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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: June 11, 2004
Latest Update: June 12, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:
Who We Are

It seemed appropriate this week, as I struggle through cleaning up all our indices and resource pages, to think for a moment about who we are, what Dear Habermas has become, where we are going.

We're different. That's for sure. I wanted very much to fit in with a number of sites, like Virtual Faculty like Nicholas Burbule's Home Page, like Critical Criminology, like . I share many of their interests, but they are reproducing in the virtual world out there parts of that which already exists, albeit inaccessibly, in the academy. They write articles, publish articles and books, and teach in a virtual place courses that fit their practice and research. And they do offer mutual support. Trouble was, that isn't what I do. I need a group of academics working collaboratively to the end of learning and teaching, free, to all who need and want to learn. I didn't choose that goal. It chose me. And try as I may, I can't seem to make it fit with publishinig traditional articles and books with publishers who don't fit into my dream of learning for learning's sake with any and all who want to learn in good faith.

It's easy to find whole articles and books, even on the Internet. And for that I am grateful. But I haven't the space in my multi-layered, multi-tracked life, even in retirement, to read deeply in every subject. We need to share. Someone who has already read and thought deeply of Plato's cave should put out there his/her thoughts and a few links where I could follow through, and come away with a sense of what Plato was saying, even though I can't make the time just now to read it.

I haven't finished Ian Hacking's Social Construction of What. I don't even know the book is right now. Probably somewhere on the floor behind me, making it near impossible for the tech to fix my computer wires.

Habermas and my disappointment at being told by those scholars who are, well, serious, about Habermas, that I inappropriately named the site. Well, whoop-de-doo. I named the site in 1996, when I was teaching with Habermas' Between Facts and Norms. I was teaching that to undergraduates in an urban commuter college. One of my students told me that if I didn't I'd always regret it, so I called Susan at Wisconsin and asked if she thought it was crazy. We both have been teaching with Habermas ever since. But my students couldn't tackle that text without lectures that made it make sense in their lives. They were the ones who kept asking, "What would Habermas say about . . . " As if Susan and I would know . . . So we called the Site Dear Habermas, after Dear Abby. And we tried to answer their questions within a theoretical framework we thought Habermas might approve. But he doesn't email people, and I hardly run in the academic circles where I might meet him. So it kind of hurt to be dismissed with so much disdain by the author of a site that came out much later than ours who had the discretionary time to follow his theoretical pursuits. Maybehe did get to meet Habermas, and talk to him, and ask him what he thinks. But you don't get to do that in your average state college.

That only happened on that one site, though I think it's still there. Most professionals were warm and welcoming, even if they didn't know how to provide entry links to the culture we were trying to live in: that of the academy, with serious teaching commitments and concerns, but with lots of doctoral work and interest behind us. We didn't have the right support networks.

I'm resilient and a woman, so I kept on doing what I needed to do, without a great deal of confirmation from the academy. I had a husband, so I didn't have to beg for crumbs in the intense competitiveness on college campuses. Instead Susan and I did our own thing, and kept on teaching basic principles out of Habermas to people who normally wouldn't even hear of him. That may not have added a lot to the Habermas listserv in its critical study of Habermas, but it added a great deal of understanding to the ordinary folks who make up the local communities out of which governance must grow.

We started doing this as an undergraduate moot court. . . .

Notes: To be filled in and filed to new file later. Saturday afternoon, June 12, 2004. jeanne

As I came to understand the Internet, I tried to model Dear Habermas on other sites, like Cecil Greek's page on criminal justice.

I want to follow the theory of other disciplines.

I want to include art with photography.

Debriefing the Naked Space Exhibit

Poster from the Gallery Exhibit
Link on Poster for Table of Contents of Hypertext Poem:
Freeing the Feminine Other

• I Remember
• The Rhinoceros and Answerability
• Let yourself answer, too
• Debriefing a project for the exhibit.
• The Notion of Space that Remains Behind the Distinctions between Academia/Society.
• Spatial Analysis in Social Theory
• Constitutive Theory Evaluation Checklist
• Illocutionary Solutions: Participatory Vision and Naked Space Notes only on June 5, 2004.
• A Step by Step Guide to Accessible Artsin California Additiion to Resource Guide for People with Disabilities. Note that without Jacquelyn Jones-Lee's and Lesley Eliofor's guide in the exhibit, I would not have known the importance of this guide.
• Start of methods series on understanding relationship between art and photography.
• Balanced ScoreCard Management Evaluation Backup of article on evaluation I want to use in this report. Notes and essay up soon. jeanne

NEWS and Announcements:

Up soon. jeanne

Grades for Spring 2004 Classes

We DID turn in the grades. Some of you seem not to be able to find them. Pat is checking on it. We will post whatever we find out. Be sure to check my notes on the grades. Only three persons were not listed that we knew of, and that was because no work was yet turned in by them. E-mail me if you have a problem with your grade, with a cc to Pat at patriciaacone@hotmail.com. jeanne

• Notes for Grades for Spring 2004

Readings for Fall 2004 Classes

• Up soon for this week. Meanwhile check Daily Site Additions for the files I'm working on. jeanne

A Range of Sources on Global Events

Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times
Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Guardian
Wall Street Journal -The Weekly Standard - The Nation
Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - The Washington Post
Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor

Indymedia - Mother Jones - BBC News - New Profile
Progressive Sociologists Network Environmental Working Group

Evaluating Internet Resources

TUTORING HELP - Pat's summer schedule

Evaluating Hoax Email with samples, including an old one about charging for email that's going around again. Link updated March 29, 2004.

Evaluating Internet Resources Library Site at University of North Carolina. Don't forget to question. This is a good detailed source. Link checked March 29, 2004.

Using Academic Language and Visuals Effectively:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

Internet Mission Photography Archive

Dictionary of Critical Sociology
Maintained by Robert E. Mazur, Associate Professor, Iowa State University, Sociology.

Words of Art: Front Page
Wonderful Fine Arts dictionary at Okanagan University College in Canada.
Will cover many of the terms social theory shares with literary theory.

Citation Styles Citing Internet Sources for Social Science Papers: A Quick Note.

APA Style Style sheet for Psychology. Good reference for proper rules of citation. Twenty-five Easy Steps Toward a Correctly-Formatted Paper or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love MLA by Keith O'Neill. Style sheet for humanities.

Today's Word: From the Word.A.Day Site

and Careers

• 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

  New material on careers will go up shortly. jeanne

• College Journal Resume Suggestions . . . Backup

Play:

• Healthful Play: How much canned tuna can you afford to eat in one week? Go to the Environmental Working Group Site and they will calculate it for you! And please avoid canned tuna altogether if you are pregnant or for a child under 5. It's dangerous, and the FDA is not making that well enough known.

Who To Take:

Don't forget to add your comments for next year's students. jeanne

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