A Year in Review Before Blog-Cation

Here it is, the last blog of 2020 because I need to just step away from the computer for a hot second. In preparation for this post I decided to update my CV in earnest because I needed to reflect on the year that was outside from the work that I do as an Educational Developer. And ... I am not even sure how all this happened in 9 months. From March to December of 2020, I have been my most productive in terms of writing and editing and it’s actually shocking when I look at it in the context that I was doing all of this while working full-time in a position that made me a person who was looped in for the majority of the conversations around remote pedagogy at my campus.

I still have one more work day left and I usually post this on Sundays but I was already busy with other last minute non-Educational Developer work things today so I decided to post this a day early and shift my non-work day this week from Saturday to Sunday (because it’s the holidays and why not).

I am doing a bit of a year in a review in this post mainly for posterity purposes. In academe we spend a lot of time downplaying the work that we do and sometimes it is good to stop that for a moment and just be proud of what you have put into the world and what you have received in return.  I have quickly realized that my way of dealing with the pandemic and intense solitude is to do what I do best which is bury myself in copious amounts of work. Not everyone deals in the same way; some deal in the exact opposite way. Everyone is different and positionality is key in all of this. My privilege in not having a lot of outside responsibilities except to my cat means I can bury deep if I want to. It’s not for everyone. It is just for me. 

Work

Work was busy as it was for most academics, educators, and education staff this year. I have been working from home since March 13th (41 weeks for those of you who like to count). It has been at times the most hectic and simultaneously some of the most rewarding work that I have done in my career. I have met some incredible educators and thinkers. I have seen great things being done with pedagogy. I probably have not had as much time to reflect as I wanted to (because what is time), but that will certainly be something to try to put into place for 2021. Reflection is often seen as a privileged aspect of educational work, but it is also foundational. Inclusive educational spaces come from making sure one is holistic in their framework. I am proud of the work I did this year. I know there is still a lot more to do (much more than I will be able to accomplish with my one work day left), but next year there will be a lot more time and space (maybe, fingers crossed) to do that kind of deep reflection work. My mantra for 2021 Educational Developer work is “meaningful inclusion and access.”

Teaching

I still do some of this great thing too, yes one of us, one of us. But I limit it to one class that is asynchronous to work with my other life commitments (i.e. things I can do in the evenings and weekends). I do this because ethically I feel I can be a better educational developer if I am in the trenches working with the strategies suggested by the literature. So to the 126 students I have had the pleasure of knowing over the past 3 semesters of *this* you are all rockstars. 

Workshops and Webinars

The pandemic work from home measures started when I had just returned from NeMLA in Boston where I gave a workshop on Inclusive Curriculum and Instructional Design. It was a great opportunity and so odd that that was pretty much the last time I was out in public in any regular way. Since then I have co-facilitated over 40 webinars, 6 of which were specifically in inclusive pedagogy, accessibility, and UDL. The 3 presentations I was supposed to give at Congress at Western were cancelled due to COVID, but I had many other things going on, which takes me writing.

Words, words, words : All The Things Fit to Publish

This year has been all sorts of ridiculous in terms of publishing. I have two articles that are in press at the moment and should come out early 2021, and 3 others (that I wrote in collaboration with UTM colleagues) that are being peer reviewed (fingers crossed). All of these articles are things I wrote this year. Some are longer (20+ pages) some are short reflections (2 pages), but it has certainly been a year for me and publications. Most of the publications were also written and published this year (except for one of the journal articles and the edited collection which I started work on last fall). Here are some of them if you are interested in reading.

• Dau, D. & Gagné, A. (2020). “Touching the Untouchable: Connecting, Ethical Caring, and Teaching During COVID 19.” MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture Journal. https://maifeminism.com/touching-the-untouchable-connecting-ethical-caring-and-teaching-during-covid-19/
• “An Ethics of Simultaneity in The Hours: Bergson, Cunningham, Daldry.”Response The Journal of Popular and American Culture 5.1 (June 2020). https://responsejournal.net/issue/2020-06/article/ethics-simultaneity-hours-bergson-cunningham-daldry
• “Manus ex Machina: The Tactile Interface of Lady Audley’s Secret.” Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 23.1 (2019). https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/AJVS/article/view/14509
• The Canadian Precariat: Part-Time Faculty and the Higher-Education System. Ed. and Intro. Ann Gagné. Universitas Press. https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-canadian-precariat
• Rev. of Victorian Skin by Pamela Gilbert. The Hardy Society Journal 16.1 (Spring 2020): 90-92.

In mid-January the monograph based on my dissertation is set to be published and I worked on those edits all summer. I have tons of feels about this book and to be honest I probably won’t be one to promote it wildly when it does come out (again cause academe does things to your psyche).

Gagne, A. (2021). Embodying the Tactile in Victorian Literature: Touching Bodies/Bodies Touching. Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793617309/Embodying-the-Tactile-in-Victorian-Literature-Touching-Bodies-Bodies-Touching

Podcasts (New Fun; Multimodal Yay)

I was also on 3 podcasts this year which was so much fun. One I can’t link to yet because they are still working on the transcripts and captions but here are the other two if you are interested. (Also don’t be surprised if early in 2021 you hear me talking about a podcast on accessible pedagogy- this is my holiday thinking project). 

• “Ep. 12 The Pedagogy of Kindness.” The New Normal with Maydianne Andrade. November 27, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SghWMjX_9w
• “3.3 Online Exhaustion with Ann Gagné.” View from Venus. October 29, 2020. https://the-view-from-venus.simplecast.com/episodes/online-exhaustion-with-ann-gagne

All the Other Things

This year is also the year that I become part of the Board of the newly formed Ruskin Society of North America. If you like Ruskin and are interested please check out our website 

Also I tweet (slowly right now but will ramp up for 2021) at @RuskinSocietyNA

Finally (I think, who knows) I finished an EdX course on Inclusive Teaching hosted by Columbia. It was a really great course and you should consider it if you are interested in inclusive pedagogy and UDL. 

I shake my head as I look at this all. It’s ridiculous. Truly. But there it is. My 2020. Now I am going to rest.