With regards to attendance monitoring and the UKBA, I thought I'd share this, in case people haven't come acros it yet:
http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/ukba-request-for-information-on-migration-controls
________________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of CRIT-GEOG-FORUM automatic digest system [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 12:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CRIT-GEOG-FORUM Digest - 7 Feb 2013 to 8 Feb 2013 (#2013-40)
There are 17 messages totaling 3922 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Fully funded PhD Studentship - Renewable Energy - Birkbeck, London
2. Final CFP RGS-IBG 2013: 'Faith, Space and Youth'
3. Final CFP: RGS-IBG Queer geographies and the politics of anti-normativity
4. Extra final cfp Creating Transgressive Geographies - Crossing Frontiers
Between Nature-Culture & Practice-Theory. RGS-IBG
5. attendance monitoring (6)
6. UNC Global Research Institute Water Fellowships
7. Fwd: Forum Theater for Movement Building and Creating Community
2/15-17/2013 NYC
8. Cardiff School of Planning & Geography ESRC Funded PhD Studentships
9. CFP (RGS-IBG) - "More-than-Human Participation"
10. ESRC PhD North West Doctoral Training Centre (NWDTC) CASE Studentship
2013: Geography and Planning Pathway
11. European Society for Rural Sociology Congress, Call for Papers
12. 'Producing legitimacy' Conference - registration open, Cambridge 22-23
April 2013
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 10:31:20 -0000
From: Rosie Cox <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fully funded PhD Studentship - Renewable Energy - Birkbeck, London
Please circulate widely:
More information and how to apply at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck/finance/studentfinance/res_finance/good-energy-phd-studentship
What would happen if we did not invest in renewable energy?
The Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, invites applications from suitably qualified applicants for this Good Energy-funded PhD studentship.
This is a brilliant opportunity for an exceptional candidate to study in a global top-200 institution in the heart of London, alongside a leading provider of renewable energy and the first dedicated 100% renewable electricity supplier.
Purpose of the studentship
The main purpose of this studentship is to invite a reappraisal of what would happen if we didn't invest in renewable energy technology given rising global energy demand over the next 40 years.
Starting with the Industrial Revolution, our ability to access cheap and plentiful fossil fuel supplies has allowed the West to build an industrialised, consumer-led economic system that has been successful in delivering ever greater advances in technology and rising standards of living. Fossil fuels appear to provide the life blood for our way of life.
Yet those fuels are finite by their nature. Already we are turning to more dangerous and extreme methods to extract them. Rising demand from developing countries seeking to replicate the West's economic model places greater pressure on those resources, reducing their availability and increasing their cost.
Renewable energy technology represents one of the few ready and easily deployable solutions to the energy challenges we face. But as those challenges increase in years to come, what would happen if we didn't turn to renewable technology to meet them? What would the wider impacts be if we failed to replace the finite energy sources which sustain our very way of life?
What this studentship covers
This is a fully-funded studentship that covers the costs of fees at the Home/EU Rate and provides a maintenance grant of £15,784 a year for four years. It also includes £1,000 per year (plus inflation) towards research costs, fieldwork and conference attendance.
The closing date for applications is Friday 1 March 2013with Interviews expected to take place in early April. The studentship will commence in October 2013
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 13:16:30 +0000
From: "Judge, Ruth" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Final CFP RGS-IBG 2013: 'Faith, Space and Youth'
Apologies for cross-posting
Please see below the final call for papers for the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2013 (28th-30th August 2013):
Faith, Space and Youth: Young People Negotiating the Geographies of Spirituality
Organisers: Ruth Judge (University College London, UK), Dr Claire Dwyer (University College London, UK)
Sponsored by: Children, Youth and Families Research Group (confirmed), Geographies of Religion, Spirituality and Faith Working Group (TBC)
Call for Papers:
This session links the well established field of children’s and youth geographies and the emerging interest in the role of faith and spirituality in shaping social and spatial relations.
Recent work has explored the role of faith-based spaces, institutions, discourses, and embodied spiritual practices in shaping young peoples identities and subjectivities. Work by Baillie Smith et al. (2012), Hopkins ( 2011) and Olsen (2012) illustrates how young people engage with, adopt and transform, or resist such spaces, discourses and practices in the negotiation of their everyday lives and emphasises the intersectionality of spiritual identities with other social identities. Interest in the role of spirituality in social life also speaks to the recognition of the role of emotion and affect in social relations.
We are seeking papers which take these questions further. Themes could include, but are not limited to:
* Intersections between faith and other social identities in young people's subjectivities
* Faith and young people's creation of space
* The emotive and affective power of spirituality in young people's lives
* Faith and young people's cosmopolitan imaginations and/or transnational action
* Young people, faith and spaces of hospitality, conviviality and community
* Young peoples’ transformations or subversions of ‘traditional’ faith practices and spaces
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Ruth Judge ([log in to unmask]) or Claire Dwyer ([log in to unmask]) by 11th February 2013
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 13:25:42 +0000
From: Eleanor Wilkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Final CFP: RGS-IBG Queer geographies and the politics of anti-normativity
CFP: Queer geographies and the politics of anti-normativity
RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, 28-30th August 2013
Convened by Eleanor Wilkinson (University of Leeds)
Sponsored by the Space, Sexualities and Queer Research Group
This session aims to critically question queer theory’s political commitment to anti-normativity. It seeks to challenge any rigid distinction between the normative and the anti-normative, by examining both the normativity of anti-normativity, and the potential queerness of the normal. At times the normative subject (rather than normative discourse) has become the target of queer critique, resulting in a disparaging dismissal of those who live ‘normal’ lives. The session therefore begins from the proposition that it is important to distinguish between a critique of normativity, a critique of the normative, and a critique of the normal.
