the future of higher ed in Black Lives Matter and student activism.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 2: #4 - Yves Salomon-Fernández, President, Greenfield Community College

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 16:00:18 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Yves's unconventional path to the presidency via institutional research.
The ability to influence mission and direction that the presidency offers.
Insights from rural community colleges for the higher ed sector.
Rural community colleges at the leading edge of future opportunities and challenges for society.
The renewed interest in farming, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and food systems.
The desire of the rising generation to be different stewards than prior generations.
The importance of growing diversity in the pipeline to the presidency.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 2: #3 - Maria Maisto, New Faculty Majority

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Maria Maisto, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 16:00:07 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode

Many contingent faculty become adjuncts unwittingly because the topic has not been discussed frankly in the profession.
States and state laws can prevent contingent faculty from unionizing.
Contingent faculty are routinely put in a difficult position because they are underpaid and are not given the support they need to serve an increasingly vulnerable student population.
New Faculty Majority was established as a new kind of advocacy organization, working alongside but distinctly from unions and professional organizations.
Social media played a significant role in New Faculty Majority, for community building and having a voice.
Higher ed has spent a lot time ignorant and in denial of the adjunct labor problem.
We are starting to see solidarity from tenured faculty and administrators, so attitudes are changing.
Tenure for the Common Good is an important organization that raises awareness of contingent faculty issues.
Faculty can be resistant to thinking about academic work as work and thinking of themselves as being in solidarity with other workers in the economy.
How tenure-track faculty can support contingent faculty is a controversial question, as there are those within the movement who want to make sure their voices are heard.
Contingent faculty have few resources--in terms of financial resources, time, and energy--which tenured faculty do have.
Advancing the profession must, by definition, entail advocating for the most vulnerable members of the profession.
Tenure-track faculty must educate themselves on labor issues.
Tenure line faculty can also support contingent faculty when they apply for unemployment by helping contingent faculty prove to state unemployment agencies that they don't have reasonable assurance of continued employment.
Tenure line faculty could organize a national walkout and build solidarity around that expression of risk.
People working in higher education are fundamentally decent and have a role to play in society, preserving and protecting democracy.
If we can make better connections with what's happening outside the academy, there are opportunities to make a difference and to transform the academy.

Resources Discussed in This Episode

Season 2: #2 - Ravynn Stringfield, Black Girl Does Grad School

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Mary L Churchill, Ravynn Stringfield, Roopika Risam) — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 16:00:02 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode

Mentors often see paths for us before we see them for ourselves.
What is Black Girl Magic?
Graduate students often do not know what they are getting into, and the community built around Black Girl Does Grad School has helped Black women undergraduates and Black women graduate students find information and support.
Like Black Girl Does Grad School, Contingent Magazine is creating a space to publish voices that are marginalized by higher education.
We need more spaces for people that the academy refuses to make space for--and creating our own spaces is critical.
The importance of having supportive advisors and mentors.
The inspiring work of Ethnic Studies Rise in demonstrating the importance of ethnic studies.
The frustration that tenure committees fail to recognize why scholarship in ethnic studies matters.
Graduate student unionization efforts are taking place across the country, not just at high-profile institutions like Harvard.
There is no reason why graduate students should not be given living wages and adequate healthcare.
Universities are not providing appropriate pedagogical training for graduate students, and that must change.
Prestige cultures clash with equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, rather than recognizing that diversity is a necessary pre-condition to quality.
Black graduate students and graduate students of color are the people who have the ability to change the system and are unstoppable.
While there are downsides to the internet, there can be pockets of freedom and liberation there too.
Reading--particularly new writing in conversation with those of the ancestors--helps us understand that we are in a lineage, and that if we have found ways through problems in the past, we will again.

Resources Discussed in this Episode

Season 2: #1 - Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Generous Thinking

Wed, 5 Feb 2020 15:53:53 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Kathleen's career moves from faculty at Pomona College to Associate Executive Director at the Modern Language Association (MLA) to faculty and administrator at Michigan State University.
Putting ideas related to publishing and scholarly communication into place on a national scale in her role at MLA.
Working with institutions that are interested in implementing lessons from Generous Thinking in their strategic plans.
Working with faculty to explore the possibilities for how their work might contribute to a richer, more open public sphere.
When re-evaluating reappointment, promotion, and tenure guidelines, thinking about public engagement first rather than as a separate outreach category.
The rise of the #GenerousThinking movement on Twitter as people share their stories on how they have implemented generous thinking in their work and personal lives.
The HuMetricsHSS initiative focused on rethinking prestige economies of academia and thinking about how values like openness could be incorporated into assessment.
Using generous thinking as an approach to creating equity and expanding opportunity for others in the academy.
There is no quality without equality.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #8 - Roopika Risam and Mary Churchill, Rocking the Academy

