Awareness

This is the oddest beginning of term I have ever experienced. This is even more odd than the time September came round and I was not teaching a single class and I watched all my friends get ready for a school year I was not going to be part of. It is an odd beginning of term that does not feel like a beginning of term at all, but rather an extension of one very long never-ending course where the learning outcomes are not listed, the assessment modes keep changing, and it’s being team taught by an epistemologist and Narcissus on a faulty learning platform that steals all your personal information every time you try to submit work. 

Okay grim yes, but also aware. This semester will necessitate new feels instead of the usual September feels of needing a sweater, new stationary, and the basic pumpkin spice latte (I have never understood this drink and only understand it through the basic/extra paradigm my students taught me a few years back). But more importantly it will absolutely necessitate awareness. 

Awareness of the following: (This is not an exhaustive list and I challenge you to add to it)

• Inequities
• Trauma
• Violence against Black folk, Indigenous folk, and people of colour
• Violence against trans folk
• Lack of accessibility for so many disabled folk 
• Erasure of bodies by the media
• Erasure of bodies by the curricula
• Technological limitations
• Bias in our thought
• Bias in our actions
• Bias in our pedagogy
• Fear (of so many many things)
• Our own limits as human beings
• When to say no
• When to ask for help
• Unethical practices

So this is not going to be the same September and can’t be and should never be ever again. Going back to the same September feels means ignoring the need for progressive change. 

If this seems like a lot, it is. If you don’t know where to start or what to do that’s normal. Maybe start by following Scholar Strike and attend a teach-in or event. Speak to your students about inclusion and how academe has the tendency to perpetuate violence through reading lists.  Reflect on your filter bubbles. Approach this semester with empathy and kindness to others and to yourself. And please approach this semester with awareness because there is absolutely no excuse to say “I didn’t know” any longer when it comes to the inequities of the world.