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News & Notes

The Invisible T-Shirt: A Narrative Lesson Plan
2018: The Year that Was
A Light Shines in Charlottesville: an Ode to Joe
What We Learn in High School–A Student Perspective
Tour Our Classroom! Room 313 in Pictures

Topics

America To Me (2)
Education (8)
Fulbright Award (10)
Gratitude (6)
Ideas for the Classroom (2)
Mexico (3)
NEH Grant (4)
New York City (1)
New Zealand (13)
Racial Equity (1)
Teaching (9)
Travel (9)

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Can we talk about how much harder it is to make friends when you’re older? . Grad school can be a lonely and sedentary life. Learning and scheming and interacting with young people all day has been replaced with sitting for hours on end in libraries with no human interaction. So @stanfordbgsa’s Black Ice is soul returning— celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr through a weekend wellness retreat in Lake Tahoe with Stanford’s Black graduate students is just what I needed (shout out to House orange!). I walked away with new friends, new desires to analyze MLK’s later works, and new hope for the future. The world better get ready for these amazing students about to graduate! . #blackatstanford #chocolatecardinal #stanfordbgsa

I finally had some time to see the Jordan Casteel exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center (it’s amazing! If you’re in the Bay, it’s free). One placard discussed that words on clothing help communicate a portrait sitter’s personality. Casteel states that, “I think that’s a very powerful statement, to wear it on your chest like a shield.” I especially liked this t-shirt which reads, “I am not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it.” The t-shirt captures my thoughts the last few months as I apply for the same fellowships, same jobs, and same attention from professors. It is weird to feel like I must “compete” against people who are friends. It’s also weird that some people are unkind when you try to get guidance because of this “competition.” This all feels icky. I’m okay with missing out sometimes because that means that someone else deserving got it. As the shield in the portrait states, I truly hope we all make it. 📷: @danrpimentel

After living in Chicago for more than a decade, I get weighted blanket homesick for the city when I visit. It holds so many beloved people, experiences, and things to eat. Unlike many Midwesterners who often gripe about the winter, grumbling that they’d had enough and want to move to California, I’ve never really wanted to move to a warmer climate. I love the grittiness of the winters and the ineffable feeling you get on that first day is spring. I love having four seasons of clothes and being tough to weather but kind to humans. And you can fight me, but nothing beats a Chicago summer. So it was hard moving to California for school, where people look at you strangely when you say hi and complain to high heaven when it goes below 50 degrees. . Change is hard, but I have to remember how important it is. I started this decade so depressed my hair was falling out, and I’m ended it feeling like a boss getting my doctorate at Stanford. So I just have to remember to be kind and soak up every second of these fleeting visits to see friends. It’s the concept of Sankofa: it’s necessary to miss and reflect on the experiences of your life that made you who you are, but you also have to still look forward bravely toward your new horizons. May we all stay grateful for the pasts that guided us here as we go boldly into 2020. . Happy New Year, loves!

The ultimate champion books I read this year. In the physical book category: Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel Homegoing. This book reads like a collection of sequential short stories, and it tells the haunting legacy of the slave trade on two sides of a family tree: one branch that stays in Ghana and the other that is sold into slavery in the U.S. I couldn’t put it down even though I was at a beach cabin in the summer curled up reading in a hammock while everyone else swam and played. I wanted so desperately to hear what happened to the son or daughter of the character in the story before. It’s a stunning novel that you’ll carry with you long after the last page. . In the audiobook category: @chanelmillerknowmyname’s Know My Name. As the subject hits close to home, I didn’t know if I could get through this book. It’s especially haunting as it takes place on the Stanford campus, and names places I walk or drive by in my daily life. But it was so important to hear the story in Miller’s own voice. She describes things in such brilliant ways that I’d have to pause the book just to let it churn over a while in my head. It is unflinching and visceral, raw and beautiful. With 1 in 4 victims of sexual assault on college campuses, it’s a book I wish all university kids had to read before their first step into their dorm. . What were your favorite books this year? Comment down below so I can start preparing my 2020 list! . #bookstagram #favoritebook

I love giving gifts. It is definitely a love language of mine. The impulse is so strong that I know that I will never be rich (in the economic sense, at least). It’s been one of the hardest parts of transitioning from teaching to graduate school, as the 66% pay decrease means that I can no longer instinctively buy rounds, order bouquets of flowers for people “just because,” or leave surprises behind when I leave homes. And so, this holiday season was initially difficult, as I’d see something a beloved would just LOVE, but then my heart would stick to the side of my gut when I’d flip the price tag over. And then, I visited my grandmother and (most of) my uncles in St. Louis. I gave my grandma a homemade gift that she clearly loved, and my uncles dressed in beaming smiles just at the sight of me. It was then I remembered that *I* am the gift, that my presence is presents enough. I hope we can all remember this fact when the stress of the material takes over. I hope we are all grateful to we have this precious time to be together, as we don’t know if we will have opportunity to have this gift of time again. Our very existence, the fact that we made it another whole orbit around the sun, is more than enough. I’m sending you peace and love this holiday season, especially those of you that are carrying the heaviness in your heart that comes from missing the gifts of others or yourself. I love you. xoxo

A stranger shouted at me in downtown SF yesterday, “it’s the girl with the yellow coat!” and I weirdly felt seen. . Today was a chilly day to take our annual Stanford sibling picture in front of the golden tree (it’s finally fall here!), but I’m glad I did because shortly after this picture, I got the yellow coat caught in the spokes of my bike, which wasn’t good for the coat or for me. 😭

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