Happy change of seasons/end of term/new beginnings!
Our summer (or winter, if we have any fellow travelers in the southern hemisphere) TLQ session will start next week on the weekend of May 22/23 and wrap up on the weekend of August 21/22. Your hosts will be heu mihi and humming42. After our tremendous adventure that’s just wrapped up, we’re thinking summer will be a little more low key, more like a cabin in the woods than your quarters on the starship.
And now to continue the shameless borrowing of text below from those who have been good enough to host here previously...
The format will be the same as ever. Next week we will set goals for the whole session and then continue with weekly goals. Goals can be in any aspect of life although the key focus is often writing tasks that are personally and professionally important but that never quite tip over into important AND urgent. Urgent things sometimes find their way in here too, that is completely ok too, and process goals are also most welcome. Each week there will be a discussion topic or prompt to write about if you feel so inclined. We’ll remind everyone of their big session goals about midway through.
Anyone new or old is welcome to join. And finally, don't worry if you miss a few check-ins. Life happens. This is a supportive, generous space with no intimidation factor so enjoy it!
So for this week:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself. What's your main focus at the moment? You are welcome to be vague and mysterious in the interest of maintaining anonymity while still introducing yourself to the group.
2. Think and speculate and dream (out loud if you want!) about goals for this session, but sit with them for a week or so and we’ll officially post them next week. Feel free to throw out a whole bunch now and pick from those next week or think about the things you want to clear out of the way to make room for the bigger goals.
3. Feel welcome if you are so inclined to set an INTENTION for the whole session. If that’s something you want to do, this is a great time to think about it.
4. Or just come say hello and tell us how you’ve been over the break and then come back next week for introductions and session goals.
Our dates are listed below because I usually forget the schedule a quarter of the way in, this will keep it handy for reference.
Have a lovely week!
Hello! Thanks, humming42, for getting us started while I get my bearings.
ReplyDeleteI'm heu mihi, a medievalist (literary) at a Northeast R1. I have a husband (The Minister; he's a minister); an almost-nine-year-old son, Bonaventure; and an ancient cat, whose real name is Solange. Grading just ended, The Big Conference just ended, and I have a mere handful of meetings this week before I can bid AY20-21 Adieu.
This summer, I want to find--and *enjoy*--spaciousness. Sometimes, on non-teaching days, I've found the empty space of the mid-afternoon a little oppressive; I think that has to do with too much hometime. Hopefully, with the return of good weather and the increase in vaccinations, that can be mitigated over the summer.
More concretely, I want to finish up an article, firm up a grant proposal and research plan, prepare somewhat for the new things that I'll be teaching next year, and embark on whatever the next step of my research is going to be. I haven't been submitting much work lately, which is no big deal in itself, but I'd like to have a more concrete sense of where I'm going.
I also want to work on strengthening and stretching my back after a year+ of remote teaching. A more supple spine--that's my goal.
Maybe "suppleness" should be my theme for the summer? It's not the most elegant word. I'll think about it.
I'm looking forward to sharing the summer with you all!
Suppleness. . . that sounds nice. Maybe flexibility as an alternative word? But I don't think that works the same way...
DeleteTo me, suppleness carries connotations of controlled strength alongside flexibility, so I'd go for that!
DeleteCurious how suppleness resonates so strongly with each of us. It may be applicable to arranging your days as well.
DeleteHello, everyone! Thanks, humming42 and heu mihi for hosting the summer. A cabin in the woods sounds lovely! A place where I can sleep and read novels and be lazy...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm Susan, a historian at a still pretty new research university on the west coast. I'm reasonably senior, so take on my share (or more than my share) of admin/committee responsibilities. This is occasionally overwhelming. I also have a 90 y.o mother who lives in my town, so I take her to the doctor, to get a hair cut, and occasionally just out for lunch. She's failing-increasingly weak, and everything is HARD - but nothing that means she'll die tomorrow. But that could change at any moment, and I'm the one *here*. I'm a widow, and live with 2 cats. Right now I'm in the post-semester exhaustion mode.
The summer: my sister, who lives in Paris, is coming at the end of June for 6 weeks; she stays in my house and hangs out with my mother while I leave -- in this case to go to the UK and hope to be able to use libraries for the first time in 15 months. And also to take a vacation.
My goals for the summer:
1. I'm on a book prize committee for the major professional organization in my field, and I have about 80 books now sitting in my office which will have to be read over the summer.
2. Get class prepared for fall. Still need to do book orders, and then get a syllabus done. (Classes start right after this session ends.)
3. Start working on the next (last big?) chapter of Famous Author, a book I'm envisioning as short but which is turning out to be much harder to write than I'd like. I finished chapter 2, the chapter which would not end, last week. I'm not going to set big goals, but I'd like to feel as if it's underway before the semester starts.
4. Draft part of the self-study for the program review of our graduate program. Why did I say I'd do that (I know - so that it didn't land on an assistant professor with a 2 y.o.) Most of the hard part will be done when school starts up again, but there's a lot that is formulaic and/or straightforward that I want to get done this summer.
5. Odds and ends: I have a book review to finish, and am - in addition to the book prize -- on an article prize committee (but it's only 8 articles, so not onerous)
6. Admin fragments for professional organization of which I am president, but that should be pretty manageable.
7. I have the fancy bike and its exercise programs, and I want to just keep working out so I stay healthy.
8. Read for fun
9. Get good sleep
The real key will be not getting overwhelmed. I need rest after the last year.
