Photo Credit: learner.org At the end of my three years serving as a member of the Watershed Collective, I’m poised to shed the graduate chrysalis and move into the next phase of my academic career. So it’s no surprise that I’m drawn to theoretical and cultural representations of transition, upheaval, and change--fascinated by processes of becoming. With this orientation in mind, I appreciate the opportunity to reflect, not only on the phenomenal collection of posts shared by

The concept of the imagination is embedded in the idea that there’s an autonomous human subject—a unified self—to do the imagining. But the self has become decentered, as we no longer take it for granted that the humanist version of a unified, a priori subject exists. Posthumanist theories have challenged the construction of the humanist dialectics that this concept is grounded in: mind vs. body, human vs. animal, self vs. other, subject vs. object. Moreover, postmodern theor

Photo Credit: dreamstime.com As I read and reread the collection of posts our Watershed team has contributed this semester (15 truly stellar pieces of writing in all), I was struck by their shared commitment to expanding theory’s reach beyond the computer screen and into the world. These texts are saturated with calls to action, reorienting readers toward the pursuit of praxis. Although I teach writing and consider myself mathematically challenged, there is one equation I con

This post can be read on its own or as a follow-up to "Kidnapping Personhood." I: One or Several Birds A pair of pigeons deterritorialized my deck last spring. I discovered their nest when I was attempting to move a large, wicker deck-chair that I had decided to put into storage. As I lifted it, two eggs and a clump of twigs tumbled out from some hidden spot within its inner framework. Alarmed at what I had done, I pushed the chair back into its original position, but the nes

Whether you have revisions, resolutions, or revolutions in mind at the beginning of 2016, the Watershed collective offers some reading suggestions. Theory texts we read last year and recommend: Postcomposition by Sidney I. Dobrin (2011). This provocative text argues that the field of composition needs to undertake a fundamental shift away from its current interests in pedagogy, college writing, and administrative work, and instead move toward writing itself as the predominant

Katie: We want to share a conversation we’ve been having over the past few months, a conversation about film, women, and desire. It started as we sat in an air-conditioned theater this summer, seeing a “guilty pleasure” movie we had joked about: Magic Mike XXL. As we watched this story of male entertainers travelling to Tampa for a stripper convention-- a sequel to 2012’s surprise hit Magic Mike-- we joined in the audience’s laughter and cheers. Anne: Afterward you pointed ou

Sometimes I treat my students like a roomful of kidnappers. If you are ever kidnapped, you are supposed to “humanize yourself” by talking about your life. Apparently people are less likely to harm you if they’ve come to see you as a person rather than a bargaining chip (Carll 66-67). Although I don’t tell students a lot about my personal life, I have occasionally let slip a few details about myself over the course of teaching. If I piece these details together and try to imag