Out of intellectual curiosity and as part of a research project I am involved with, since April, I have attended several tea parties and rallies against government (also known as socialism to them) or taxes or health care or illegal immigrants or Obama, which seem to be one and the same argument from the average Joes and Janes in these groups if not from their leaders. These conservative groups are not cookie cutter activist organizations but some of the ingredients of their cookies are the same. They have some overlapping interests, for example, that eerily harken towards a more (or rather differently) racist, colonial time. Some seem to have grown out of a disgust with economic policies, others with social policies. Together they have more voice but also more dissension. One woman told me that she had never been a racist before, but Obama was making her “a little bit racist” and she seemed very annoyed by this – a racist victim as opposed to a victim of racism? As an out liberal, I am approaching this with as much objectivity and least judgment as possible by trying to understand what, besides fear and anger, is driving the movements and the individuals who join them. I don’t have any deep analytical or revolutionary soundbites for you yet but I do have a lot of interesting stories.

I spoke with a man the other day who was explaining to me why he is a fiscally conservative, socially liberal Libertarian. As a good interviewer, I listened, nodded and asked probing questions but did not respond to his personal inquiries or provocative statements which, I think, he uttered in hopes of getting a rise out of me. He was also a little bit drunk. Fortunately the interview happened earlier than we planned. He asked if I would care to interview him during a “killer happy hour” at bar. Um, no thanks. He told me that I should be proud of my personal freedoms because I am “obviously a woman” (whatever that means) and if it were not for personal freedoms, I would not be able to vote, would not be interviewing him, or getting a PhD. In fact, he said, I would probably be mopping floors somewhere. Really? He also told me I was easy to talk to and touched my arm several times. It was not appropriate behavior for an interview. I wanted to ask if flirting was a personal freedom or a right? For him. I was annoyed but decided to pick a different battle this day and used the scenario to my advantage by getting information I might not have gotten had I been someone else.

This also points to the politics of research that include gender, race, and class. I’m certain this man would have responded differently to a man, or a person of color, or even to an older person. It’s interesting to work in a research team because we try to consider these identity, cultural, and political economic influences to our advantage when deciding who interviews who.

The last few chaotic months have finally reached the listless blogger buried deep in the caverns of my overworked brain. And also I’m procrastinating. I’m supposed to be on vacation, sort of, but I had hoped to use this week in between teaching gigs to finish transcribing the last of my English interviews from Fargo for my dissertation. I completed a couple, but I can’t seem to find the energy to finish the rest, and I’m seriously contemplating paying someone to do it for me. It takes a fast transcriber, like me, at least four hours to type a one-hour interview and that is if the interviewees speak clearly in a quiet room. Those interviews that I have left are the ones with loud, distracting background noises like coffee grinders, music, clinking dishes, and others’ nearby conversations and make for a frustrating listen. Transcription is an important part of my job as a cultural anthropologist. I love conducting interviews and speaking with people and the interviews provide rich insight, but transcribing is tedious and time-consuming but also very necessary in order to accurately capture what people are saying and thinking about topics. I recorded about 60 interviews while I was in Fargo and thanks to a lot of help from undergraduate students, I only have nine left in English and four in Bosnian to transcribe. It would take me at least 8 hours to type a one-hour interview in Bosnian so I have reached out to colleagues in other countries to help me find a native speakers to do those but it could be a while before I find a person, much less until he or she finishes typing those interviews. In the meantime, I listen to them for bits and pieces that I can use in my analysis.

