Thomas Scheff on Michael Billig:
"In my view, Billig's use of discourse analysis has the potential of transforming an entire field of endeavor. Although Billig modestly claims only to clarify Freud's theory of repression, the book lays the groundwork for a complete re-statement of psychoanalytic theory as a whole. By focusing on the details of dialogue, Billig's work portends a psychoanalytic theory and method that is virtually new."
The Stoics distinguished between the skopos (intentions) and telos (results) of an action.
More recently, it seems this distinction has been conflated.
This guy went for the big one with his thesis: What Hath Bakhtin Wrought?
Toward a Unified Theory of
Literature and Composition.
Find this! Stuart Hall on Ethnicity and the Discursive Turn.
Here's another one: Taking the discursive turn: Critical studies in language, discrimination and schooling.
This social movement study,
COLLECTIVE IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN BLACK ABOLITIONIST DISCOURSE, adopts an approach in which movement discourse is viewed as a networked field of concepts from which arguments are fashioned. This approach requires an examination of the socio-cognitive structure of a discourse, an analysis of its rhetoric, as well as its ideological foundations."
Interpreting is akin to translation. Translators work with written texts, and have time with which to consider structure, meaning, flow. Interpreters work in the moment, utlizing judgment, mediating relationships as much as any information transfer in the communicative process.
"Translation produces out of seeming 'incommensurabilitiess...neither an absence of relationship between dominant and dominating forms of knowledge nor equivalents that successfully mediate between differences, but precisely the opague relationship we call 'difference'" (Chakrabarty, 2000: 17).
"I take gods and spirits to be existentially coeval with the human, and think from the assumption that the question of being human involves the question of being with gods and spirits" (Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2000:16).
Just read this word in the introduction to Dipesh Chakrabarty's Provincializing Europe. In the particular context it reads negatively, as though "necessary" and "incipient" are inherently contradictory (p. 15).
Actually, there's no specific statement from Pope Benedict XVI in this article, Vatican condemns Spain gay bill, but he clearly didn't want to take any time to think it over.
Sent via email from a friend.
I went to the opening of The Interpreter tonight with my favorite odd couple...great acting but the story was, well, just a story.
There was hardly any interpreting: a few flawlessly delivered scenes from the booth, and one short small group meeting. Obviously the interpreter has to manage her emotions in the face-to-face setting, which she does (of course). Then hesitates only slightly before breaking confidentiality with UN Security.
Well, the write-up in Newsweek (Dec 13, 2004) got me interested. I like the notion of examining things from a variety of perspectives. Not sure if I'm ready for seven variations on being obsessed with a former lover. At least not yet. *sigh*
The freedom of services directive (the famous Bolkenstein text) and the forthcoming referendum on the constitutional treaty in France. Neither is likely to make it to the floor of the House this month but should be a topic of debate in group meetings, press briefings and at the bars.
Check out the EP website to download the preliminary agenda.
MOST is the electronic journal put out by UNESCO that Jackie wants me to check out. It does look good. :-)
James passed on this piece by Neera Chandhoke while ago, thinking it might assist me with Marta's paper. I'm not so sure about that, but I think it will help w/ my project in Europe this summer. :-)
I should also keep my eyes on the website where this was originally posted: openDemocracy.net.
I feel like I've missed a report or several.
Ana Elisa, Sam really wants to hear from all of you! Mangeca, what's up lately? Cheryl, Sam wanted you to know that both he and Bill are glad you're back (from your trip in March). Jennifer, no, Sam didn't wear his bunny ears for Easter this year. :-(
I think it was Peter Flynn from Paula's class last semester who had a book by David Roediger with him. Definitely stuff to check out:
Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past
Whiteness of a Different Color traces European immigration to the U.S., 1840's-1920's. When the "roots" of the legacies us white folks have inherited were deeply laid.
Has anyone read this, by Jonathan Safran Foer?
Hey - check out HotType!
Carolyn's very own Kimi Takesue has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Congratulations, Kimi!
