home cooked theory

End of semester MACS

In ‘The Mental Labour Problem’, Andrew Ross argues that ‘two generations of scholars now form a semipermanent cadre of independent contractors, with little or no prospect of advancement’ into regular, full-time employment in academic positions. For these scholars, a doctoral qualification has marked ‘not the beginning, but the end of their teaching career; they are [...]

Drought

I haven’t even given the first lecture yet, but the first year course is getting off to a great start. Apparently there are no available tutors for cultural studies in Brisbane, and the ones that want to tutor aren’t allowed to for their own good. What kind of work is this, that supervisors actively prevent [...]

Young people

Rowan writes: Mel, I’m curious about your statement… ‘it helps to be The Young Person when giving guest lectures like these…’ I am assuming from the capitalisation that you see this is as a stereotype of some sort or a construction, and one you obviously feel keenly when you give a guest lecture. When you [...]

Put another way…

Re-reading the amazing Roland Barthes collection, Image Music Text, I stumble upon a passage which seems to encapsulate so much of what I was trying to express in the last post. This is a section called ‘The Teaching Relationship’ and it begins by saying, ‘Imagine I am a teacher’: I speak, endlessly, in front of [...]

What makes a good lecture(r)?

This week I gave my first ever lecture on blogging. I’m not sure how it came about, really, aside from the equation: can lecture + has blog = the blogging lecturer. To me there’s something a bit wrong with this formulation. Then again, for time reasons I actually asked to give my lecture on blogging [...]

Theory in the classroom and in the plural

The past week I’ve been steeped in the theory and practice of pedagogy. I’m working on a paper about teaching cultural theory at the same time as I wade through end of semester assignments. Sounds like a symbiotic exercise, doesn’t it? But I’ve been struggling to funnel my many thoughts. I’m writing the paper in [...]

Tricks of the trade

Today I get to do something I’ve always wanted, and I’m sure will always want to do: give a seminar on writing. Oooh and I get to teach a night class for the first time, so I’m feeling all Workers’ Education vibe-y (alas yes, I know it’s really just another way for universities to make [...]

Teaching trivia

*Warning: Long and rambling quasi-academic musings follow.* I am really enjoying teaching this semester. Probably because I’m lucky enough not to have to do much. I am in a very weird position where I only teach one tutorial a week and do guest lectures for the rest of my contract. It’s a role that’s split [...]

one small victory for mel

The essays are in for CCST2220 (well, some of them – the “family crises” appeared on cue towards the end of last week) and for all you Australian Idol fans out there, how’s this for a nice piece of undergraduate cultural studies theorising: Judith Butler’s theory of performativity indicates that the contestants are in fact [...]

rebel without a degree

so yesterday was the mid-semester test for 2220. one student refused to answer any of the 50 questions on theories and theorists, instead choosing to scrawl random Foucault quotes on the coversheet (implying our thorough imbrication in institutions of disciplinarity) and walk out after five minutes. do we applaud the sophisticated grasp of the theory/practice [...]

« go back — keep looking »