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jawnbcWhat other career choices did you consider before U choose your current field?
There's a bit of a back story here. I was a very smart kid, a "gifted" one. I was reading university level literature in grade 4, eerily good with all sorts of numeracy, and used big honkin' words (polysyllabic) before I started kindergarten. And I was weird: I couldn't abide illogic, I reflexively had to question it. Da got his GED in the army; Ma did well in school but never went passed grade 12. And their upbringing was working poor. On one hand they were proud of me; in other ways found me too much to bear. But in hindsight what adult wouldn't find their 8 year-old correcting their grammar tedious? If not threatening.
So I got a mixed message about "being smart" at home, and stood out like a sore thumb among the other gifted kids (most of whose parents were professional with university degrees, often masters or PhDs). And I tumbled relentless in the crack of bitterness that laid between those two worlds. Ooh, sounds like an ABC After-school Special, eh: the honours student from the wrong side of the tracks! By the time I got to university I was a total mess--a bitter one to boot. So I viewed schooling in the most cynical way possible. Getting my BA was better than being the only (out) homo in the neighbourhood. And possible a way...elsewhere?
A BA in Communications from a so-so university prepared me for nothing besides bar-tending. When I graduated I had no idea what kind of work to seek. But I wanted out of New York City, and decided to follow a lot of my uni friends and move to Boston, eventually. After doing the European backpacking thang, I landed in Queens broke. So I needed to find a job to make some cash. I liked travelling, so I sought out entry level jobs in travel and tourism. Shit wages, good travel benefits.
I started as a reservation agent for This Lot. Then became a corporate travel agent for These Capitalist Swine (who treated me exceedingly well, I must admit). When I moved to Canada I worked in corporate travel, then leisure travel. The wages remained marginal and the benefits were being reduced all the time. I started training people for entry level jobs in tourism, which led me to go back to uni for a masters in adult ed. And ended up with a doctorate 5 1/2 years later.
if you had to choose just one Eurovision performance from YouTube to play while getting royally shagged, which one would it be?
a) Why?
b) How?
C.) And on a slightly less philosophical note, what's the story behind your user icon where you're wearing the orange plastic hair??
a.) I have experienced redemption. I was a mess until my late 20s, and through the good graces of many people I arrived in a place where I could have almost entirely whatever quality of life I chose, depending on how much I was willing to exert myself. I didn't really know how deeply I loathed myself until I didn't so much. Low self esteem felt awesome...for a while. After a couple of years I was ready to really get into processing my life. In order to move beyond it. I haven't take for granted my sanity and happiness since. I hope that wasn't too solemn for you...
b.) one day at a time. except on the tough days, then it's often one hour or one minute at a time.
C.) It's a still clip/capture from my greatest performance to date:
Given everything screwed up in academia, how are you making a difference by doing this with your life?
Having been a grassroots activist for 20+ years, I find academia a bit maddening at times, but not that bad considering. But I am in the most progressive city of a very progressive country. Up here most people feel that bringing religious dogma into public policy development is just wrong. So even "conservative" scholars I've interacted with have, for the most part, eschewed most of the social conservatism that makes being a queer academic challenging in so many other places. It remains a rather harsh liberal meritocracy in many ways though: what have you published, who's funded you and (to a much lesser degree) how well can you teach? Both my primary mentors from my PhuD were women who use the Academy to challenge hegemonies. They--and other profs I had--encouraged me to bring my activist experiences/orientation to the research enterprise. They counselled me well about how to simultaneously colour inside the lines (publish 'til your fingers are numb) without at all feeling like I've sold out.
The top secret aspect of my scholarship is revolutionary: use traditional university-based research to bring grassroots, local (in Foucauldian terms) subjugated knowledges into "the knowledge régime" of peer-reviewed literature. And to help communities to develop their own substantive, self-managed research capacity. When I was an activist the two things I heard most from public officials were "where is your evidence?" and "our data shows something different." If I didn't feel like I was providing either data or mechanisms to generate the sorts of "real" data government can't ignore, I wouldn't be here.
