[xmca] A Modest Proposal for Intergenerational Assistance

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Dear XMCA participants.

I have consulted with several senior colleagues who are game for the
following:

(In what follows I am speaking as a member of the ill-defined “older
generation” at XMCA)



I have been thinking over the problem of what help the more senior members
of XMCA, those with secure jobs, can provide for our students and junior
colleagues who are caught in this very difficult historical moment. Whatever
general advice that we might give, the fact is that we could not deal any
better with current circumstances if we were just starting out now.

The one thing we have a lot of experience doing is helping young scholars
develop their ideas in writing so that they can get their work published. We
can also offer practical advice about methods, relevant literature, etc. In
short, we can do the kind of mentoring that many of us do daily, locally.
But can’t we also do it xmca-wide?



I propose that we create a list serve, associated with XMCA, where a group
of elders (those with secure jobs) and a group of those still struggling
toward secure work in academia can pair up for purposes of advice on a piece
of junior writing, starting with thesis proposals. Participants might wish
to organize sub-networks -- many refinements are possible.

We do not have all the mechanisms worked out for such an inter-generational,
academic support system. But we have built a placeholder in the
to-be-released new LCHC home page for an enabling platform. The roll out of
the new page is a few weeks away, but that need not stop us from finding out
who is interested, what generational group they prefer to be identified
with, and perhaps two lines about areas of interest/"expertise.". We can
collate that info into a data base and use it to create a handy dandy new
cultural practice.



If you are interested, please respond to Tamara Powell,
tamarajeanpowell@gmail.com.

She will do the collating and report back about who wants to be involved and
how. Then we will take the next practical steps for people to link up.


I am traveling and only have spotty email contact but will stay abreast of
this endeavor.

mike
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