The session welcomes both empirical and / or theoretical papers that challenge any neat distinction between the normative and the anti-normative, and emphasize the importance of placing these discussions about normativity in specific geographic and historical contexts. Contributions are invited that address the hierarchies that emerge within queer spaces, and the norms that are created in spaces that are claiming to be anti-normative. The session also seeks to challenge any monolithic understanding of normativity, and critically questions what a blanket dismissal of ‘the normal’ might foreclose. Papers that explore people’s investments in ‘the normal’ are welcome, alongside those that seek to examine queer anti-normative moments that take place within seemingly ‘normal’ lives. Contributions from disciplines beyond geography are especially welcome. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Anti-normative normativities
• The pleasures of ‘the normal’
• Queer desires for the domestic
• Seeking state recognition for queer lives
• Class, distinction and disgust in the politics of anti-normativity (particularly regarding the construction of the ‘homonormative’ LGBT mainstream)
• Queer racisms
• Queer patriarchies
• Queer aesthetics and the commodification of queerness
• The creation of queer as a new kind of identity category (despite queer’s anti-identitarian logics)
• Asexuality / celibacy as a challenge to pro-sex attitude of queer studies
• The shifting sexual-norms of heteronormative culture (sexualization, pornification, and the changing definitions of the ‘normal’)
• Queer moments in ‘normal’ lives
Please send your name, affiliation details, and email address along with your abstract of no more than 250 words to Eleanor Wilkinson ([log in to unmask])
Deadline for submission is 10th February 2013.
For details about the conference, please visit the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) website:http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 13:44:31 +0000
From: "JONES, Owain" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Extra final cfp Creating Transgressive Geographies - Crossing Frontiers Between Nature-Culture & Practice-Theory. RGS-IBG
Hi
Sorry to clutter inboxes with an extra call for this.
We got a great set of proposed papers - a few more would make it neat re multiple sessions
Also, a focus on food as transgressive has spontaneously emerged in the papers submitted - so that might prompt one or two more??
Also, please pass on to people not on the list who might be interested if you can
Cheers Owain
Creating Transgressive Geographies - Crossing Frontiers Between Nature-Culture & Practice-Theory
Call for Abstracts
Much of the import, richness and potential of ongoing performative life proliferates across inter-leaving registers, materials and processes. This is particularly so (but not exclusively) in relation to boundaries of emotion-memory-action; time; human-non-human; nature-culture.
Alternative, interdisciplinary insights are needed as a starting point for understanding perception, experience and agency that do justice to a "more whole" understanding of the world and humanness created from interaction with the environment. If the world is experienced as action possibilities (instead of single states of affairs), the content/target of knowledge is how to find a way to a desired situation with the action possibilities of the current situation. This means that valuation, social structures and emotions are embedded in all action, and as Dewey has put it, form the irreplaceable foundation of rationality.
What seems striking about contemporary (human) geographical frontiers are their permeability and almost furious dynamism. For example, economic globalisation (and oppositional local-ness), regional migrations and climate change challenge scale, place and political perceptions. The rate and frequency of 'natural' and 'human-created' environmental interactions - floods, fires, droughts, loggings, land-grabs, urbanisation - mean that our interpretations of urgency, memory, belonging and landscape are shaken up and (repeatedly) reconfigured.
Do we need to design creative ways to understand, celebrate and make use of diversity and hybridity, to allow passage-ways to be carved through the frontiers between action, identity, expression and place?
We seek creative geography endeavours (theoretical and/or empirical) that generate new renditions or practice particularly (but not exclusively) those based upon pragmatist and non-representational procedures, which emphasise boundary transition as a source of energy and world purchase/impact; particularly (but not exclusively) those trying to make sense of our cultural negotiations with nature: in it, with it and against it.
Key words
Hybridity, identity, environment, action, nature
Deadline for submitting abstracts is Friday 8th February 2013
Please send abstracts up to a maximum of 250 words and proposed titles (clearly stating name, institution, and contact details) to Owain Jones ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>), Daniel Keech ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Kaisa Schmidt-Thome ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>).
=======================================================================
________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 14:37:22 +0000
From: "McGrath, Siobhan" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
We have also been told that as of this year we need to take attendance at all lectures and that this is explicitly because of UKBA compliance. I am very uncomfortable with this practice for a number of reasons, not least because of the logical conclusion of the practice - that someone might get deported based partially on the fact that I reported their non-attendance. And, yes, it sends the message that students should turn up in order to be 'counted' rather than because they think they might learn something, which I find damaging.
Best wishes,
Siobhan
---
Siobhán McGrath, PhD
Lecturer
Lancaster University
LEC 3, Room B24
Tel.: 015 245 10353
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Office hours during Lent Term: 3pm - 4pm on Tuesdays; 2pm – 3pm on Fridays
You do not need an appointment during the regularly scheduled office hours but you may reserve a time by signing up here: http://www.doodle.com/yqk5xxhdrk4chr64
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 12:02:52 +0000
From: Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: attendance monitoring and the UK border agecny
Dear Critters,
My university introduced an attendance monitoring programme last September. My understanding is that this was a response to demands from the UK Border Agency that universities should be able to confirm that non-EU students on student visas are actually participating and attending, and concern that failure to demonstrate this could make it hard to grant visas. For my department this has involved a paper register passed round all lectures and seminars. This information is then collated by administrative staff. The university is currently devising a strategy for the next academic year.
I am emailing because I'd like to know what has been happening elsewhere. How have your universities responded? Have you run registers of all students at all lectures, seminars, etc? If not, what have you done? I for one would find this information useful as our university discusses how to move forwards.
And I am also interested in what resistance and critical reflection there has been. Has there been open debate, boycotts by staff or students, genuine consultation, etc? Has the data been used in other ways, for example passed to tutors for pastoral care to spot students in difficulty?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences here,
Peace - Nick
--
Dr Nick Megoran,
Lecturer in Political Geography,
Co-convenor, Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee,
Honorary Chaplain to Newcastle University,
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
5th Floor, Claremont Tower,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU.
Tel: 0191 222 6450
Personal website: www.megoran.org
Chaplaincy website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/chaplaincy/
------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 14:51:33 +0000
From: Pamela Shurmer-Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Things have changed so much since I retired - they hardly seem like universities any more with all this monitoring.
I'm sure I'd never have hacked three undergraduate years if I'd had to attend every single lecture, as opposed to reading what I wanted when I wanted (and staying in bed when I wanted). Lecturers are going to have to be very certain every class is an experience that couldn't be obtained more effectively and efficiently somewhere else, or all those compulsory attenders might just start asking why.
Pam Shurmer-Smith
________________________________
From: "McGrath, Siobhan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, 8 February 2013, 14:37
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
We have also been told that as of this year we need to take attendance at all lectures and that this is explicitly because of UKBA compliance. I am very uncomfortable with this practice for a number of reasons, not least because of the logical conclusion of the practice - that someone might get deported based partially on the fact that I reported their non-attendance. And, yes, it sends the message that students should turn up in order to be 'counted' rather than because they think they might learn something, which I find damaging.
Best wishes,
Siobhan
---
Siobhán McGrath, PhD
Lecturer
Lancaster University
LEC 3, Room B24
Tel.: 015 245 10353
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Office hours during Lent Term: 3pm - 4pm on Tuesdays; 2pm – 3pm on Fridays
You do not need an appointment during the regularly scheduled office hours but you may reserve a time by signing up here: http://www.doodle.com/yqk5xxhdrk4chr64
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 12:02:52 +0000
From: Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: attendance monitoring and the UK border agecny
Dear Critters,
My university introduced an attendance monitoring programme last September. My understanding is that this was a response to demands from the UK Border Agency that universities should be able to confirm that non-EU students on student visas are actually participating and attending, and concern that failure to demonstrate this could make it hard to grant visas. For my department this has involved a paper register passed round all lectures and seminars. This information is then collated by administrative staff. The university is currently devising a strategy for the next academic year.
I am emailing because I'd like to know what has been happening elsewhere. How have your universities responded? Have you run registers of all students at all lectures, seminars, etc? If not, what have you done? I for one would find this information useful as our university discusses how to move forwards.
And I am also interested in what resistance and critical reflection there has been. Has there been open debate, boycotts by staff or students, genuine consultation, etc? Has the data been used in other ways, for example passed to tutors for pastoral care to spot students in difficulty?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences here,
Peace - Nick
--
Dr Nick Megoran,
Lecturer in Political Geography,
Co-convenor, Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee,
Honorary Chaplain to Newcastle University,
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
5th Floor, Claremont Tower,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU.
Tel: 0191 222 6450
Personal website: www.megoran.org
Chaplaincy website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 14:54:19 +0000
From: Pamela Shurmer-Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Things have changed so much since I retired - they hardly seem like universities any more with all this monitoring.
I'm sure I'd never have hacked three undergraduate years if I'd had to attend every single lecture, as opposed to reading what I wanted when I wanted (and staying in bed when I wanted). Lecturers are going to have to be very certain every class is an experience that couldn't be obtained more effectively and efficiently somewhere else, or all those compulsory attenders might just start asking why.
Pam Shurmer-Smith
________________________________
From: "McGrath, Siobhan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, 8 February 2013, 14:37
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
We have also been told that as of this year we need to take attendance at all lectures and that this is explicitly because of UKBA compliance. I am very uncomfortable with this practice for a number of reasons, not least because of the logical conclusion of the practice - that someone might get deported based partially on the fact that I reported their non-attendance. And, yes, it sends the message that students should turn up in order to be 'counted' rather than because they think they might learn something, which I find damaging.
Best wishes,
Siobhan
---
Siobhán McGrath, PhD
Lecturer
Lancaster University
LEC 3, Room B24
Tel.: 015 245 10353
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Office hours during Lent Term: 3pm - 4pm on Tuesdays; 2pm – 3pm on Fridays
You do not need an appointment during the regularly scheduled office hours but you may reserve a time by signing up here: http://www.doodle.com/yqk5xxhdrk4chr64
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 12:02:52 +0000
From: Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: attendance monitoring and the UK border agecny
Dear Critters,
My university introduced an attendance monitoring programme last September. My understanding is that this was a response to demands from the UK Border Agency that universities should be able to confirm that non-EU students on student visas are actually participating and attending, and concern that failure to demonstrate this could make it hard to grant visas. For my department this has involved a paper register passed round all lectures and seminars. This information is then collated by administrative staff. The university is currently devising a strategy for the next academic year.
I am emailing because I'd like to know what has been happening elsewhere. How have your universities responded? Have you run registers of all students at all lectures, seminars, etc? If not, what have you done? I for one would find this information useful as our university discusses how to move forwards.
And I am also interested in what resistance and critical reflection there has been. Has there been open debate, boycotts by staff or students, genuine consultation, etc? Has the data been used in other ways, for example passed to tutors for pastoral care to spot students in difficulty?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences here,
Peace - Nick
--
Dr Nick Megoran,
Lecturer in Political Geography,
Co-convenor, Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee,
Honorary Chaplain to Newcastle University,
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
5th Floor, Claremont Tower,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU.
Tel: 0191 222 6450
Personal website: www.megoran.org
Chaplaincy website: http://www.n
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 15:55:49 +0000
From: "Gokariksel, Pervin Banu" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: UNC Global Research Institute Water Fellowships
[cid:image001.png@01CE05DF.7CD47F70]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 11:19:22 -0500
From: Heather McLean <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fwd: Forum Theater for Movement Building and Creating Community 2/15-17/2013 NYC
popular education and forum theatre workshops in New York!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:09 AM
Subject: Forum Theater for Movement Building and Creating Community
2/15-17/2013 NYC
To: Heather McLean <[log in to unmask]>
Please forward or repost
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
--founded in 1990--
451 West Street
New York, New York 10014
(212) 924-1858
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
http://www.toplab.org
http://www.facebook.com/TheateroftheOppressedLaboratory
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
"We must emphasize: What Brecht does not want is that the spectators
continue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering the
theater, as do bourgeois spectators." --Augusto Boal
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways.
The point is to change it." --Karl Marx
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
presents
Forum Theater for Movement Building and Creating Community
a three-day workshop
facilitated by Marie-Claire Picher and others TBA
Friday, February 15, 2013 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm;
Saturday, February 16 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm; and
Sunday, February 17 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
at The Brecht Forum
451 West Street (West Side Highway at Bank Street, one block north of
West Eleventh Street)
New York City
This extended workshop focuses on exercises, games, and improvised
scene work of Forum Theater, one of the forms in the Theater of the
Oppressed repertory developed by Brazilian director, popular educator
and Workers Party activist Augusto Boal (1931-2009). Boal's
interactive approach to theatrical expression emphasizes physical
dialogues, non-verbal imagery, consensus-building and problem solving
processes, and techniques for developing awareness of both external
and internalized forms of oppression.
An innovative approach to public forums and dialogue, Forum Theater is
rooted in the Brazilian popular education and culture movements of the
1950s and 1960s and is especially useful as an organizing tool in
movements seeking to affect social justice and radical social
transformation. It is also a very useful tool for mobilizing people,
teaching them the skills to self-organize, and for building social
movements and creating a viable sense of egalitarian and democratic
community.
In Forum Theater, workshop participants (the "actors") are asked to
tell a story about oppression, taken from daily life and based on
their real experiences of oppression, and where there was no
resolution to the oppressive circumstance or condition. A skit
presenting that problem is improvised and presented to an audience.
The original solution attempted by the protagonist (the person who was
the object of the oppressive behavior or circumstance) must contain at
least one social or political pitfall that either contributed to the
failure to eliminate the oppressive behavior or condition, or allowed
it to continue to be perpetuated.
When the skit is over, the audience discusses the attempted solution
as it was presented in the skit, and then the scene is performed once
more. But now, audience members are urged to intervene by stopping the
action, coming on stage to replace the protagonist, and enacting their
own ideas about how to end the condition of oppression. Thus, instead
of remaining passive, the people in the audience become active
"spect-actors" who now create alternative solutions and control the
dramatic action. The aim of the forum is not to find an ideal
solution, but to invent new ways of confronting oppression. This
workshop will look at the larger class structure that exists in
capitalist society and the systemic causes of exploitation and
oppression which are related to class, and try to understand how
people and communities internalize the ideology of capital–and how
they can take the first steps to creating self-organized caring
communities as alternatives to the dominant system.
Marie-Claire Picher is a co-founder (1990) of the Theater of the
Oppressed Laboratory and has worked and collaborated closely with
Augusto Boal until his death in 2009. One of the most experienced
Theater of the Oppressed practitioners in North America, she has
presented thousands of hours of TO facilitation training in New York
and throughout the United States, as well as in Chiapas, Tabasco,
Mexico City, Guatemala and Cuba.
Tuition--sliding scale: $135-$195
(active-duty military and formerly incarcerated people: $1.00)
Register online at
http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=12415
***
Other Upcoming TOPLAB Workshops and Events
Unless noted, all events take place at:
The Brecht Forum
451 West Street (West Side Highway, at Bank Street, one block north of
West Eleventh Street)
New York City
Saturday, March 9
Debt Oppression: How Owing Money Harms People, Communities and Society
a one-day Image Theater/Cop-in-the-Head workshop
facilitated by Marie-Claire Picher and others TBA
more info at http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=12422&reset=1
***
Saturday, March 16
Introducing the Clown
facilitated by Reka Polyani and Jenny Sargent
more info at https://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=12433&reset=1
***
Saturday, March 23
Image Theater: Looking at Aging--Its Effects on Families, Caregivers
and the Aging Person
facilitated by Marie-Claire Picher
details to come
***
Friday, April 19, Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21
Cop-in-the-Head
facilitated by Marie-Claire Picher
details to come
***
Spring (date to be announced)
Facilitating for Consensus-Building
facilitated by Marie-Claire Picher and others TBA
details to come
***
Spring (dates to be announced)
workshops with Julian Boal
details to come
***
June 7-9 (exact date to be announced)
TOPLAB at the 2013 Left Forum
at Pace University
details to come
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 08:55:16 -0800
From: Damian Collins <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Great discussion.
I think Pam's observations go to the wider issue of the "point" of (physical) attendance at lectures more broadly. Especially in the context of larger first and second year classes, what is the "value added" of being physically present?
These questions are being asked increasingly frequently, and loudly, in North America. With the rise of online content in myriad forms (MOOCs, iTunesU, TED talks, etc.), and the possibility of a handful of "world experts" being selected to pre-record "core" classes, there is some speculation the physical university may go the way of the physical video store.
Hypothetically, students might begin to ask why they should bother to enrol in, pay for and walk through the snow to attend my second year introduction to urban geography class, when they could watch one pre-recorded by (say) Richard Florida or another figure of international renown. All from the comfort of their laptops at home (wherever in the world these may be - physical migration for undergraduate study could be rendered unnecessary).
I would respond that I add value through detailed exploration of local examples, incorporating breaking news, providing opportunities for "live" Q&A, offering critiques informed by my research, grading my students' work, etc. but it's not clear how far this would get me.
These are pretty serious threats to the academy as we know it (for starters, how many outside of select natural and health sciences could "earn" their salaries from research and graduate supervision alone?).
Damian Collins
University of Alberta
>________________________________
> From: Pamela Shurmer-Smith <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Friday, February 8, 2013 7:51:33 AM
>Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
>
>
>Things have changed so much since I retired - they hardly seem like universities any more with all this monitoring.