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Mary L Churchill) — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:00:18 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Higher ed is dying and being dismantled while the same people doing the dismantling are also guarding and maintaining it.
Traditional markers of higher ed -- 15-week semesters, discipline-based departments, seat time, competition, and tenure -- do not work for most faculty or students.
The significance of reframing education through the lens of human development.
How difficult university policies make the disability accommodation process for staff and faculty.
The possibility of doing the work we care about outside of our institutions or job descriptions.
The need for the walls of higher education to be more permeable.
Universities as systems and institutions that become forces against critique or dissent.
The tension between changing a system while also maintaining the system.
Doing radical work in the academy and fighting for equity and justice has risks.
The way institutions fail their students by failing to create infrastructure for their social and emotional well-being.
The importance of recognizing that higher education is more than classroom teaching.
Our guests are the people who keep making change, keep fighting in spite of the challenges they encounter.
This season was also about the power of friendship, connection, and collaboration.
Our guests for next season are Chris Newfield, Yves Salomon-Fernández, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Ashley Gray, Ravynn Stringfield, Lavelle Porter, Katina Rogers, and Maria Maisto.
We welcome recommendations for guests for Season 3.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Season 1: #7 - Bryan Alexander, Higher Ed Consultant and Futurist

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Bryan Alexander, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 16:00:17 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The next generation of higher education and the future of where colleges and universities could go.
Sustainability as the biggest challenge for universities today.
The financial pressure that higher ed institutions are under, which is exacerbated by rising discounting rates, funding cuts to public higher ed, and student debt.
The challenges of the adjunctification of faculty and of cultural and political skepticism towards higher education.
Anxiety produced by escalating income and wealth inequality in the U.S.and the role that higher ed plays in contributing to that divide.
The shrinking middle class in the U.S. and how higher ed might no longer be the gateway to greater economic and professional success due to increasing debt and changes to work (e.g. automation).
The ways in which higher education is still viewed as a luxury for a segment of the U.S. population.
Preserving the cultural identity of an institution undergoing a merger and/or closure.
Whether we have too many colleges and universities in the U.S. and if mergers and closures are efficient ways to deal with a declining population of traditional college-aged students.
The unpopularity of considering the option of planning for smaller enrollments.
Optimism for the future of higher ed through internationalization, open education, and online technology.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #6 - Katie Rose Guest Pryal, Blue Crow Books

Wed, 4 Dec 2019 16:01:22 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Katie’s insights on higher ed that have come from her journey in the academy.
How she has put her law degree to use through good decision-making and negotiation.
How working her way through school taught her time management, discipline, and the importance of daily work.
The mental health challenges she faced in graduate programs in creative writing, law school, and a PhD in English.
The challenge of developing a relationship with a psychiatrist while in the itinerant space of graduate school.
The high rates of depression and anxiety for law school students.
The lack of a focus on good self-care and study habits in graduate school.
The problems with a culture that rewards overworking and a “whoever gets to the lab first wins” mentality.
The limitations and drawbacks of disability accommodation processes for staff and faculty in higher ed.
The challenges of doing emotional labor in the academy.
The difference an emotionally supportive environment can make for graduate students.
The importance of being able to bring your whole self to the work we do in the academy.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #5 - Schuyler Esprit, Create Caribbean

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Schuyler Esprit, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 16:00:12 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Schuyler’s journey into her professional career through graduate school in the U.S., her first position at Trinity Washington University, and her move back to Dominica, where she founded Create Caribbean and began working at Dominica State College.
Using digital humanities as a way to make connections between higher and secondary education.
The Dominica Liberation Movement and her family’s connection to regional anti-colonialist movements in the 1960's and 1970's as an inspiration for founding Create Caribbean.
The importance of the THATCamp Caribe, first held in Puerto Rico in 2012.
The role of high school students in the foundational and ongoing creative work of Create Caribbean.
The significance of students creating accessible spaces where other students they can learn about their history.
Schuyler’s process of unlearning the hierarchies and expectations of the traditional culture of the academy.
The loneliness and isolation of academic work, especially in the Caribbean.
Globalization and the impact of shifts in higher ed in the U.S. on the Caribbean region, including increasing emphasis on the profit motive and a utilitarian view of academic experience.
Differences between identity politics in higher ed in the Caribbean and the U.S., including what it’s like to be a black woman in the academy in the U.S. vs. in the Dominica and Antigua.
The challenge of administrative work that takes you away from creative and fun work of your own but opens up a space for you to create space for more people.
The importance of conferences like The Caribbean Digital for staying inspired and being energized.
Schuyler’s driving desire and hope for creating a world where her students will be able to come back home if they want and be able to feel like they can work and make a living and make a life in the Caribbean.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #4 - Kelly J. Baker, Women in Higher Ed

