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Inheritance
I wrote this poem for a project about bodies and vulnerability. You can learn more about this project in the post “The Self in Study.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Etched in Bark (@etchedbark) on Jan 13, 2019 at 11:55am PST The main inspiration was genetic inheritance. My dad was in the middle of his treatment for leukemia at the time and I was reflecting on the amount of cancer that occurs in my family. I’m sharing this poem with you as I return to my family home for the first time since my dad passed away a year ago.
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New Air Nips
This poem was originally supposed to be a haiku. It wasn’t until I hit publish that I noticed the formatting had changed. Whoops!
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Mediated Musings
Musing as a word has always appealed to me. It’s a moment of reflection or thought. It builds off of the inspiration-giving muses of Greek and Roman mythology that are also connected to early scholarly pursuits. In these two meanings alone “musing” combines history, religion, scholarship, and reflection. It doesn’t hurt that “musing” makes me think of “moo” and then I laugh, because — well, cows. In many ways, musing has come to represent my intellectual life. I’ve used it as a name in multiple blogs since high school and I always come back to this word when I muse on the process of thinking itself. (Yes — that was…
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Shakespeare & Co. – Philly
In January 2019 I visited some friend in Philadelphia and of course a bookstore visit had to happen. I fell in love the moment I stepped into Shakespeare & Co. on that cold, dark January night. This combination coffee shop and bookstore smelled like coffee and baked goods. I could easily imagine myself sitting at a corner table with a warm mug, chocolate croissant, and getting lost in a new book. Shakespeare & Co. has two floors you can wander and get lost in. This bookstore visit holds a special place because it’s where I was introduced to N.K. Jemisin’s work. She is a science fiction writer who has won…
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From the top of the world
The juxtaposition of “from the top of the world” and looking up at something taller makes me a bit dizzy. I think it really hits on the point that even when we feel big, grand, and strong we are still just an ant in the grand scheme of things.
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Understanding White Supremacy
Multitudes of guides have come out recently about white supremacy and anti-racism. These resources aim to introduce white folxs to the concept of white supremacy as a system of power in which all are complicit. Since Sitting in the Stacks originated as a book review blog, I have aggregated various resource lists here. I have also included some of my personal favorites that helped me step from behind the heavy, blinding curtain of white privilege to recognize the systemic violence and oppression that is on-going in the United States. If you’re already rolling your eyes and trying to argue with the first paragraph, you’re definitely in need of these resources.…
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Breathe(ing
I started an Instagram account to explore the connection between word and image that I began on Sitting in the Stacks. I’ve always been interested in possibly publishing a book of poetry that is paired or placed on top of my photography. Etched in Bark is where I’m testing out this dream.
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The Populist Nationalist
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2019, I attended a conference in Washington, D.C. The timing of the conference was particularly interesting given the meeting I attended — Global Populism: Its Roots in Media and Religion. Who wouldn’t want to discuss populist politics and religion during a holiday weekend? One trend that I noticed in multiple presentations during the Global Populism meeting was that multiple populist movements overlapped with nationalist rhetoric. The Hindutva movement in India positions itself as the holder of the true Indian identity. In Hungry, President Orban centers Catholicism against Islam as the Hungarian culture. Brexiters want to make the UK “British” again. Lastly, Trumpian populism 100 percent…
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The Self in Study
When the microphone and questions are turned toward the journalist or researcher they tend to cringe. It’s uncomfortable to be the object of study. In fact, many of us have been trained to believe that we are not a part of the study — the self must be aloof, detached, objective. Of course this mindset has shifted in some fields of work, including my own, but even those of us who champion self-reflective, feminist methods of positionality can be reticent to step to the other side of the researcher-subject relationship. Yet, that’s exactly what I had to do this past semester. I or more specifically my genes became the object…
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Looking at the Weekly Reading Mill
Welcome to the first Weekly Wrap of the revived Sitting in the Stacks! As in the past, these posts will include a large infographic highlighting what I’m currently reading, recently read, and what’s next. I also highly recommend looking at the bottom of the infographics each time as I try to incorporate interesting quotations. First, let’s look at recent…