Thoughtful questioning is more important than construction of systems (Moran summarizing Heidegger 246)… can thoughtful questioning itself be structuring in a systemic way? Seeds are sown – production, address, negation, accessibility – a trajectory will unfold, its velocity overdetermined by dissent, assertion, resistance, negotiation. A group forms within the limits of language, guided by what ideology/ies? A Marxist view juxtaposes persons with historical movement; Marcuse claims Heidegger accounts for the bourgeois deconstruction of social life from within (Moran, 245). Are we transcendentally homeless?
“We are caught up in a structure of care…it is not a matter of indifference to us” (Moran, 241).
The labor walkout yesterday was amazingly successful! The Collegian's coverage focuses on the rally, which they say "Within an hour...reached a peak of nearly 1,000 people." Of course, this is only a fraction of the thousands who refused to attend classes in solidarity.
Many comm-grads and faculty were present, spoke, walked out of classes, picketed, and otherwise supported the effort.
"Social" implies relationship, refers to communal activity and the boundaries between public and private, and presupposes structures of human Being.
Activism is defined as conscious action to achieve a desired result.
Social activism, then, is intentional activity that seeks to achieve change in modes of human organization.
Looks like I might get to experience the standing in line for hours hope they get to me before they close experience at the U.S. Embassy in Boston...
The site I looked at before (with a 2-day turn-around via phone) was for British citizens. ARGH!
Yes, this is a title track by Sarah Mclachlin. I"m not sure if the lyrics or tone is what we might want to project, but I had the mental association as I was thinking about "the footage" as a model for publicity.
Also, what is Future Search?
global-local nexus
psychic coherence
foot fetishizing (!) no no no. It's sneaky publicity!!!!
I really wanna send my "seriously" snapshot to reddirt....
labor extension people? when/how/who else do we bring in?
the DEPARTURE matters
the performative nature of questioning: "every seeking gets guided beforehand by what is sought" (Heidegger, Being and Time, in Moran, Intro to Phenomenology, p. 236.)
Donna! "When biography matters." Not only Heidegger, but Althusser, who murdered his wife.
A reprise of the "mentoring" project? Really, the "international and domestic relations climate" project.
Nice section on the European identity crisis, historically premised upon negative forms of identification (vs Others) and unity (geographically and symbolically bounded).
Anna is a cutie-pie!!!!!! Her ma and pa are looking pretty durn good too. That new parent glow. It is a glow - she's not a crier and they've even been getting some sleep! I got to hold that squirmy little being for awhile - she definitely knew I wasn't one of the biological parental units, such muscles in her neck already! Eight days old, a good strong grip, focus, sound-sight coordination....let's see, she's going to grow up trilingual and whatcha wanna bet all the love from those proud parents is gonna seep so deep into her bones she'll hardly ever have a sad day. :-)
Well. Sam and I didn't talk too much today. We were busy fiddling with the internet connection and laptop. It's not quite functional yet, but hopefully by tomorrow morning Sam will be able to be online with his own email account and a CAMERA so that he and I (and anyone else who has "ichat" or equivalent?) can talk and see each other by live action video.
David sends on this http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BF020769-742C-4053-A0C6-35F01B971241.htm">this news about Egyptian presidential candidate Nawal al-Saadawi.
al-Saadawi will be a candidate for the Egyptian presidency pending reforms to the The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt.. The Constitution was previously reformed in 1980.
"I'm from that old-school feminist school that believes that so much of our personal is political, so the distinction seems arbitrary. Being political without being personal must be the exercise of privileged white men who can talk politics in the abstract without having to think about what it feels like to be called 'nigger' in the Castro, or 'faggot' at your black church." ~ Tim'm West, in bitch, issue no. 28. Interviewed by Matthue Roth.
I want to attend this so badly! Discourse Nexus 3.0
Steve, from the Habermas reading group, passes on this website, The Foucault Society and also mentioned "todd may's book [on] deleuze" . . .
