Posts tagged class

It’s the fourth week of the semester and I’m hanging on pretty darn well.But it’s late, so my updates will be quick here.

• Met with my sociology professor from the spring who was her usual constructive yet critical self. She gave me a lot to chew on. Again, less details the better, but she did say she’d do whatever she could to help me get through the program. That gave me the lift I needed to hit the semester running.
• While at first the idea of having a whole class on HR theory was a total bore, it is so not. I think it helps that my professor has a huge passion for HR theory, but is not 100% settled on where he actually stands on a few issues. So he is willing to assign readings that contradict each other and allow good discussion in class. In other words, I’ve been my usual feminista self and haven’t gotten the eye roll yet. I did ask about pay equity and he responded with a brain teaser about what is “equity.” To be continued!
• My research methods course is going well. I came in ahead of the curve since the first month is about questioning how science is done. That is the basic foundation of feminist science studies, so while we are not reading feminist science studies per say, the themes in what we are reading are all about objectivity, bias, who gets to ask the questions, on and on.
• I’m still reading “The Gifts of Imperfection” and loving it. I wish this book existed when I was in high school. But as I said elsewhere, I doubt I would have read it. Maybe if a few certain teachers had given it to me. Hell, it would had helped anytime between ages 14-24. But then I wouldn’t be here in this moment, would I? The Goddess gifted this to me now for a reason. 
• Work is always hard the first month due to getting things rolling. Being short staffed has made it difficult, but I also turned down the expectations in bit too. See, I’m being imperfect! But so far, so great at work. Now if only I could find a big grant to land!
• The kid is in her second week back at school. In some ways I am happy our calendars are not in sync. While I’ve been fearful of how intense third grade would be for her and us, it’s been pretty good so far. I don’t feel like we were thrown into hot grease with a nice beer batter on us like last year. Or maybe I’m just in a better place. Who knows, who cares, we’re doing good.
• Oh! Did I mention that my husband & I are coaching the kid’s soccer team this year? Yup. I scraped off a tiny space on my plate to be assistant coach or else there might not had been any soccer. We had our first game on Sunday. We lost, but not for a lack of passion and eight super aggressive girls. Don’t believe the hype that girls can’t play aggressively at this age. ROWR! 
• And since things are going pretty good now, I’ll be on the look out for any and all wheels to fall off this ride.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!

I got my midterm grade.

I got an A!

So now some of you are thinking, “That Veronica…” and shaking your head about how either dumb I am about my own work or how I’m all drama about my work. You might be a little right on both aspects.

But I gotta tell you that it’s been a long time since I’ve worked this hard to simply understand what is going on in the readings. Last semester was about rhythm and writing. This semester is about theory and writing. Yes, gender theory, which I’m familiar with, but GENDER THEORY! Goodness do you know how deep that can get *coughJudithButlercough* or how in circles your brain gets? “To imagine a world without gender, we must put gender front and center.” My highly scientific brain is also rebelling against non-empiricism theory. I get it, but I also keep hearing the little biologist in my head saying, “But! There is truth!” There are facts!” 

There is one fact I do need to wrestle with…And that’s the fact that my lit review is due in less than two weeks. Later.

OK, so maybe that’s a bit overstated, but honestly I know I’m barely up to par in my sociology course. I’m just not use to the style of writing and it took me 4-5 weeks to figure out what I thought was the core issue of what we were reading really wasn’t the core issue. Not that I wasn’t getting it, but you know I was focusing on the branches of an idea not the roots.

I need to write a lit review for this course as well. The topic I selected with consultation from my professor is an excellent one. But as I have gotten into the literature, I feel like I need to take a big step back. How can I truly understand how feminist organizations deal with hierarchy when I’m discovering that I don’t have a current understanding of what it means for an organization to be gendered.

Normally when I come to a conclusion like that, I freak. Especially when taking a course from someone who I kinda work with (academia is full of committees), see around a lot and quite honestly like. But notsomuch this time. The devil that is perfection isn’t getting its claws into me this time.

Why? Because I can see that my weakness will be my strength. I will be a better student scholar by sucking it up, admitting my lack of knowledge and taking my time to figure it out.

I’m really ok with the idea that I might get a B in this class, but it will be the hardest earned B in a long time. I’m still going to work my ass off, but I know I’m at a disadvantage and I’m not dwelling on it the way I normally would. Kinda weird and kinda awesome.

Due to the MLK holiday, only one class this week. And what a class it was!

We discussed Paradoxes of Gender by Judith Lorber and it was a fab discussion. We really dug into the paradox of talking about gender while also working towards a gender-free world. It really parallels some of the debates I’m having in my head about raising an empowered girl with knowledge of women’s history. I can see how she makes comments about the world that my intentionality towards women’s history and role models is reinforcing the girls vs boys divide/war. Which is not my intention!

This week I have to miss both my classes due to going to DC to accept an award. Pretty good excuse, eh? Which is of course, freaking awesome, but throws my whole schedule off! I have meetings upon meetings while also needing to do homework. UGH! Wish me luck at keeping up with my class work while also doing a lot of job work this week.

The best part of any semester is getting all my textbooks. Today the USPS brought me Feminist Foundations: Toward Transforming Sociology, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It and ‘Paradoxes of Gender.

These are all for my sociology course called ‘Gender.’ Yay! 

On top of this a friend who is teaching a seminar on feminism asked me to teach one day & I’m going to focus on media & online feminism. Hell yeah!

Well that was waaay better than last week! I got almost all my readings done. The part I didn’t get done was an uber-long paper that started to not make sense. But class was better, I think, mostly due to me understanding how class & the reading journal was going to go down. 

Seriously, I need to know expectations so I can rise to them. Thus my fear of new settings. But once I know them, I can adjust & usually meet them. 

I do know there’s a level of sophistication that I need to work on…Not sure how to do that other than to accept the fact that I will look like an idiot one moment & the next make a brilliant observation. It’s hard but something I have been working on for years…at least in educational settings. 

Off to do more homework!