Reflection

Writing about teaching is an odd thing to me. I did it once a while back -- a co-authored piece with a good friend and colleague -- and it was nice because I was leaving the campus where we had taught together and it was our last project together, a way to process the three classes we had shared on Wednesday evenings in winter terms. This time, I did it on my own as a way to process a course that was very much unlike any others I had taught. And thanks to the popularity of civic engagement in higher education these days, an on-line journal dedicated to such topics was happy to publish it.

Done.

Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by
Standing on the corner, underneath the springtime sky
Brother you can't go to jail for what you're thinking
Or for the "oooh" look in your eye
You're only standing on the corner, watching all the girls
Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by.

(Frank Loesser, “Standing on the Corner,” from the musical “The Most Happy Fella,” 1956)


Well, I think the girl watching article is finally done. Of course, I haven't submitted it anywhere before, so there are certainly more rounds of revisions to be made based on readers' reports. For the moment, however, I declare it done.



And just to be sure that I let it go, I even sent it on its way tonight.

Bye-bye, little article, see you in 4-6 months. Be strong.

Why blog?

Well, there are scholarly outlets for the work I'm doing on public space, but I want a place where my personal experiences and half-baked ideas can play along with my more academic and intellectual interpretations. After all, I may be all credentialed up as a scholar, but I am still a woman and I still negotiate allegedly "public" spaces everyday from that vantage point -- I watch people, I get harassed, I wait in lines to pee, I go to marches and rallies, I follow the rules of engagement (mostly), and I wonder about why my world looks like it does and how that built environment shapes my perception of what is right, good, and possible...

I started doing this type of pondering on my "regular" blog, so I think I will copy those posts and paste them up here. Unfortunately, I'll lose the comments they generated, but you can go look for them on Yesterdaylooksgood, if you are interested.