Link Love for September 15, 2017

Every week, I curate a list of the best links and articles to make you think and keep you informed. Enjoy!

Every week, I curate a list of the best links and articles to make you think and keep you informed. Enjoy!

Thoughts on this week:

What I’m Reading in real life: My class is reading Jack London's The Iron Heel and I'm reading mostly as research for my prospectus (due today!). 

What I’m watching: I have finally given in and started watching The Handmaid's Tale. I had watched the first episode over the summer and the premise was too much for me to handle right then. The trauma from being diagnosed with PCOS and then losing my nieces and nephews has made issues around babies really hard for me right now. 

What I’m listening to: I've recently started listening to my favorite music group again, Rising Appalachia. I love them so much. 

What else I’m digging: I'm really getting back into my fountain pens again. If you didn't see my recent post on instagram, I just inked up a ton of pens. 

My Writing

Four years ago: What I’m Reading Right Now (PP&P)

What I read this week:

  • Favorite Article of the Week: You’ll Never Be Famous — And That’s O.K. (NY Times): I very much enjoyed this article, both from the message and the use of literature as an example of life experience. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on these words: "The most meaningful lives, I’ve learned, are often not the extraordinary ones. They’re the ordinary ones lived with dignity." How very true. I wonder, in the end, will my ordinary life be all I imagined? 

Popery (Catholicism/Spirituality/Religion):

  • The Obligations of Grace: Part 1, The Reciprocity of Grace (Experimental Theology): An interesting reflection on faith v. works. Be sure to read the second one, too. 

  • Why Mourn The Confederate Dead, But Not Nazi Ones? (Political Theology Today): This is an excellent theological reflection on an important question in our current moment. "The Confederate monuments and flags function in an active context with a deep history. We can only sanitize them if we engage in a particular form of forgetting and memory. Doing so requires having a very short memory (forgetting the use of Confederate symbols during the civil rights era and current White terrorism) and a very long memory (recalling one’s great-grand-ancestors in the battle trenches while forgetting what they fought for)." I hope we can use our memories correctly. 

Social Justice: 

  • Insensitive or Racist? (Inside Higher Ed): Know what drives me crazy? When we have to have an entire study to prove that people who say racist things are racist. "The study, published in the journal Race and Social Problems, defines microaggressions as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group.” Focusing on those who use microaggressions, rather than those who are on the receiving end, the study found a positive correlation between uttering microaggressions and harboring racist attitudes." No shit. 

Pens/Pencils/Stationery:  

  • What *Is* Modern Calligraphy? (The Postman's Knock): I love this wonderful explanation of the differences between types of calligraphy. 

  • SF 2017: A Fluffy Pawspective (Hand Over That Pen): This is literally the best pen show post ever. 

  • Kaweco Perkeo Fountain Pen Review (The Pen Addict): I was excited to see a review on the Perkeo because I just broke down and bought one. I wasn't keen on it at first, but I like it now. I bought the cotton candy (of course) and am enjoying it as part of my current carry. 

Paperbacks (Reading, Books, and Writing):

Life in General:

Tough Stuff: 

  • What I Learned as an INFJ After Pregnancy Loss and Infertility (Introvert, Dear): I related to this article on many levels. I'm an INFJ and I feel like this writer really gets me. And, as someone who was diagnosed with PCOS almost a year ago (and had another cyst burst only three weeks ago), I live in perpetual fear of infertility. Then, there was this: "As an INFJ personality type, I’m much different. I replayed all the events in the hospital in my mind seemingly thousands of times a day. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t shut my brain off. I relived the pain. I relived the fear. I relived it all, trying to find some sort of understanding for such a traumatic event." That sounds exactly like me after the situation with the sociopath. I have replayed the events of that time over and over and over again, looking for understanding in a situation that simply isn't logical or reason-driven. There is no understanding to gain. But i keep at it anyway. Her talking about being misunderstood and alone also rings super true with me. 

Art and Other Pretty Things:

Academia, Education, and Teaching: 

  • An Academic Use for Social Media (Edutopia): I love teaching with social media. Although I've taken a break from teaching with twitter, I now use Slack in all of my classes. I think this post is really interesting: "When we look at 21st-century learning skills, it’s important to see students as co-creators in their own learning. Social media is the outlet where most of us, including students, get the majority of our information. It’s important to integrate digital platforms and social media tools in the classroom to bridge the gap that we have between traditional approaches to teaching writing and the 21st-century communication skills our students need to develop." How do you allow your students to be co-creators of their learning?

  • Two things that made me think this week (Patter): I appreciated this article discussing imposter syndrome because it's a serious problem around my department. Everyone is so self conscious that they feel the need to be constantly "competitive" (read: catty) instead of just buckling down and doing their research. The results are about as good as you can imagine. I wish imposter syndrome were taken more seriously and graduate students given resources to help deal with it. 

  • Feeling Like an Impostor Is Not a Syndrome (Slate): Another helpful imposter syndrome article. 

  • How Schooling is Used to Determine who Has Value in White Society (RBR): This is an important article on a topic that I am becoming more and more aware of. I'm sick of the belief that because someone is "college bound" they are more important, valuable, or moral. I've met plenty of college grads with less brains than the average dropout, not to mention less talent and drive. It's all about opportunity and the choices we make before our brains are developed enough to make solid choices. 

Simplicity and Minimalism:

Dogs: