[Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship

Wed Mar 28 10:28:57 PDT 2018

Hello,

Another news article came out in the same topic.

https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/mar/23/they-called-my-university-a-phd-factory-now-i-understand-why?CMP=fb_gu

In Brazil the first part of the equation does not follow much. Master
degree and PhD courses are free in public universities. This seems nice,
but a PhD is like a job, and without a (meager) scholarship you need a job
to pay for the bills.

 But we are still "cheap labor" for both public and private universities.
And also the "new" government (the government after the parlamentary coup)
is just smashing brazilian academia to pieces (in the part of the process
to make Brazil submissive to the US and Corporations, but this is
off-topic).

And there is the hazard itself that is our PhD process

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2017/04/phd-students-face-significant-mental-health-challenges

We need to change this... But I do not see how... Because at the end of the
day, I still need to pay my bills...

Wagner

On Sun, Mar 4, 2018 at 4:31 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
wrote:

> With regard to Mike's question about (I'm paraphrasing) What is to be
> done?, I'll confess to being too caught up (i.e., "invested" (often
> literally) and thus "implicated) in things-as-they-currently are to be able
> to be properly critical. But I will say that even within the limited scope
> of action dictated by these implications, there may still be room for
> meaningful action. (or so I'd like to think).
>
> As one small example, I am rather fond of Martin Packer's book Science of
> Qualitative Research. In it, he sets out an agenda for qualitative research
> as "emancipatory." This isn't to say that all qualitative research IS this,
> but rather that this is what qualitative research CAN be.
>
> Below are some quotes that help to give some sense of the argument (these
> are taken from the introductory chapter to the book). Better to quote here
> than to paraphrase (quotes are below).
>
> I find this vision to be inspiring and challenging. Inspiring because of
> the possibilities that it promises. Challenging because, as Packer notes
> later in the book in the chapter on the crisis in ethnography, it forces me
> (qua researcher) to recognize how my interests can be at cross purposes
> with those of my informants simply because my life/work is situated
> differently from theirs.
>
> QUOTES FROM PACKER'S INTRO CHAPTER:
>
> "Attention to human forms of life, to the subtle details of people’s talk
> and actions, to human bodies in material surroundings, can open our eyes to
> unnoticed aspects of human life and learning, unexplored characteristics of
> the relationship between humans and the world we inhabit, and unsuspected
> ways in which we could improve our lives on this planet." (p. 3).
>
> Qualitative research is: "the basis for a radical reconceptualization of
> the social sciences as forms of inquiry in which we work to transform our
> forms of life." (p. 3).
>
> "qualitative research has the potential to change our attitude of
> domination because it is sensitive to human forms of life in a way that
> traditional research cannot be." (p. 4).
>
> And here is his description of what qualitative research could be:
>
> "“a historical ontology of ourselves” that, [Foucault] proposed, would
> involve “a critique of what we are saying, thinking, and doing.” It would
> attend to the complex interrelations of knowledge, politics, and ethics. It
> would foster personal and political transformation without resorting to
> violence. It would be an investigation that could create new ways of
> being." and further, "it would include a historical dimension, attentive to
> genesis and transformation without reducing them to the linear unfolding of
> a unidimensional “progress.” It would include an ethnographic dimension
> that would be sensitive to power and resistance. It would carefully examine
> practical activities – “discourse” – to discover how we human beings are
> made and how we make ourselves. And it would foster social change not
> through violent revolt but by promoting “a patient labor giving form to our
> impatience for liberty” (Foucault, 1975/ 1977, p. 319), working to change
> who we are."
>
> And:
>
> "The traditional social sciences have investigated how humans operate as
> information-processing organisms and have helped design better manipulation
> in the form of advertising and spin. We desperately need a program of
> inquiry that can ask questions whose answers would empower us to transform
> our forms of life, our moral paradigms, and our discursive practices for
> the better." (p. 7).
>
>
> And reading Martin's project within the limits that I have placed on
> myself, this orientation make me look for possible ways that I can
> involve/implicate this kind of project with other interests, both locally
> and globally, in order to get beyond thinking of what we are doing in
