CALL FOR VOLUNTEER CO-MODERATORS for ICLS 20th Anniversary Celebration
On Friday November 16, 2018, ICLS will be hosting a conference to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The conference will feature program alums, current faculty and graduate students, and you (if you are interested). There will be three alum-graduate student panels followed by a break-out session. We’re hoping to find undergraduate CLS and MLS majors to co-lead a series of post-panel break out discussion sections in groups of three (two undergraduates and one graduate).
The break-out sessions are on the following topics:
Right Now: Everyone has power, albeit in different ways. By understanding precisely where we are each positioned within a structure—as workers throughout and around the university—we can devise ways to support each other in the short term. In the short term, these strategies of mutual aid include the politics of diversity, equity and inclusion; of scholarly feedback and career advice and emotional labor; and of the creation of communities of interest.
The Near Future: Labor politics will intensify in the university post-Janus, and in our university pre-contract. The development and maintenance of movements (and the moments that make it up) relies on individual relationships, but has to expand beyond them towards undefined solidarities in the near future. How might we think about forming diagonal solidarities: up and down the hierarchy, and across the entire campus, in continuation of a season of unrest?
A Long Game: How utopian is the utopian idea of the universe as a university, a space of uninterrupted and uncoerced learning? In the long run, we need a horizon for collective futures to motivate our personal choices. This means reopening questions about the political possibility of universal tertiary education and the social context that would make it meaningful.
These topics are intended as initial propositions – facilitators are encouraged to collaborate to sharpen and expand them.
The responsibilities include reading the panelists’ prepared remarks in advance and preparing some questions or remarks of your own to get the conversation started. We’re looking for volunteers! Let us know if you’d like to participate and if you have a preference for which discussion section you’d like to lead.
Please email ICLS Graduate Fellow Anayvelyse Allen-Mossman at aa2900@columbia to volunteer.