There's a bit of a back story here. I was a very smart kid, a "gifted" one. I was reading university level literature in grade 4, eerily good with all sorts of numeracy, and used big honkin' words (polysyllabic) before I started kindergarten. And I was weird: I couldn't abide illogic, I reflexively had to question it. Da got his GED in the army; Ma did well in school but never went passed grade 12. And their upbringing was working poor. On one hand they were proud of me; in other ways found me too much to bear. But in hindsight what adult wouldn't find their 8 year-old correcting their grammar tedious? If not threatening.
So I got a mixed message about "being smart" at home, and stood out like a sore thumb among the other gifted kids (most of whose parents were professional with university degrees, often masters or PhDs). And I tumbled relentless in the crack of bitterness that laid between those two worlds. Ooh, sounds like an ABC After-school Special, eh: the honours student from the wrong side of the tracks! By the time I got to university I was a total mess--a bitter one to boot. So I viewed schooling in the most cynical way possible. Getting my BA was better than being the only (out) homo in the neighbourhood. And possible a way...elsewhere?
A BA in Communications from a so-so university prepared me for nothing besides bar-tending. When I graduated I had no idea what kind of work to seek. But I wanted out of New York City, and decided to follow a lot of my uni friends and move to Boston, eventually. After doing the European backpacking thang, I landed in Queens broke. So I needed to find a job to make some cash. I liked travelling, so I sought out entry level jobs in travel and tourism. Shit wages, good travel benefits.
I started as a reservation agent for This Lot. Then became a corporate travel agent for These Capitalist Swine (who treated me exceedingly well, I must admit). When I moved to Canada I worked in corporate travel, then leisure travel. The wages remained marginal and the benefits were being reduced all the time. I started training people for entry level jobs in tourism, which led me to go back to uni for a masters in adult ed. And ended up with a doctorate 5 1/2 years later.
if you had to choose just one Eurovision performance from YouTube to play while getting royally shagged, which one would it be?
a) Why?
b) How?
C.) And on a slightly less philosophical note, what's the story behind your user icon where you're wearing the orange plastic hair??
a.) I have experienced redemption. I was a mess until my late 20s, and through the good graces of many people I arrived in a place where I could have almost entirely whatever quality of life I chose, depending on how much I was willing to exert myself. I didn't really know how deeply I loathed myself until I didn't so much. Low self esteem felt awesome...for a while. After a couple of years I was ready to really get into processing my life. In order to move beyond it. I haven't take for granted my sanity and happiness since. I hope that wasn't too solemn for you...
b.) one day at a time. except on the tough days, then it's often one hour or one minute at a time.
C.) It's a still clip/capture from my greatest performance to date:
Given everything screwed up in academia, how are you making a difference by doing this with your life?
Having been a grassroots activist for 20+ years, I find academia a bit maddening at times, but not that bad considering. But I am in the most progressive city of a very progressive country. Up here most people feel that bringing religious dogma into public policy development is just wrong. So even "conservative" scholars I've interacted with have, for the most part, eschewed most of the social conservatism that makes being a queer academic challenging in so many other places. It remains a rather harsh liberal meritocracy in many ways though: what have you published, who's funded you and (to a much lesser degree) how well can you teach? Both my primary mentors from my PhuD were women who use the Academy to challenge hegemonies. They--and other profs I had--encouraged me to bring my activist experiences/orientation to the research enterprise. They counselled me well about how to simultaneously colour inside the lines (publish 'til your fingers are numb) without at all feeling like I've sold out.
The top secret aspect of my scholarship is revolutionary: use traditional university-based research to bring grassroots, local (in Foucauldian terms) subjugated knowledges into "the knowledge régime" of peer-reviewed literature. And to help communities to develop their own substantive, self-managed research capacity. When I was an activist the two things I heard most from public officials were "where is your evidence?" and "our data shows something different." If I didn't feel like I was providing either data or mechanisms to generate the sorts of "real" data government can't ignore, I wouldn't be here.