What is a Schengen visa?
Looks like he's gotten a reprieve, however the attack has morphed into new forms, so he's not out of danger. Here's the overview from the "Defend Dissent" website:
GEO is calling for a 'No Business as Usual' grad employee walk-out and student boycott on Thursday, April 21. Full details are at http://people.umass.edu/geo/a21.html. This is planned in conjunction with Take Back UMass, which has been fighting the administration's anti-diversity initiatives for the past few years.
Danny - , esp. "the footage".
all - DREAM! Who do we want to ATTEND - who are our friends, colleagues, peers from everywhere that we want to be able to afford to come?
2nd is the brainstorm of "big names"...
$$$$ - figure the budget based on the dream; go from there.
affordability for grads, non-students? Faculty pay more? All in our dept complimentary, of course. :-)
online - what Saskia Sassen spoke about today: positioning, locating a digitally interactive terrain inside the territoriality of the nation-state that inhabits and sets in motion volocities of possibility - "the work of making" (my emphasis).
Oy. I just bailed on the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness conference. None of the presenters were bad, it's just that they conform to the structure of making academic presentations ABOUT the object of study, rather than doing/being the subjects of study. Highlight? Meeting VJ. :-)
I'll go to the liminal lecture by Carlos Tanner tonight - hopefully it will be better.
I went to the plenary at the World Systems Conference this morning, and it was dynamic as all get out! Saskia Sassen turned me on. :-) Immanual Wallerstein set an important tone for the conference with his keynote last night, but he's not the most dynamic speaker. He might be in Spanish, but his pacing in English was a bit tough.
Of course, I'm envisioning the COM dept's proposed/potential conference for next year...
"You're dressed up! What's the event?"
"You're in a dress!"
"Do you have an interview with the Provost?"
"Who are you and what did you do with Steph?!"
"I don't think I've ever seen you in a skirt before."
"I like it."
This anxiety is wicked - in the not fun sense. :-( I am trying to piece together outfits from what I already own and inexpensively purchased skirts from the Salvation Army. I'm afraid I look downright silly. sigh. No doubt I'll hear about it.
Is solipsism an attempt at control - to order the universe, refute or seek to deny the effects of stochasticism?
For instance, I know someone who occasionally describes themself as "insular", which may be true. It's one thing, though, to hold one's own counsel, and another to create a worldview and interpretation of events and others that excludes other viewpoints. I think this is what solipsism really means? This piece, Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds. I have to grapple with how this relates to and interacts with intersubjectivity. Or plural singularity, as we discussed in Briankle's class last night based on Jean-Luc Nancy's piece, "Banks, Edges, Limits (of singularity)".
Now, if they had just waited a month I could have been there for this historic vote!
"Bulgaria, Romania gain EU entry
Both countries still need to reforms to ensure membership
STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union in 2007, but said both countries still need to make reforms."
Uh oh. According to the travel documents site, yes. Belgium, France, and Germany are all Schengen states, and all told I will be there for more than three months. Do not panic. There is still time.
The German Embassy.
Anna entered the world "this morning (Monday) at 9.30 am. Anna's birthweight is 7.3 pounds (3.3 kgs)."
Email from a proud papa.
WELCOME, ANNA!
Can we effect change on the massive institution known as UMass? We're going to find out, April 21.
Uh oh. This could be a real problem. Hope it comes up soon. Here's the post I wanted to make in the "Stuck in a Rut" thread:
James - Future Search?
Shemaya and Kathy.
Kirsten just checked in about the ladybugs around the house. It's a springtime New England thing, I think? It's happened in the houses I've lived in here - Halifax, Dummerston. Now at Carolyn's. She said they're following me. Don't I wish! Once I got 35 painted stone ladybugs for my birthday. I miss I miss. sigh
But it is an absolutely GORGEOUS day, and I'm on a roll. Grief (loss) is simply becoming a permanent part of my embodied existence. And - I have not become bitter. That is an achievement.