Last week (or was it the week before?) classes ended, I finished entering my grades and spent last weekend cavorting with friends who graduated with their PhDs while daydreaming about this time next year when it will be me wearing the funny-looking gown and poofy hat, secretly and maybe even openly, loving the new Dr. title. But I have a lot to do before that happens, like write the dissertation, enter the increasingly competitive job market, and teach two 4-week summer classes: Gender in a Cross-Cultural Perspective and Gender, Folklore, Inequality. Fortunately, I have much fodder to use in those summer classes, like the murders of Dr. Tiller and at the Holocaust Museum not to mention so many other instances of violence that haven’t made front page news, all of which have so much to do with racism, sexism, classism, politics, economy and culture. For my second summer class, I have a unit on Iran where can discuss varying perspectives on why Iran’s electoral process seems to be running amok and the role of gender in that context. I taught a class both winter and spring terms too (Gender in a Cross-Cultural Perspective and Anthropology and Citizenship). More and more I feel teaching is my calling – or at least my profession of choice – so the shrunken academic job market worries me. Like the rest of my friends, I have plans A,B,C,D,E, and F but my first choice would be a university teaching job in a city with lot of diversity and a way for me to continue working with refugees not to mention a place to settle down and dig my feet into the community and feel at home for more than a few years.

In addition to teaching, about a month ago, I organized a talk by my friend Jen Marlowe, documentary filmmaker, author, and activist in Sudan and Israel/Palestine. Her latest film is Rebuilding Hope, a documentary about three Sudanese Lost Boys in their 20s who return to South Sudan for the first time since they fled the war as young boys. Jen gave a talk at the University of Oregon about her time in Darfur filming Darfur Diaries and in South Sudan and made the best, necessary connections I have seen between the two regions which are too often portrayed by Western media as separate entities. Thanks to professor friends who offered extra credit to students as incentive for coming to the talk, and the support of the local Lane County Darfur Coalition who also helped advertise, we had almost 100 people come to hear Jen speak and I raised $650 from various departments on campus which Jen is donating to her two projects. And I got to spend time with Jen and our friend Caroline, a PhD student in Human Geography, who drove with Jen from Seattle to Eugene. The last time we were together (and the first time I met Jen) was in South Sudan last summer so we had much to catch up on. Caroline and I are working on an article about women’s rights movements in South Sudan that we hope to submit to a feminist academic journal within the next few weeks, a project we have been working on for about a year. Weekends like these make me feel very lucky and appreciative to have the amazing kinds of friends that I do but also to be working in a setting, like a university, where feminist activist scholars can come together and discuss ways to best combat various forms of oppression. I love it!

Like my spring, my summer will not only be filled with teaching, researching, and writing but also hiking, camping, weddings, and BBQs galore. And I’m moving again! After all, it has been a year and thus time to change the scenery. This time, at the end of August, I”m moving out of my adorable, cavernous and expensive one-bedroom apartment in an attic into a to-be-determined home with a roommate who understands the dissertation-writing zone because she just finished hers and has promised to take care of me while I write mine. Did I mention how appreciative I am of my friends?

Happy Summer to all of you. I hope your weather is more indicative of summer than Eugene’s cool, breezy, cloudiness that is making me want to curl up with a cup of tea and good work of fiction and not get up until the sun does.

December 14, 1988
Last night I made 52 Ritz/PB/almond bark cookie crackers. Actually I made more, but that’s as much left as my family (and I) ate a couple. I also finished my homework at a decent time, practiced 1 1/2 hours of piano, cleaned my room, and got to bed by 10:20! Not bad for also having early BB practice. Tonight we don’t have practice but do have confirmation. I also want to shoot baskets in the gym while my parents walk after church. I can’t wait for Christmas vacation…I’ve been hoping to have a party New Year’s Eve, my dad’s all for it, but my mom says NO WAY. I hope my dad can overpower my mom this time. My only problem is the kid’s I don’t invite will find out. I’ll feel terrible, not to mention them…
Today in English we got our essay tests from Great Expectations, the first half and and I got 71 out of 90. Luckily we were graded on a curve and I got an A with the highest score!! I know I can’t believe it either!!! Unfortunately, we also got our History tests back. I got 54 of out 70!!! A C!!! History’s one of my better subjects. I always get As in there. Well almost always…
Tonight would you believe I have NO HOMEWORK. I don’t, but I guess that means practice, practice, practice!!! Piano and horn, horn, horn! I guess I hve a math/algebra test tomorrow but I studied last night. I better take Earth Science home because there’s test on Friday. Gotta go.