>
>
>I'm sure I'd never have hacked three undergraduate years if I'd had to attend every single lecture, as opposed to reading what I wanted when I wanted (and staying in bed when I wanted). Lecturers are going to have to be very certain every class is an experience that couldn't be obtained more effectively and efficiently somewhere else, or all those compulsory attenders might just start asking why.
>
>
> Pam Shurmer-Smith
>
>________________________________
> From: "McGrath, Siobhan" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Friday, 8 February 2013, 14:37
>Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
>
>We have also been told that as of this year we need to take attendance at all lectures and that this is explicitly because of UKBA compliance. I am very uncomfortable with this practice for a number of reasons, not least because of the logical conclusion of the practice - that someone might get deported based partially on the fact that I reported their non-attendance. And, yes, it sends the message that students should turn up in order to be 'counted' rather than because they think they might learn something, which I find damaging.
>
>Best wishes,
>Siobhan
>
>---
>Siobhán McGrath, PhD
>Lecturer
>Lancaster University
>
>LEC 3, Room B24
>Tel.: 015 245 10353
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>Office hours during Lent Term: 3pm - 4pm on Tuesdays; 2pm – 3pm on Fridays
>You do not need an appointment during the
regularly scheduled office hours but you may reserve a time by signing up here: http://www.doodle.com/yqk5xxhdrk4chr64
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 12:02:52 +0000
>From: Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: attendance monitoring and the UK border agecny
>
>Dear Critters,
>
>My university introduced an attendance monitoring programme last September. My understanding is that this was a response to demands from the UK Border Agency that universities should be able to confirm that non-EU students on student visas are actually participating and attending, and concern that failure to demonstrate this could make it hard to grant visas. For my department
this has involved a paper register passed round all lectures and seminars. This information is then collated by administrative staff. The university is currently devising a strategy for the next academic year.
>
>I am emailing because I'd like to know what has been happening elsewhere. How have your universities responded? Have you run registers of all students at all lectures, seminars, etc? If not, what have you done? I for one would find this information useful as our university discusses how to move forwards.
>
>And I am also interested in what resistance and critical reflection there has been. Has there been open debate, boycotts by staff or students, genuine consultation, etc? Has the data been used in other ways, for example passed to tutors for pastoral care to spot students in difficulty?
>
>Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences here,
>
>Peace - Nick
>
>
>--
>Dr Nick Megoran,
>Lecturer in Political
Geography,
>Co-convenor, Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee,
>Honorary Chaplain to Newcastle University,
>School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
>5th Floor, Claremont Tower,
>Newcastle University,
>Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU.
>
>Tel: 0191 222 6450
>Personal website: www.megoran.org
>Chaplaincy website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/chaplaincy/
>
>------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 17:19:45 +0000
From: "Andrew D. Burridge" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Hi all,
While the discussion around the usefulness of students attending classes is important (and can be related), I think the discussion is veering away from the issue of immigration controls within universities, and our potential role as border guards (as well as the impact on student attendance)
Meanwhile I received this request on a different list today. If folks would like to contribute they can use the address provided below:
Regards
Andrew
hi,
i am invovled in a radical research group - The Education Commission - details below. We are currently compiling a new report specifically about migration controls within HE institutions in the UK. We are looking for details of how each university or dept are implementing these controls. We would really like information from around the UK. So if you work or study in a HE institution - please take 5mins to just tell us what your uni is currently making international students and staff do to 'comply' with UKBA rules etc.
For example at LSE - international students and staff are required to complete a WEEKLY diary of their whereabouts and submit it electronically. At UEL students are required to scan their student cards before ALL lectures and seminars - if they are 10mins late they are considered to be absent. Three absent days for international students and the university informs UKBA. Scary stuff really and really important that we get a clear picture of what is going on.
thanks in advance for your help.
best,
camille
About the Education Commission
The Education Commission is an open research and action group, made up of students, lecturers, admin workers, teachers, and parents. It aims to research and take action around the current conditions in the education sector. In the wake of the UK Border Agency’s revocation of London Met’s Highly Trusted Sponsor Status and consequent plans to deport potentially thousands of international students along with further plans for privatisation across the sector, the commission proposes to investigate and take action around the changing nature of the education in the UK since the abolition of the EMA and mass increase of university tuition fees in 2010. It aims to draw together student, parent, and education workers’ experiences as well as available data in order to produce and disseminate as accurate a picture as possible of the current state and trends in higher education in the UK. It does so in support of and solidarity with current and future struggles in education.
Contact:
Lou Shelley
The Education Commission
E-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Dr. Andrew Burridge
Research Associate
International Boundaries Research Unit
Department of Geography
Durham University
Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders and Global Crisis:
http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/beyond_walls_and_cages
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Damian Collins
Sent: 08 February 2013 16:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Great discussion.
I think Pam's observations go to the wider issue of the "point" of (physical) attendance at lectures more broadly. Especially in the context of larger first and second year classes, what is the "value added" of being physically present?
These questions are being asked increasingly frequently, and loudly, in North America. With the rise of online content in myriad forms (MOOCs, iTunesU, TED talks, etc.), and the possibility of a handful of "world experts" being selected to pre-record "core" classes, there is some speculation the physical university may go the way of the physical video store.
Hypothetically, students might begin to ask why they should bother to enrol in, pay for and walk through the snow to attend my second year introduction to urban geography class, when they could watch one pre-recorded by (say) Richard Florida or another figure of international renown. All from the comfort of their laptops at home (wherever in the world these may be - physical migration for undergraduate study could be rendered unnecessary).
I would respond that I add value through detailed exploration of local examples, incorporating breaking news, providing opportunities for "live" Q&A, offering critiques informed by my research, grading my students' work, etc. but it's not clear how far this would get me.
These are pretty serious threats to the academy as we know it (for starters, how many outside of select natural and health sciences could "earn" their salaries from research and graduate supervision alone?).