The Pope's funeral was earlier today, and - as Ingrid noted - bell hooks didn't say word one about it.
I had thought she'd made an oblique reference to it by saying she wanted "to be in the chapel", but George agreed with Ingrid that hooks was referring to the presentation space. Obviously I soaked up NPR's repetitive coverage (as in, was permeated by it): how else could I have made such an inference?
But the conversation got me wondering why she didn't say anything about John Paul's mass, and curious how deliberate it was.
Donna - Heidegger - his exchange with ... that guy who confronted him (DRP).
S:D, L:D.
vision
phenomenology
esoteric knowledge
This is the analytic philosopher Bern was talking about who argues against materialism.
He even has his own weblog - lots of stuff relating to perception. Hunju!
I've been trying to track info on Carlo Suares, but can't find any details about his background, training, etc. I am finding other interesting things!
Some physics from way beyond.
Info on Sufism.
Well. For all the angst I went through the dress was a bit of a let down. My students just took it as a performance, as in not real, or otherwise downplayed it. Or so the discussion went. Several people admitted to a bit of a jolt when they first saw me, a couple of students blurted something out immediately. :-) Nothing bad. :-)
Started seeing Kate again.
Was exhausted, still, this morning after 9 hours of sleep. Chattered away like Hannah Mae on happy gas. :-) Processed my experience in Enoch's class Tuesday afternoon....need to journal about that! Feeling a bit s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d with everything I need to get done before leaving (in a month!), and also with the strain (?) of shifting among the various life currents I'm being swept along in/am in the flow of.
Only saw Sam for a few minutes today - he was on his way to Walmart. Looked all chipper, too. :-)
I talked with both Penny and Karen about doing laptop stuff with Sam this summer as an official "activity". And asked Betty about finding out which nurses and aides use computers at home, so we can figure out who else might be able to help Sam get online.
Several very important things happened in the small group comm class on Tuesday.
Meg and Nikki argued vigorously with me (!) about various issues with the blog (one of the group "issues" identified by the class). Did someone say "stepping up?"
Drew reported for the group he was involved with, which had four miscellaneous issues to address. The first one was respect, or rather, a general lack of respect within the class. I wanted more specifics - what constitutes a "lack" of "respect" - how does one know that's what is going on? What are the clues?
Wow. :-)
My students (gotta love the possessive) are doing it. A bunch of them seemed down on their energy today, but then I was kinda down with my own too.
It's all because of western science. Really! "Mathematics, vision, philosophy. And the next thing you know we have capitalism!"
Maybe you had to be there, but it was the heartiest laugh in Enoch's class tonight, that and going down the Juan path.
We did the Hebrew letter-numbers, the archetypes of 1-9.
I'm a bit worried some of my own writing reads like this after the frenzy of immersion wears off. Be sure to click through to the shopping cart.
The revised code of ethics includes:
Tenet 4.2
“Interpreters recognize the right of consumers to make informed decisions. Choices could include but are not limited to, selection of interpreter, seating arrangements, and interpreting dynamics.”
Jennifer sends along this quote:
"The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't."
-- Henry Ward Beecher
# 184 in the section on "practical morality" in In pursuit of virtue: Al-Akhlâq wa’l-Siyar (Morals and Behaviour) By Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi describes these in a bit more detail.
"It's awesome, isn't it?"
Yep. An exquisite chocolate mousse and flan-like pudding for dessert. So rich I had to take an hour break in-between!
Several people said this was "the best" so far. I'm inclined to agree. I have no idea what happened in the kitchen tonight. At a certain point, some momentum just took over and I was just not in that stream. Which means I actually got to mingle!
Two of the three chefs just left. The third hasn't arrived. No, I'm not stressing! Guests will begin to arrive in...thirty minutes or so. We have 1/2 a meal, the half operating on Porto time. The Lisbon half may be ready by midnight, but hey, we'll be really ready for it by then!