December 15, 1988
Today we have a basketball game in Pipestone at 4:15. I hope I don’t flub up!! I hope there’s a lot of Luvernians there to cheer us on. My dad’ coming but my mom’s not. Playing forward is a tough job, we don’t get enough credit!
I just got home from our game in Pipestone. Our A team lost 12 to 9 and B team lost too, but I don’t know what their score was. Ya know, forwards do NOT get enough recognition for their job. Rebounding and putting it back up is harder than people know. Especially when you’re guarding 51 or otherwise called “Moose.” It’s not fair.

Now that I think about it, looking back on Christmas as a child and how everyone believed in Santa. I remember one year, I must have been about a first grader or so and I was at my cousin’s house. Kurt, who’s A LOT older than me was talking to my dad, I overheard, about his trip to the North Pole. I asked him if he saw Santa Claus or his reindeer. He said no. I was SO disappointed!!! Wouldn’t that be great if there really was a Santa Claus just like in the movie “Santa Claus.” It’s too bad kids are thinking of technology things like satellites and Santa at the same time.

December 14, 1988

Last night I made 52 Ritz/Peanut Butter/Almond bark cookie crackers. Actually I made more but that’s left as my family (and I) ate a couple. I also finished my homework at a decent time, practiced 1 1/2 hours of piano, cleaned my room, and got to bed by 10:20! Not bad for also having early BB practice. Tonight we don’t have practice, but do have confirmation. I also want to shoot baskets in the gym while my parents walk after church. I can’t wait for Christmas vacation…I’ve been hoping to have a party New Year’s Eve. My dad’s all for it by my mom says NO WAY. I hope my dad can overpower my mom this time. My only problem is the kids I don’t invite will find out. I’ll feel terrible…

Today in English we got our essay tests from Great Expectations, the first half, and I got 71 out of 90. Luckily we were graded on a curve and I got an A with the highest score!!! I know. I can’t believe it either!!! Unfortunately we also got our History tests back. I got 54 out of 70!!! A C!!!! History’s one of my better subjects. I always get As in there. Well almost always…

Tonight would you believe I have NO HOMEWORK!!? I don’t, but I guess that means practice, practice, practice!!! Piano and horn, horn, horn! I guess I have a math/Algebra test tomorrow, but I studied last night. I better take Earth Science home because there’s a test on Fri. Gotta Go.

December 15, 1988
Today we have a basketball game in Pipestone at 4:15. I hope I don’t flub up!! I hope there’s a lot of Luvernians there to cheer us on…Playing forward is a tough job, we don’t get enough credit!

I just got home from our game in Pipestone. Our A team lost 22 to 9 and B team lost too, but I don’t know what their score was. Ya know, forwards do not get enough recognition for their job. Rebounding, and putting it back up is harder than people know. Especially when you’re guarding 51, or otherwise called “Moose.” It’s not fair.

[To the left of this entry is a Family Circus cartoon strip that reads: "How can Santa see us all the way from the North Pole...By satellite."] I saw this card in the paper and I had to cut it out…Some kids are so naive, including myself. Now that I think about it, looking back on Christmas as a child and how everyone believed in Santa. I remember one year, I must have been about a first grader or so, and I was at my cousin’s house. Kurt who’s A LOT older than me was talking to my dad. I overheard about his trip to the North Pole. I asked him if he saw Santa Claus or his reindeer. He said no. I was SO disappointed!! Wouldn’t that be great if there actually was a Santa Claus just like in the movie, “Santa Claus”? It’s too bad kids are thinking of technology things like satellites and Santa at the same time.

Rather than providing you a dry summation of the history of Memorial Day, which you can find here, and at risk for sounding blasé about this day of remembrance for those who have died in honor of the U.S.A. (presumably through military service), I decided that I should remember those who have been checking my blog for new posts only to find that I seemed to have disappeared. I sincerely think it’s important to acknowledge those who have served the nation but I would like to see the definition of “service” broadened beyond the military. For example, I would like to think that one of the many reasons for my lack of Internet communication is due to my own service to “the” nation as an activist/researcher/instructor. Questioning the motives behind the state and the nation (e.g. the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or Hurricane Katrina), even a willingness to die for such causes, doesn’t seem to be as honorable as taking up arms to protect that state. So this weekend I am remembering those who have served the nation in many capacities whether they wore the uniform or not.