Damian Collins
University of Alberta
________________________________
From: Pamela Shurmer-Smith <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 8, 2013 7:51:33 AM
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Things have changed so much since I retired - they hardly seem like universities any more with all this monitoring.
I'm sure I'd never have hacked three undergraduate years if I'd had to attend every single lecture, as opposed to reading what I wanted when I wanted (and staying in bed when I wanted). Lecturers are going to have to be very certain every class is an experience that couldn't be obtained more effectively and efficiently somewhere else, or all those compulsory attenders might just start asking why.
Pam Shurmer-Smith
________________________________
From: "McGrath, Siobhan" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, 8 February 2013, 14:37
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
We have also been told that as of this year we need to take attendance at all lectures and that this is explicitly because of UKBA compliance. I am very uncomfortable with this practice for a number of reasons, not least because of the logical conclusion of the practice - that someone might get deported based partially on the fact that I reported their non-attendance. And, yes, it sends the message that students should turn up in order to be 'counted' rather than because they think they might learn something, which I find damaging.
Best wishes,
Siobhan
---
Siobhán McGrath, PhD
Lecturer
Lancaster University
LEC 3, Room B24
Tel.: 015 245 10353
E-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Office hours during Lent Term: 3pm - 4pm on Tuesdays; 2pm – 3pm on Fridays
You do not need an appointment during the regularly scheduled office hours but you may reserve a time by signing up here: http://www.doodle.com/yqk5xxhdrk4chr64
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 12:02:52 +0000
From: Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: attendance monitoring and the UK border agecny
Dear Critters,
My university introduced an attendance monitoring programme last September. My understanding is that this was a response to demands from the UK Border Agency that universities should be able to confirm that non-EU students on student visas are actually participating and attending, and concern that failure to demonstrate this could make it hard to grant visas. For my department this has involved a paper register passed round all lectures and seminars. This information is then collated by administrative staff. The university is currently devising a strategy for the next academic year.
I am emailing because I'd like to know what has been happening elsewhere. How have your universities responded? Have you run registers of all students at all lectures, seminars, etc? If not, what have you done? I for one would find this information useful as our university discusses how to move forwards.
And I am also interested in what resistance and critical reflection there has been. Has there been open debate, boycotts by staff or students, genuine consultation, etc? Has the data been used in other ways, for example passed to tutors for pastoral care to spot students in difficulty?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences here,
Peace - Nick
--
Dr Nick Megoran,
Lecturer in Political Geography,
Co-convenor, Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee,
Honorary Chaplain to Newcastle University,
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
5th Floor, Claremont Tower,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU.
Tel: 0191 222 6450
Personal website: www.megoran.org<http://www.megoran.org>
Chaplaincy website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/chaplaincy/
------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 17:56:07 +0000
From: Andrew Kythreotis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Cardiff School of Planning & Geography ESRC Funded PhD Studentships
Apologies for any cross postings,
Cardiff School of Planning & Geography have four ESRC funded PhD studentships available in the school for the 2013/14 academic year. The School of Planning & Geography (CPLAN) will be the home school for these studentship positions. With around 60 research-active staff and around 50 research students, the School is a major international centre for research in the areas of human geography, planning and spatial policy. Consistently ranked among the top departments in the UK in successive Research Assessment Exercises, it aims to play an internationally leading role in research and academic inquiry associated with debates around the development, management and sustainability of cities, regions and rural spaces. Often taking an interdisciplinary approach, the School’s current research expertise includes: environmental governance, geographies of food, more-than-human geographies, regional resilience, economic development and regional competitiveness, social and environmental justice, spatial planning, urban design and the integration and visualisation of spatial data.
Three of the studentships are not subject specific and we encourage applications from planners, human geographers and other social and environmental scientists. Preference will be given to applicants whose proposed research connects with the priority research themes of the School’s four research groups. See: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan/research
Further information on these studentships and how to apply can be found at:
http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/funding/R1019.html
The fourth studentship is around the research area of "Building community resilience: the role for community energy projects in reducing urban poverty".
Further information on this studentship and how to apply can be found at:
http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/funding/R1018.html
The closing date for all applications is Friday 8th March 2013.
We look forward to receiving applications from all suitable candidates. For any further information please feel free to contact me at [log in to unmask]
Kind regards,
Andrew
Dr Andrew P. Kythreotis
Serious Brain Power Research Fellow/Lecturer
Postgraduate Research Admissions Tutor
Room 2.51
Cardiff School of Planning and Geography
Cardiff University
Glamorgan Building
King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff CF10 3WA
Wales, UK
Tel: +44(0)29 208 76063
Fax: +44 (0)29 208 74845
[log in to unmask]
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan
Ysgol Cynllunio a Daearyddiaeth Caerdydd
Prifysgol Caerdydd
Adeilad Morgannwg
Rhodfa Brenin Edward VII
Caerdydd CF10 3WA
Cymru, Y Deyrnas Gyfunol
Ffon +44(0)29 208 76063
Recent Publications
Kythreotis A P (2012) "Progress in global climate change politics? Reasserting national state territoriality in a ‘post-political’ world." Progress in Human Geography, 36(4), 457-474.
Kythreotis A P & Jonas A E G (2012) "Scaling sustainable development? How voluntary groups negotiate spaces of sustainability governance in the United Kingdom." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space,30(3), 381-399.
Kythreotis A P (2012) Autonomous and pragmatic governance networks: Environmental leadership and strategies of local Voluntary and Community Sector groups in the UK. In: Gallagher, D.R., Christensen, N. & Andrews, P. (eds.) (2012) Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook. Sage, New York.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 18:20:45 +0000
From: Christian Nold <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: CFP (RGS-IBG) - "More-than-Human Participation"
More-than-Human Participation
Christian Nold (University College London); RGS-IBG, 28th-30th August 2013, London.
