josephine butlier's house by adolf loos

job search
not a peep on job search news. i think that all the candidates have been to miami by now. and they either deliberated and offered to someone else or they are deliberating during finals. i do not know where things stand at slu, but they likely have just brought their last person. i should have applied for other jobs. [but good news: there are jobs for me to apply to].

conference crisis
the foolishness with the conference continues in hideously unjust ways. i am learning precisely how much white men just don't want to give up their power. i am more keenly aware about how to strategize and how to be vigilant about implementation of agreements. (i might just need to resort to being vigilante about implementation). i am also learning about the power of email and how to use to build a case, to make claims, and to organize. i am also learning how few people are willing to creep out on a limb. it is lonely fighting with the administration.

i have all manner of agit-prop fantasies planned for the first weekend in january. last night, as i tossed and turned in my clenched slumber, i settled on stickers that wonder: can the subaltern speak? this is sort of professional suicide, my colleagues caution. despina and i maintain that we are fighting the good fight. we are. still, it is weird to see almost all of my senior colleagues cower and remain silent.

hope and joy: liturgy of the word
yesterday at Mass, i wanted to emphasize the message of the readings, on the third sunday in advent. so, we played a round of telephone. and a little pal in class, collin, just really wanted to cuddle at the end, as it was time for liturgy of the Eucharist. i tried hard not to cuddle him back but it was sweet and tender to be touched.

end of the semester
grade grubbing students abound and i keep repeating the same phrase to the undergrads: a B is not a bad grade. i was obligated to tell one woman that i wanted her to review the NYT piece that i distributed at the outset of the semester. i told her not to send me on more email this term. i told her that if she wants to communicate with me, she is to leave me a voice mail message, and i will reply as i see fit. i seriously wanted to claw her eyes out when we met in person. she kept going on and on and on with all manner of nonsense. i finally put my finger up in the air and told her to stop speaking. this is a familiar tangle i have had with students before. i don't let smart people coast. no amount of smiling smiling email or visits will help her get over at this point. she underestimated how seriously i take the work. i do not give out As. why don't they get this?

last week, i made a cut out figure of sasha baron cohen as borat and took it to the planning faculty mini-retreat. when jonathan, my chairperson, made comments i agreed with or thought were celebratory, i raised flat borat to grin and give the thumbs up. at the end of the meeting, when the dean's boosters were cheerleading for the conference, as i openly quarreled with my senior colleagues, i planted borat face down on the table.