DeleteReading 80 books sounds overwhelming all by itself!
DeleteI'm hopeful you can get a solid respite from post-semester exhaustion. And that you can relish those six weeks away for research, vacation, and just the pleasures of being in a different place.
DeleteI'm embarrassed by how I struggled to get through six books for a book prize! It seems quite a burden to ask you to read 80. I only read around 50 books in an entire *year*!
On behalf of the assistant professor with the two-year-old, thank you for taking on that burden! Not every (or many) senior academic would bother to think that way, sadly....
DeleteDo you have to actually read all 80 books straight through, or will you be narrowing it down through a preliminary skimming or some such?
Introduction: I'm a medievalist (English lit and manuscripts) in the American midwest, a woman married to a man (Sir John), with three cats and a house we moved into a year ago. We still have lots of boxes to unpack. Last summer I spent a lot of time prepping to teach online; in the winter, a leaky roof made further unpacking of books seem like a bad idea. Now I want to paint a couple of rooms, maybe even three, before proceeding with emptying boxes. I have an Albatross-article to revise (could I possibly get that done before our official start next week?), and a book-in-progress that will be my Main Event this summer. I'd also like to prep all four syllabuses that I'll need for next year. I need to find a new doctor. The new house came with a huge yard that will absorb all the gardening energy I have to spare. But I'm not going to get obsessive about it; I want to spend some time just enjoying it with all its weedy imperfections!
ReplyDeleteThis shapes up as a well-rounded set of plans/interests. I will look forward to Main Event updates and paint color choices. I haven't thought to ask since you moved, but is Basement Cat still the Basement Cat?
DeleteDo you mean, is he still evil? He has mellowed with age. He never actually lived in the basement; that's his nom de blogue because of the LOLcats memes: https://unanything.fandom.com/wiki/Basement_Cat
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOLCat_Bible_Translation_Project
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=basement+cat&atb=v202-1&iax=images&ia=images
Basement Cat was our only short-haired black cat when we got him (the Tiny Cat was black and fluffy), but now all three of our cats are black.
Oh dear. Since I have just recently rejoined the feline fandom world, I didn't realize that Basement Cat was the other brother of Ceiling Cat. Thank you for clarifying!
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ReplyDeleteI’m humming42, a professor teaching in the humanities at a mid-sized state school in a small US town. I have a word for this year, which is close, indicating both the close that rhymes with blows and the close that rhymes with dose. Somehow it’s not resonating as much with me as it did back in January. I noticed that the page that has “close” at the top of it also has the phrase “show up” in parens below. So I think I will adopt “show up” as my summer theme. I have retreated a lot into the quiet spaces of my house and my life during pandemic and need to ease myself back into the world. But showing up for the projects is equally important.
ReplyDeleteI had to postpone my planning date with myself, my calendar, and my project list so I’m not quite ready for summer goals yet.
Hi, Everybody! I’m Good Enough Woman (because I still haven’t come up with a better handle), a tenured faculty member at a California community college where I’ve been teaching for 22 years. I did a mid-career PhD while teaching full time, and I finished four years (!) ago. In 2019, I went through chemo and radiation for breast cancer, but right now I am healthy (fingers crossed for next week’s mammo). Between cancer, COVID, and a lack of database access, I thought my academic writing days were done, but recently a couple of new projects have fallen into my lap. I think I also want to *finally* make a real attempt at fiction (mystery and historical mystery).
ReplyDeleteI live in California with my husband and two awesome teenagers (18 and soon-to-be 16). My oldest is graduating from high school this year! I know everyone says this, but I really can’t believe it.
We also got a pandemic puppy (our 12yo dog died last April), and he is sweet boy, but he is super high energy and has been So. Much. Work. He has severely impacted my freedom because he needs to be minded pretty much all the time, and he needs two walks/hikes per day, so I might grumble about that from time to time. Just when I was gaining freedom after raising young kids . . . .
I’ll post goals next week, and I’ll be thinking about themes or words of intention.
It'll be fun to have you among us again!
DeleteWelcome back GEW! Congratulations on so many things--graduating a young one into the larger world, being cancer free, and adopting pandemic puppy.
DeleteI've restarted creative work too and even feel committed enough to call myself a "practicing poet," so I will be cheering on fiction projects enthusiastically.
It's so good to see you again! I'm glad that your treatments have been so successful. Hooray for exciting new projects, and for excitement about new projects!
DeleteWelcome back! So glad you are doing well! It will be great to hear about new projects and new doggie!
DeleteYay new session!
ReplyDeleteI'm Daisy. I’m an early mid-career (tenured a couple of years ago) associate prof in a physical science discipline that depends heavily on field work and fancy lab machines. I teach at a small primarily undergraduate university in a cold, isolated place with beautiful scenery. I have one child. My classes the last few years have been huge so I’m usually struggling to keep my head above water, but my research is fun and inspiring and interesting so I’m really lucky there.
I'm not ready for goals, I'm still gasping and catching my breath from the last year/term and a huge professional society event I just organized for the last few weeks... I really have no idea what I want... I am going on my first sabbatical in about a month so I really want to thank carefully about what I would like to focus on in this session!
Captain Daisy! Congratulations on your upcoming sabbatical. Definitely give yourself some time to decompress from the past few months. We've talked here about not properly celebrating our accomplishments,and I think part of that is also the desire to press on to the next big thing without explicitly making space. So I am adopting your plan to think carefully what I want to focus on, since I already find myself running toward my goals without really deciding how to approach them.
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