A woman’s search for meaning: needlessly brutal and wholly ridiculous

The practice of teaching is communal – reading texts written by others, seeking examples, materials, time, tools, students and colleagues, the department, school, and the university. I value the critical discourse, the poking and prodding of ideas, the dismantling of form. All of this occurs in educational institutions that are 500 years old in the Americas and thousands of years old across the world.

What I have come to recognize is I am the institution despite how much I identify with the gen-x rejection of traditional institutions and authority. I believe the institution can be transmuted with like-minded colleagues who have similar interests and values even though we feel, at times, we are on the path alone. A recent conversation with a colleague resulted in envisioning our physical distance to something akin to a Common Mycelial Network – we are sending signals, support and resources. Sometimes we need more than intermittent signaling. We need more solid ground - in my presentation I share my manifesto - provide a framework for creating your own and share resources that I have found helpful in battle.