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Kelly J. Baker, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill) — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 16:00:07 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The adjunct crisis in higher ed.
Kelly’s shift from religious studies work to higher ed journalism.
Religions and higher ed as institutions and systems of power relations.
Applying PhD training to a different field, viewing PhD training as training in thinking, and using of data to answer difficult questions.
Why academia is not a cult and the role of agency.
Kelly’s decision to rock the boat and write about controversial topics like being an adjunct, a woman, a mother, and a first gen college student.
Moving from the Sexism Ed column at Chronicle Vitae to Sexism Ed the book.
Using Women in Higher Ed as a platform to highlight the work of amazing women doing incredible things.
The consequences of universities protecting men who were abusers and serial harrassers for decades.
Paying sexual abuse and harrassment settlements without doing the hard work of changing campus culture.
Hope for a better future in higher ed in student activists who are holding campuses accountable for racism, homophobia, and sexism.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #3 - Alex Gil, Columbia University Libraries

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill, Alex Gil) — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:00:30 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Digital humanities as an approach that fosters collaboration between faculty, libraries, museums, and galleries.
Connecting the reproduction of material texts to the digital realm through textual scholarship and digital libraries.
Academic libraries as a space of intellectual praxis.
The challenge of creating non-hierarchical spaces within the academy.
The limits to collaboration imposed by structures and practices within higher ed institutions.
How to support co-construction of knowledge among equals across ranks and job roles.
Rethinking the relationship between university and community through collaborative projects like Rikersbot and the Puerto Rico Mapathon.
The role of minimal computing in community work.
Why it’s easier to do disruptive knowledge work outside of the university.
Scholars of color and rockers of the boat within the academy must check every box and do triple the work.
Hope for the future of higher ed lies in communities outside of the academy doing work that reconstructs their past and the ability of universities to connect those dots.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #2 - Lee Skallerup Bessette, Georgetown University

Wed, 6 Nov 2019 14:41:18 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The role of Twitter and social media in developing networks for career mobility.
Blogging at Inside Higher Ed led to more opportunities to speak and write.
Faculty development.
Alt-ac fields in academia.
Prestige metrics within academia.
Isolation of the faculty role in higher ed and social media as a tool to combat isolation and marginalization.
Getting contingent faculty issues on the official agenda of the Modern Language Association (MLA).
Using your social media platform to advocate, amplify, and push for change.
Putting the student first as a form of innovation.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Season 1: #1 - Paula Krebs, Modern Language Association

marylchurchill@gmail.com (Paula Krebs, Mary Churchill, Roopika Risam) — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 15:00:07 +0000

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The role of teaching intensive universities in the future of higher ed.
Off campus as a space for making change happen.
Preparing PhD candidates from R1 institutions to teach at teaching-intensive institutions.
Things that you don't learn in a Ph.D. program: community colleges, collective bargaining contracts, undergraduate research.
The value of doing work on a larger stage.
Bringing the public humanities together with higher ed.
Working outside the box that people try to put you in as a path to a rich career.
The alliance model of bringing together institutions and nonprofits across a region.
Limitations of the individual mindset of the traditional humanities.
Digital humanities as a space of teamwork where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The difference between making change happen at an institutional level vs. at a national level.
The influence and convening power of scholarly associations.
The power of new tools and new contexts to create new approaches: podcasts and Twitter.
Helping people succeed in ways they never thought were options and exposing them to new possibilities and paths to success.
Mergers and consortia as a space for hope for a different future of higher ed.
Digital humanities as a space of hope for a different future of higher ed.
The role of digital humanities in rethinking race, class, and accessibility.
Making humanities more accessible to students of color, first generation students and pell grant recipients.

Resources Discussed in this Episode:

Music Credits: “Come Right Here” by Tendinite, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND license.