I can remember when I didn’t know what the word “listserv” meant, and, sometimes, I yearn for those days. As a graduate student in rhetoric, composition, and technical communication, I am a part of the WPA listserv and the NEXTGEN listserv: the first is so that I can get a bunch of CFP’s and stuff going on in the field and in the discipline in one space; the second is so that I can be a part of an inclusive, supportive digital space where people help one another and enact their version of an Ethic of Care.
Not mentioned in the paragraph above is the CRTNET listserv because I am not a member of that listserv. However, I have friends, colleagues, and know folks in the field and discipline who are there, so I noticed an uptick in the CRTNET posts recently on Facebook and Twitter. I guess that brings us to today and the publication of this article: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/26/national-communication-association-suspends-discussion-listserv by Colleen Flaherty for Inside Higher Education. How would you describe this phenomenon? “Wow!”; “Not Surprised.”; “What?!”. Regardless of your reaction to the recent events on the CRTNET listserv, I will say that I am not surprised. It looks as if the CRTNET listserv, which was once helpful, may now be a space that evaporates into the digital ether—and maybe it should. It is worth noting, the WPA listserv, which, admittedly, can be helpful, can also turn into a dumpster fire very quickly. As Flaherty notes” “Earlier this year, many scholars of writing abandoned the Writing Program Administration Listserv after someone anonymously posted a reference to the Ku Klux Klan. Many who stayed subscribed to the list wanted it formally moderated, citing additional examples of less obvious but nevertheless racist posts. Others still argued against formal moderation, or for the list’s ability to moderate itself.” What we are seeing on the WPA listserv (I was online and in my inbox when the post from the “Grand Wizard” came through; I was stunned) and now the CRTNET listserv is a rejection of racist and nativist language. What we are seeing on the WPA listserv and now the CRTNET listserv is digital antagonism. What we are seeing on the WPA listserv and now the CRTNET listserv is bullying—bullying by people who are, perhaps, bullies because they can be. That is (insert your own explicative) sad. Kudos to those on the CRTNET listserv who called out these two professors (did I see distinguished in front of one name?). You are doing great, important work. So what are you going to do? I suggest joining the Nextgen listserv. Flaherty mentions the NEXTGEN listserv in her article, saying, “The NEXTGEN Listserv, an alternative to the writing program Listserv favored by many graduate students and early-career scholars, recommends minimizing harm by adhering to certain practices and principles. Those include examining one’s own position and privilege and ‘working actively to ensure that spaces like Listservs are valued as safer professional public spaces where all the members showcase a respect for one another, learn from one another and uplift one another’s positions and identities.’” Finally, don’t let this get you down. We, as a community of rhetoric and composition scholars will always work together to find and extinguish racism, nativism, and bullying. These things are not the future, we are.
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When I develop an activity for a class, I think considering temporality is essential, especially if you are trying to contextualize the activity against the current socio-cultural moment. So, for this week in my business writing classes I planned a buffer week between the first unit and the second unit and designed in-class activities at the triangulation of genre studies, socio-cultural pedagogy, and current events.
The first activity was a response to Hurricane Dorian which devastated the Bahamas and other parts of the Caribbean just last week. Student-groups were tasked with crafting a social media policy for a fictional company called Humane Canine Health, a non-profit start-up which specializes in domesticated animal relief and rescue during catastrophic weather events. As an animal advocate myself, I really love this activity—but I think I love it even more because the activity prompts students to think about the implications of a social media policy for a non-profit company, a start-up company, one without the ethos of a large, multi-national corporation. Plus, students get to work with a genre they may not be familiar with, a social media policy, a genre which they might not get to work with otherwise. An activity like this is reusable since hurricanes, and other weather events, unfortunately occur quite often. So, that was Tuesday. On Thursday we performed a similar activity, but the genre student-groups were working with on this day was the press release. Instead of a non-profit start-up, students were prompted to think of themselves as technical communicators working for Nike and responding to the Colin Kaepernick advertisement which debuted last fall to correspond with the kickoff of the NFL season. Certainly, the advertisement is a year old now, so there is a certain distance temporally, but I think the advertisement works really well on my campus for a variety of reasons. The first reason I think this activity works well on my campus is that my institution has a football team, and a full athletics department, so sports are on the students minds during the beginning of the fall semester. Well, football, or at least tailgating, etc. We will leave it at that. The other reason I think that this activity works well on my campus is because I am not at a very culturally diverse campus. That is not to say that my campus is not diverse, and does not allocate resources to making our campus more diverse. The business writing students I teach though, are, for the most part, white and middle class. With the demographics of my campus, in mind, then, that this activity focused on a unique, culturally-relevant advertising campaign might challenge personal beliefs is healthy and helpful as they prepare to hit the job market, start their careers, or just go out into the world and do things. If you are interested in either of these assignments, please reach out to me! I am willing to share any and all resources! If you like what you are reading, feel free to leave a comment to get the conversation started! |
Charles WoodsPhD student focusing on Rhetoric, Composition, and Technical Communication at Illinois State University. Archives
October 2019
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