When I was young, we celebrated Memorial Day by going either to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, my mom’s family’s country church in Northwest Iowa, or to Old Westbrook Lutheran Church, my dad’s family country church in Southwest Minnesota. We wore fake poppies, brought real flowers to plant graveside, and visited tombstones where many of the four to five generations of my Norwegian American ancestors are buried. In the church basements, we ate heavily buttered ham sandwiches, potato salad, and of course several varieties of jello and bars, and then went to relatives’ farms for fun family times. If it sounds like Normal Rockwell, it was, with plenty of behind-the-scenes drama a la Garrison Keillor to boot, not that I was aware of it most of the time. I remember these days as idyllic and it’s times like those that make me nostalgic for my rural Midwest roots. But times have changed for better and for worse. I haven’t been to either of those churches since my grandma died in 2001 and my understanding is that such churches and small communities are suffering in these difficult economic times. Today, I would question the homogeneity of the region but I think that is slowly changing too. In any case, I’m glad I remember.

In 2009, I’m not doing anything specific for the holiday. I have plans with friends, plans to work and go running and hiking, and to catch up on this blog. I have been trying to set aside time outside of my social and professional life to do things that, before grad school, I used to enjoy and had time for, like beading (I mostly make necklaces), reading the printed Sunday NY Times (I have about four months to catch up on), writing in my journal (I would much rather write in my journal than twitter!), and playing music (thanks to a friend who donated his casio to me). I have been working hard these last two terms: teaching classes, participating in several conferences, organizing talks, finally beginning to work on my dissertation, and writing grants. I got a nice grant (one of seven I applied for) so that beginning next fall, I will not have to teach and I can devote all of my time to my dissertation in addition to entering the terrifying academic job market (there are almost no jobs right now so I’ll be lucky to get a postdoc and may have to consider jobs outside of academia). Before that, however, I am preparing to teach two summer classes over the course of 8 weeks so no rest for the weary grad student anytime soon. I have also been doing more than my share of socializing with great friends and work has taken a back burner since last week when the picture-perfect Oregon spring weather arrived for good.

Speaking of which, I’m off to dinner with friends and to enjoy more of the weather.

What or who are you remembering this weekend?

I’m on my way to Santa Fe for the applied anthropology conference. It has been a long winter and even longer 10-week term but it’s over and I’m giddy with excitement for the trip and because I”m drinking my second Americano of the morning. I had very fun social weekend with BFFs from Alaska (Shayna, Kevin, and Boy Child), attending dissertation celebrations (congrats Courtney!!), and a 40th birthday party. And I managed to write a mostly new conference paper for Santa Fe and work out in between gigs. My spirits are high. When I return from Santa Fe I plan to spend a few days in Portland with friends, shopping at used clothes stores and of course book and music stores. I will also coffee a lot, in cool urban cafes where I can work on my class for spring term: the Anthropology of Citizenship. I hope to write more over the next two weeks, before the onslaught of spring term.

It’s week 10 of 10 in our winter term at the University of Oregon and today was my last lecture. We talked about resistance to multiple forms of oppression and domination. For 10 weeks we have been talking about culture, politics, economy, militarism, masculinity, femininity, family, and so on – the ways they inform our everyday lives in positive and negative ways. Sometimes the material can feel “depressing,” especially to those students (many of whom are privileged in various ways), who have not thought about such things before. I like to end on a positive note, make sure they understand that people do not passively accept conditions that attempt to keep them oppressed, and that we all have some power and agency not to blindly subscribe to or perpetuate oppression and to question boundaries that attempt to prevent us from resisting. There are as many countless examples of resistance as there are domination. I asked my students to bring examples and they brought some great art, music, alternative media, literature – one student even wrote a poem. I brought some music from Nina Simona because I think she is particularly poignant on the topic of art and music as resistance:

Four Women

Why [the King of Love is Dead]

P.S. I recently bought Nina Simone: Protest Anthology. I highly recommend it!

