“There is a new ilk of academics and scholars. We are queer, trans, of color and culture; from the working-class; we are deaf; tattooed and pierced up; we teach from wheelchairs or wield canes; we don’t change our registers, we don’t think we have to; we are the first ones. We are the academics who embody difference in ways that are very visible. We upset the academy’s investment in sociocultural normativity, whiteness, and class mobility.
“We speak truth to power: Our materiality puts people on the edge. We remind our departments that their perception of diversity calls for a safe production of race, gender, sexuality, and culture. What’s the point of these diversity initiatives if they refuse to acknowledge reality: Diversity isn’t about some monolithic tokenized person the academy “lets in” on the condition this said person doesn’t get too uppity or forget their place.
“This is a call for submissions: Write your stories (academic or creative pieces, or a mixture of both) of observations, experiences, theories:those moments when you alone challenged some unspoken given in the academy. Write about that sexist prick in the department who’s always rude to you when you’re making Xerox copies. Write.
“Send a 500 word abstract, 2 page single-space proposal, or 5-7 page working draft, and an SASE to: R. Burgess, Ohio University, Ellis Hall, Athens, OH 45701, E-mail: cerasse@gmail.com by June 16th 2006.”
Via Blackademic.com.