Addressing the conference theme of ‘new geographical frontiers’, this is one of three RGS-IBG sessions, dedicated to participatory science, to be held at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre. Entrance to these sessions is free.
Sponsored by HGRG, SCGRG, PyGyRG and GIScRG (research groups of the Royal Geographical Society with IBG) in association with London’s Science Museum and UCL's Extreme Citizen Science Research Group.
Deadline: Saturday 23rd February 2013
Currently, in the fields of Citizen Science, Participatory Sensing and the Internet of Things, people are being encouraged to use technical systems to record and measure the external environment. Innovatively, this session adopts a 'more-than-human' framework (Latour 2004, Bennett 2010), to draw attention to the agency and activities of non-human actors such as living animals and plants, technical devices, concepts and places. This session aims to explore the often surprising consequences of research where technologies gain their own agency, and the environment starts to speak back: what happens when researchers try to turn citizens into sensors (Goodchild 2007) and sensor assemblages start to becoming citizens? This session asks for papers that examine Citizen Science, Participatory Sensing or the Internet of Things, with a focus on the activities of more-than-human actors and addresses these questions:
- What kinds of new knowledge emerge when we pay attention to the participation of more-than-human actors?
- What kinds of power relationships emerge when institutional actors have to deal with more-than-humans?
- How can we co-design for the participation of more-than-human collaborators?
Please send all abstracts (max. 300 words including title, name, contact details, abstract) and/or questions to Christian Nold ([log in to unmask]). Please submit abstracts by Saturday 23rd February so that I have time to get the session organised.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 18:32:38 +0000
From: Karyn Morrissey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: ESRC PhD North West Doctoral Training Centre (NWDTC) CASE Studentship 2013: Geography and Planning Pathway
Dear All,
Please see link below for more information on an exciting ESRC Case NWDTC Studentship in the University of Liverpool, Department of Geography and Planning.
http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/studentships/PHD-ESRCMOR.htm
The studentship is entitled; "Quantifying the Economic Value of the Data obtained from Gauging Stations in Scotland: A Users Perspective" and is in conjunction with the Scottish EnvironmentProjection Agency.
Please contact, Dr. Karyn Morrissey, [log in to unmask] or Dr. Neil Macdonald, [log in to unmask] for further information.
Closing date is the 1st of March.
Kind regards,
Karyn
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 19:13:21 +0000
From: Amy Trauger <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: European Society for Rural Sociology Congress, Call for Papers
Colleagues, (with apologies for cross postings)
Please find attached a call for papers for the ESRS congress in Tusacay, Italy this coming July. I am convening a session on the "politics and practice of food sovereignties". See below for details on the session. Please consider submitting a paper and joining the conversation.
Warm regards,
Amy
Amy Trauger, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
706-542-2330 (o)
706-542-2388 (f)
[log in to unmask]
growcookandeat.blogspot.com
Towards a politics and practice of food sovereignties
Key words: food, sovereignty, security, sustainability, peasant
Since the end of World War II, agricultural production in almost every part of the world has transitioned to some degree, either voluntarily or by coercion, to a market versus subsistence economy of food. Decision-making power about some of the most fundamental aspects of life--land, seed and food supplies—have subsequently been concentrated in the hands of national states, supranational organizations and multi-national corporations, resulting in marginalized farmers and widespread food insecurity in many countries (Goodman and Watts, 1997). Food sovereignty challenges this hegemony by demanding more decision-making rights for farmers, the de/reregulation of food production, a return to a peasant- based food production and restructured markets for the trade of food supplies. Food sovereignty, as a prerequisite to food security, aims to return control of productive resources to farmers, and the control of food distribution to communities as part of a democratic movement (Holt-Gimenez and Peabody, 2008; Patel, 2009; Wittman, Desmarais and Wiebe, 2010).
Food sovereignty is an emergent discourse of empowerment and autonomy in the food system with a flowering of associated practices in rural (and some urban) spaces. Writing in various disciplines on food sovereignty has proliferated since the first usage of the term in 1996 at the Rome Food Summit, but it is descriptive rather than explanatory in nature, and often conflates and confuses food sovereignty with other movements and objectives such as alternative food networks, food justice, or food self-sufficiency. Research on the emergence of food sovereignties is rapidly growing, but the existing literature does not offer a wide variety of empirical examples or a theoretically engaged framework for explaining the aims of actors and organizations working toward autonomy and democracy in the food system. This call for empirically rich and/or theoretically engaged papers aims to attract work across a broad spectrum reflecting on what constitutes the politics and practices of food sovereignty. Short papers are encouraged (but not required) to address the following questions or issues.
Food sovereignties as…
--Strategies of resilience, responses to vulnerability and/or sustainability
-Responses/reactions to economic crises associated with globalization and/or neoliberalism
-Forms of resistance and/or revolt against state capitalism
-Repeasantization, peasant movements and/or the peasant condition
-Democratic social movements and/or food regime change
-Biopolitical and geopolitical engagements
-Food security strategies
-Solidarities/alliances between the global North and South
Procedures:
400 word abstracts should be sent to Amy Trauger at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> by 1 March 2013, and submitted on the conference website at http://www.florenceesrs2013.com/. Confirmation of your participation in the food sovereignty session will be given by April 1st, 2013. The food sovereignties sessions will give each presenter approximately 15 minutes with four papers per session and leave 30 minutes for discussion at the end. Please prepare a short paper (7-10 pp double-spaced) to be submitted to Amy Trauger ([log in to unmask]) by July 15th. The papers may be published on the conference website and/or may be used as a stepping stone toward a special issue on food sovereignty.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 19:38:27 +0000
From: Fiona McConnell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 'Producing legitimacy' Conference - registration open, Cambridge 22-23 April 2013
Dear all
The following conference may be of interest to list members:
The inter-disciplinary conference "Producing legitimacy: governance against
the odds", to be held at the University of Cambridge, April 22-23 2013, is
now open for registration.
