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Current Issue: Volume 22, No. 4. Week of January 9, 2005

jeanne's first version of the tsunami.

As The World Turns

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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: January 8, 2005
Latest Update: January 9, 2005
E-Mail Icon jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:

As the World Turns

Well, they told us in the news that our world was now spinning a little faster. So Arnold says, "Is that why I'm feeling a little dizzy?" Yeah, me, too. The Los Angeles Times has a debate on "How could God let this happen?" and Truthout tells me there's a report in Newsweek that the U.S. is considering using death squads in Iraq. Did we ever admit that we knew anything about "death squads?" Yeah, and why don't we go down to the beach and see if all this rain is going to bring us a tsunami. Yeah, I know. Tidal waves come from storms; and tsunamis come from earthquakes, but, as fast as we're spinning now, who can tell the difference?

As I pondered the painting for this week, I started with a tropical print-covered chaise on a calm and beautiful beach. And then the earthquake began to toss structures and water about, and I tossed the chaise several times in the air and let it land where it would. But Arnold said, "Well, it doesn't look so tragic, I mean, well, there aren't bodies all over." Shuttering, I agreed, but refused to throw in bodies to satisfy reality. This was, after all, my tsunami. As artist I get to choose.

But it nagged at me a little, even though I wasn't willing to budge. The title was where I took refuge. This isn't about bodies and the human toll, tragic as that may be. This is about the very world roiling up and turning under our feet and rushing in and all the boulversement that results. It seems somehow appropriate that one effect is that we're spinning a little faster now. We, the earth, that is. I had chosen a tiny part of the tsunami which linked to my own world. Things are tumbling about, falling where they're not supposed to, collapsing, you know, the stuff they call anomie, the norms are all askew, we don't know what to expect.

I see it as beach chairs and brilliant sunny colors tumbling, but I see it also as chaos and confusion about more than just the beach and the floods and the wreckage of the coastal spots. It feels also like discovering that my government is considering death squads for Iraq. Death squads. We're Americans. We have family values. We don't have death squads. And this morning the New York Times has an article, like yesterday's Los Angeles Times, on how God could let these things happen! God! I thought we were talking about death squads! God isn't leashing that on this world. We are. And the painting responds to all of that.

Then, this morning Daniel Okrent, the public editor of the New York Times, addressed the issue of truth. He's talking about photos, and how they capture truth, or not, and how the scene before the photographer's eye changes with every pointing of her camera. There are so many multiple perspectives, who is to say which of them is the truth? Reading that, I went back to my painting and realized how much more latitude I have with painting than with my camera to communicate that part of the scene which is connecting with my life at the moment. And I know that we need to bring art back into education, not just museum art, but the expression that color and shape and form and line offer us to connect our visual world to our life's understanding. I know that because I believe in an education that empowers full answerability, that doesn't dictate what we can no longer know, but recognizes the many perspectives that bring a richness that the academy could never achieve through exclusion. jeanne

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Discussion Topics:

  • Independent Study on Religion and Morality Project Spring 2005. List of students for whom I have record. Please be sure to email if you need to be added. jeanne

  • Grade Corrections as of January 6, 2005.

  • Susan Sontag, Social Critic With Verve, Dies at 71 Margalit Fox. Backup. Susan Sontag was an iconoclastic critic of dominant discourse all her life. You would have understood her in those terms. The New York Times published photographs of her by Annie Liebovitz, a famous late 20th Century photographer, whose name you should also know.

    The First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry will take place at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from May 5-7, 2005. "Due to the growing interest in new conference panels and increasing volume of requests for submission deadline extension, the deadline for submissions of open-panel session proposals and all papers to the First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is now extended to January 15, 2005." Suggested conference topics are suggested. I would like to go, but don't know if I'll have the time. jeanne

    Learning Records: Grades online on ToroWeb.

    You may continue to correct or send materials that you would like included with your learning record. With 300 students I know I missed some messages and some activities that we should include. 9 students have already contacted me for corrections. I'll get those done as soon as school opens on January 3, 2004. When I listed a grade less than In A on the learning records, I also said "until you contact me with evidence of learning." When I gave an F, it was simply that I couldn't find any record of contact. Doesn't mean I don't have one. Just couldn't find it. jeanne

    • 328cllst.htm
      what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Agencies Class.
    • 367cllst.htm
      what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Sociology of Law Class.
    • 370cllst.htm
      what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Moot Court Class.
    • 395cllst.htm
      what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Women and Poverty Class.
    • 595cllst.htm
      what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Grad. Women and Poverty Class.

    • Home Page for transform-dom You can read all the messages on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up.

    • Home Page for transspan You can read all the messages in spanish on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up. And you're welcome to put up messages for friends, relatives, community messages, who want to join the discussion but are not used to the computer. You can print the responses for them later. Make technology work for freedom and democracy

    • Home Page for Obesity Support

    • Instructions page for joining transform_dom and transspan
    • Link for joining tranform_dom:

      Click here to join transform_dom
      Click to join transform_dom

    Ideas for the Spring 2005 Naked Space Exhibit:

    • Shaheen Brown has suggested a project for next semester's Naked Space Exhibit on Famous Blacks We Should Have Heard of, But Didn't. I'd like to suggest that that would make a great group project to which lots of us could contribute bits and pieces about those whom we do know, including some local people whose names we ought to recognize, and probably don't. I'd also like to suggest that we have the very same problem with Hispanic culture being revised right out of our local histories. Good idea, Shaheen. See Messge No. 2499.

    • Life Space and The Front Porch Art Crawl

      My Life Space and Weclome To It - references Thurber and Kurt Lewin

      • The Front Porch Art Crawl Here is an example in which our Naked Space Exhibit takes on some of the same concern for an academy-community bridge as a Learning Center in St.Paul, Minnesota. This project will revolve around contacting them, adapting as much as we can from their project, and sharing our project with them.
      • On Tuesday and Thrusday of this week, I'm going to ask you to map out your own life space with concerns that you are feeling with dominant discourse. We'll work together, make suggestions to each other, and I'll try to shape the site around those concerns in the coming months. We can share your life space drawings over transform_dom.

        You know, the end of school was so hectic we didn't get to try this. Dashaun's Respect Project was so successful on an outside table, we could do something like that this Spring with the social issue of families. We could even make cards to pass out with an Internet address where people could get more information.

      • Archaeological Collage

    Jeanne's Lectures During Winter Break, 2004

    Academic Support

    Using Academic Language Effectively

    Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

    and Careers

    • Resumes:

    • Letters of Recommendation:

      • Letters of Recommendation: How to get me to respond to your request. Many of you need letters. If you will follow this format, I can do them quickly and make them good.
      • Dog Letters If you do not give me adequate information, but do manage to get my attention, you may end up with a dog letter. That is a letter that says that you work well with people, that you are enthusiastic, that you persist at getting things done, and that everyone likes you. Of course, my dog gets along well with people, brings his ball to them, is enthusiastic, and persists at getting them to take his ball. Everyone likes my dog. That's a dog letter. It's so general it could be about my dog. jeanne

    Play:

    That Was Fun! Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs

    Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:

    Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.

    You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:

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