> academia as merely a matter of unthinking, hedonistic rational
> self-interest (e.g., helping people to "make money" so that they can
> maximize their personal utility). In this current context in which we live
> (esp. in the U.S), it isn't easy to find these sites of possibility where
> one might consider studying transformations of human possibility
> (individual and collective), but I think that there are some out there...
>
> -greg
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 3, 2018 at 10:09 AM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I’m late in adding to this discussion, but I don’t think anyone else has
> > responded to MIke’s question directly.  What can the collective
> experience
> > of xmca come up with? Maybe it’s so obvious it doesn’t need saying. The
> > dscussion itself is collective, along with the ISCAR conferences, the MCA
> > journal, the openness of participants to share resources, review, comment
> > and criticize — sending around whole books when possible. It’s an ongoing
> > colletive experience. An occasional  reference to the academic labor
> market
> > is a healthy and welcome reality check but the discussion itself is the
> > collective resoruce.
> >
> >
> > Helena Worthen
> > helenaworthen@gmail.com
> > Berkeley, CA 94707 510-828-2745
> > Blog US/ Viet Nam:
> > helenaworthen.wordpress.com
> > skype: helena.worthen1
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Feb 17, 2018, at 5:07 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Yours is a quandary shared by your generation, Alfredo.
> > > Being allowed to teach and conduct research in a quality institution
> is a
> > > great privilege and an
> > > increasingly rarer possibility.
> > >
> > > There are several people on this list who have organized their lives to
> > be
> > > independent scholars
> > > while staying connected to the core institutions of disciplinary
> > training.
> > > It might be nice to hear
> > > the variety out there.
> > >
> > > It appears pretty certain that the situation is going to get worse
> > > before/if it gets better.
> > >
> > > What can the collective experience of xmca come up with that would be
> > > useful to the many
> > > of you caught in this meat grinder?
> > >
> > > mike
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 4:49 PM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <
> a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Good luck then, Wagner!
> > >> A
> > >> ________________________________________
> > >> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.
> edu>
> > >> on behalf of Wagner Luiz Schmit <wagner.schmit@gmail.com>
> > >> Sent: 18 February 2018 01:07
> > >> To: eXtended Mind, Culture Activity
> > >> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship
> > >>
> > >> This just hit me in the spot...
> > >>
> > >> Wagner
> > >>
> > >> On Feb 17, 2018 9:48 PM, "Alfredo Jornet Gil" <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> > wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> I have not been able to contribute to this list as much as I'd like
> to
> > >>> lately, among other things, because I need to find a job, and I need
> to
> > >>> make sure that I have checked all those boxes that selection
> committees
> > >>> will check (enough first-authored publications? in good enough
> > journals?
> > >>> enough leadership in projects? teaching? supervising? acquiring
> funds?
> > >> more
> > >>> than all others candidates? and more than
> favoured-for-whatever-other-
> > >> reasons
> > >>> candidates?). So I have been doing all I can these weeks to fill up a
> > >>> competitive CV, for my contract is about to expire.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> And, although I did not think that it was particularly well written,
> it
> > >>> was both relieving and discouraging to read this article (see link
> > below,
> > >>> which I take from the facebook wall of a colleague who I think also
> > >>> subscribes this list). The article makes visible the pain scholars go
> > >>> through when, after so many years of digging and digging and digging
> a
> > >>> little (but deep!) hole, may after all have to leave it and find some
> > >> other
> > >>> thing to do. In Canada, I met a French astronomer who was moving
> > through
> > >>> the world with his lovely family, short-term project after short-term
> > >>> project, getting better and better at what he worked on (apparently
> he
> > >> was
> > >>> among the few who had expertise in computer modeling simulating some
> > >>> astronomic events) , and finally having to step out academia last
> year
> > to
> > >>> find something else to do, for his family no longer could stand the
> > >>> constant uncertainty and travelling. It could be me soon. And that
> may
> > >> not
> > >>> be a bad thing, or even a thing in itself, but the story seems to be
> > >> quite
> > >>> endemic to academia and may be interesting to some of you:
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Everybody-Loses-When/242560
> > >>>
> > >>> Alfredo
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>