The conference will look at political legitimacy from the angle of how
actors in anomalous political entities seek to produce and/or contest
legitimate governance. It will bring together scholars in social
anthropology, geography, political science, international relations and
history.
The keynote address will be given by social anthropologist Ilana Feldman
(George Washington University).
The panels address:
Unrecognised states
Insurgency and government formation
Violence and repair
Political leadership and democracy
Resources and redistribution
Full details of the programme, abstracts, and registration can be found
here: http://legitimacyconference.wordpress.com/
Best wishes,
Fiona McConnell, Alex Jeffrey & Alice Wilson
--
Dr Fiona McConnell
Junior Research Fellow: Geography
Trinity College, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ
[log in to unmask]
www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/mcconnell/
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 14:45:17 -0700
From: "Heyman, Josiah M" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Since I teach a number of on-line courses, I would like to say that the physical university experience does, of course, have important values. Interpersonal interaction is promoted by proximity. But even on-line courses that are taught approximately as equivalents of live courses provide a very different learning experience from impersonal MOOCs, podcasts, etc. In the instance of the course I am currently teaching on line, about borders, I devote immense levels of attention, time, and effort to personal grading and feedback to students; certainly, that is not what a student would get from a pre-recorded lecture by Richard Florida, combined with automated grading. I suspect that massive on-line experiences are a bit like giant (500, 1000 student) lecture courses, which are awful learning experiences. In a nutshell, it is the funding, employment, time, energy, and love that create a learning opportunity, not physical space or not.
Joe Heyman
***************************
Josiah Heyman
Professor of Anthropology
Chair, Sociology and Anthropology
Old Main, Room 108
University of Texas at El Paso
500 W. University Ave.
El Paso, TX 79968 USA
(915) 747-7356
(915) 747-5505 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
From: Damian Collins <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Damian Collins <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 09:55:16 -0700
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Great discussion.
I think Pam's observations go to the wider issue of the "point" of (physical) attendance at lectures more broadly. Especially in the context of larger first and second year classes, what is the "value added" of being physically present?
These questions are being asked increasingly frequently, and loudly, in North America. With the rise of online content in myriad forms (MOOCs, iTunesU, TED talks, etc.), and the possibility of a handful of "world experts" being selected to pre-record "core" classes, there is some speculation the physical university may go the way of the physical video store.
Hypothetically, students might begin to ask why they should bother to enrol in, pay for and walk through the snow to attend my second year introduction to urban geography class, when they could watch one pre-recorded by (say) Richard Florida or another figure of international renown. All from the comfort of their laptops at home (wherever in the world these may be - physical migration for undergraduate study could be rendered unnecessary).
I would respond that I add value through detailed exploration of local examples, incorporating breaking news, providing opportunities for "live" Q&A, offering critiques informed by my research, grading my students' work, etc. but it's not clear how far this would get me.
These are pretty serious threats to the academy as we know it (for starters, how many outside of select natural and health sciences could "earn" their salaries from research and graduate supervision alone?).
Damian Collins
University of Alberta
________________________________
From: Pamela Shurmer-Smith <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 8, 2013 7:51:33 AM
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
Things have changed so much since I retired - they hardly seem like universities any more with all this monitoring.
I'm sure I'd never have hacked three undergraduate years if I'd had to attend every single lecture, as opposed to reading what I wanted when I wanted (and staying in bed when I wanted). Lecturers are going to have to be very certain every class is an experience that couldn't be obtained more effectively and efficiently somewhere else, or all those compulsory attenders might just start asking why.
Pam Shurmer-Smith
________________________________
From: "McGrath, Siobhan" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, 8 February 2013, 14:37
Subject: Re: attendance monitoring
We have also been told that as of this year we need to take attendance at all lectures and that this is explicitly because of UKBA compliance. I am very uncomfortable with this practice for a number of reasons, not least because of the logical conclusion of the practice - that someone might get deported based partially on the fact that I reported their non-attendance. And, yes, it sends the message that students should turn up in order to be 'counted' rather than because they think they might learn something, which I find damaging.
Best wishes,
Siobhan
---
Siobhán McGrath, PhD
Lecturer
Lancaster University
LEC 3, Room B24
Tel.: 015 245 10353
E-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Office hours during Lent Term: 3pm - 4pm on Tuesdays; 2pm – 3pm on Fridays
You do not need an appointment during the regularly scheduled office hours but you may reserve a time by signing up here: http://www.doodle.com/yqk5xxhdrk4chr64
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 12:02:52 +0000
From: Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: attendance monitoring and the UK border agecny
Dear Critters,
My university introduced an attendance monitoring programme last September. My understanding is that this was a response to demands from the UK Border Agency that universities should be able to confirm that non-EU students on student visas are actually participating and attending, and concern that failure to demonstrate this could make it hard to grant visas. For my department this has involved a paper register passed round all lectures and seminars. This information is then collated by administrative staff. The university is currently devising a strategy for the next academic year.
I am emailing because I'd like to know what has been happening elsewhere. How have your universities responded? Have you run registers of all students at all lectures, seminars, etc? If not, what have you done? I for one would find this information useful as our university discusses how to move forwards.
And I am also interested in what resistance and critical reflection there has been. Has there been open debate, boycotts by staff or students, genuine consultation, etc? Has the data been used in other ways, for example passed to tutors for pastoral care to spot students in difficulty?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences here,
Peace - Nick
--
Dr Nick Megoran,
Lecturer in Political Geography,
Co-convenor, Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee,
Honorary Chaplain to Newcastle University,
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
5th Floor, Claremont Tower,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU.
Tel: 0191 222 6450
Personal website: www.megoran.org
Chaplaincy website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/chaplaincy/
-----------------------------
------------------------------
End of CRIT-GEOG-FORUM Digest - 7 Feb 2013 to 8 Feb 2013 (#2013-40)
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