[Reminder: all spelling mistakes are in the .]

November 17, 1988
Today was band tryouts. I think I did good. I messed up the first four notes of the EM scale, but he let me start over and I did perfect. That probably counted as one mistake??? Otherwise I did everything “perfect.” Today’s Kristin’s b-day. I wished her a happy one. Kris and I’ve been friends for 8 years. I think we know each other pretty well now! She’ll probably get a couple of ESPIRIT sweaters…

I’ve been in SUCH A CHRISTMAS MOOD lately. Just the other night I put on “Christmas with Bing,” an x-mas tape, with a lot of good carols. I thought of a story idea or poem I’ll have to start on. By FAR my favorite time of year is x-mas. Not for the presents either. The feeling of joy and just the mood is WONDERFUL. I hope I never change when it comes to x-mas.
Now signing off…
Jen

Note: [I have changed. I no longer look at "x-mas" quite this way. Sigh. Also, any spelling errors are in the original.]

November 30, 1988
Over all I had a good Thanksgiving. School was let out Wed. We drove up to Minneapolis on Thursday, got there about 3:45, and ate our wonderful dinner at 4:00. We ate at JC’s. I love their house. It’s so Norweigonish. Alot of rosemauling (sp?), and just wonderful things from all over the world. They’ve been to Norway, Austria, Cz., Sweden, and more. On Thurs. night, we went to the Syville (our hotel) and swam with our cousins. We then went back, talked a while, ate some more and went back to the hotel. The next day we were all very tired except Mom and Jean. I wanted to shop. I wanted to shop, it’s just my feet didn’t. First we went to the South Dale mall. I was pooped by just that but we went back to the hotel, loaded our stuff, went out for lunch, and then to down town Dayton’s, my favorite store (maybe) but I was too tired to enjoy it. My dad, Lisa, Sonya, Bim, and I went to the car after about 2-2 1/2 hours but Mom and Jean stayed for about 45 minutes more. Then we went to Dan, Suzy, Sara, and Melanie’s. We had meatballs, mashed potatoes, and much much more. A 2nd Thanksgiving meal. We played pool and ping pong and got a tour of their “new” house. They’ve been in it for about a year but we haven’t seen it yet. It’s really nice, a lot of stairs but nice. They even have an intercom system. It’s fun to play with, but in our house I’d just yell anyway. I forgot to mention the seven of us all came in our 7 passenger van and suitcases and junk. I have never been so crowded in all my life, not to mention the cold I had. I used so much kleenex we had to stop at a gas station and get more and cough drops. The driving was horrendlessly exasperating but all in all a good weekend.

Let’s see the only current event I can really think of for this week is Thanksgiving and I already told about that…Have I mentioned all our Christmas decorations are up at our house? In my room, as always I have my cute little branch with lights and ornaments on it on top of the wicker stool and decorations and red and green and tinsel all over my room. Downstairs we finally got some stencil spray and in our bay window it looks like: [I drew a picture of "Merry Christmas"] – only much fancier. And the downstairs obviously has the normal, but not boring, wonderful x-mas decorations. Ahhh x-mas what a wonderful time of year. Signing off with a Merry X-mas,
Jennnnnnnnnnnnny

Here’s what my day-to-day life consists of: teaching classes, writing articles, thinking about my dissertation (notice I did not say “writing”, organizing panels and presenting at conferences, applying for grants and fellowships, and spending time with my great friends, many of whom, like me, are in similar positions of dread about next year’s job market and who provide one another with as much support and encouragement as we dare, knowing that 7-10 years of graduate education does not guarantee us a job and/or a way to pay off our student loans.

This term I’m teaching the anthropology course “Gender in a Cross-Cultural Perspective.” We begin the term by discussing how different cultures define an ideal man and woman, how masculinity and femininity is culturally constructed and looks different in various contexts. Then we move onto families, reproductive rights (or lack thereof), and how colonialism changed gender relations for both the colonizers and the colonized. The second half of the term addressed how gender impacts and is affected by globalization, migration, militarism and war. We end by talking about how men and women resist, perpetuate, and accommodate various aspects of these political, economic, and cultural processes. I love teaching this class, but I’ll be glad when it’s over (next week). I’ve come to discover that students taking this class during the school year (as opposed to the much smaller summer classes) seem to have fewer manners and less respect for instructors. There are 60 students in my class and I do not allow laptop computers or cell phones. Nevertheless, a couple of the students think either that I don’t care that they’re not paying attention and texting, or they think they’re invisible. Out of character for me and indicative of the time in the term, I yelled abruptly at a student who was not only texting but also laughing at the text and showing it to the person next to her. At the time, I was lecturing on historical factors involved in Korean comfort women who were forced into horrendous sexual slavery conditions by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Students should pay attention to all topics (or at least fake it well like I used to do), but the lack of respect paid to some topics in particular irk me more than others. I will make sure this does not happen in my next class, the Anthropology of Citizenship. Here is the description:

What do you think of when you hear about “citizenship” or “citizens”? This term is used often in politics, media, and day-to-day life but where did it come from? What is the definition of a worthy or unworthy citizen? Who or what influences this definition and how? What does citizenship have to do with access to resources (social services, education, employment, and housing), political clout, and respect? We will address these questions along with the ways in which race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, nation, the environment, and migration influence the ways in which citizenship is constructed and viewed. We will focus on social citizenship, status based upon full membership in a group (for example, a nation) and the duty to reduce one’s burden on society, especially on the state. The class will look at the ways in which different groups of people construct, resist, perpetuate, and/or accommodate mainstream notions of citizenship around the world.

I’m excited to teach this class because I designed it and it’s close to my dissertation topic, but it will also keep me from working on my dissertation because the first time one teaches a class, it’s very time consuming.

More later…

October 27, 1988

I’m scared. Mr. Anderson told us in Earth Science that our generation will have to look for another planet to live on! He said Earth won’t last forever and unless we can find an extremely fast way to stop pollution and other harmful chemicals from hurting our environment. I think about this as I look out at the stars and think he’s just trying to scare us into doing what some scientists would like. And sometimes I think he’s right. I’d actually rather not think about it at all, but I can’t help it.

In Nov. 2’s paper it said some interesting facts about Bush and Dukakis. I usually don’t think of “Presidential Candidates” as “real” people. This article proves they are. I hope Dukakis wins the election. Nov. 8 is only 5 days away. We’ll soon find out who will be America’s next President. My dad is a definate democrat and is definately for Dukakis, I would guess. I’m also a fan of Dukakis and would die if Bush was elected as the winner! I’m also going for Gordon Gits as mayor. I’m not into politics that much so that’s all I really pay attention to…

I’m signing off,
Jenny

November 9, 1988

Today the finals are done. Bush has won the elections. He is now our new President. Well, not exactly RIGHT NOW, but he will be. Unfortunately Quail is vice-president. What will our country turn into if Bush dies?

November 15, 1988

Last night was our band concert. Mr. Maloney was so stupid! When the song, Get on Down came up, into the microphone he said, “Get ON down” in a low slow voice. And after We  Got the Beat, he said, “We DO have the beat!” I’m sure the audience could hear our whole band laugh. Then, at the end of the concert out band didn’t know what was going on. The Sr. High Band came in, and we didn’t know where to go. But, of course, we didn’t show how confused we really were.

Thursday I have band chair try outs. I’ve been practicing and I hope I can pull first, but 2nd can’t be that bad.

The first quarter is over. My grades were B+ Band, B+ English, B+ Math, A- Choir, A History, A Science, A Data, A Phy Ed. I got a B+ in Band because I missed two lessons and didn’t know!!