The Spaces In Between

Every new year is a bit surprising, but this one feels particularly strange. I am still processing 2020, and yet it has been a whole year since 2020 ended. Writing a review of 2021 will hopefully help me be more grounded as I move into the next year, and will give me a chance to reflect on both the positive and negative parts of 2021.

(You can read previous annual reviews here: 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020).

Teaching/Work:

In Spring 2021, I taught another asynchronous version of “Intro to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies” which went really well. I was worried that discussion boards would not be a good replacement for in-person discussion, but the students in my asynchronous course did an excellent job engaging with each other, and I think that many of them read more deeply and carefully than my in person students do! Discussion boards worked much better in this course than in the courses where I hosted a Zoom class once a week, and a discussion board post once a week. I think that having everything online and asynchronous made students in Intro to WGSS take the discussion boards more seriously that students who had a mix of synchronous and asynchronous course elements.

In the Spring, I also taught Feminist Theory, a new class for me. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, especially as I had only 4 students–mostly seniors who were overwhelmed and stressed. Still, we all learned as much as we could together considering the times! I am very excited to say that I am teaching Feminist Theory again this coming Spring, and the class is completely full with 15 students, and even has a wait-list, which is a first for this class at DePauw.

My third course in the spring, Trans Representations also went well, although I needed to do more 101 teaching about gender and trans identities than in previous iterations of this course. It was cross-listed with Global Health Studies, so I had quite a few students in that class interested in healthcare fields, and they noted that they learned a lot about gender and trans identities that they had never encountered in any other courses.

In the Fall I was back to teaching on campus! The first few weeks were very hard, and my teaching anxiety quite high. It was weird because although this was the start of my second year at DePauw, in many ways it felt like the first. I had never seen my office, or set foot in a DePauw classroom, and it was difficult to adjust to teaching in masks, and navigating being around people after so much covid isolation. But overall, I had a wonderful semester, and I am in awe of the resilience of my students, and how much effort they all put into my classes.

I taught Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies, Queer Theory, Queer Lives, and LGBTQ Life Trajectories in the Fall. The history projects that my students created in Queer Theory, Queer Lives were amazing. I added more in-class scaffolding around this project, including a class period of exploring online archives, and another class period for editing and working on it, and I was very impressed with the quality of their work. (You can see a copy of the assignment here). One of my students did a project on Alan Turing, and took a deep dive into the online archives of his life. She created a fictional diary by him, which even mimicked his hand-writing! Another student made a zine about the Dance of the 41, and made a series of gorgeous sketches of the people who attended the Mexican ball that was disrupted by police in 1901. Other projects included a zine about Boston Marriages, a zine about ACT-UP, and a piece of historical fiction drawing inspiration from Anne Lister’s life.

LGBTQ Life Trajectories was also a great class, mostly junior and senior Global Health Studies majors. Again, it was eye-opening how little education about gender and sexuality that these Indiana/mid-west students get in their high-schools, and it was really rewarding to teach them about LGBTQ topics. Similar to my Trans Rep students, many of these students remarked on the importance of learning about gender and sexuality before they graduate and enter various healthcare jobs.

This semester I really leaned into what I call a “pedagogy of care.” Students commented that my teaching practices helped them show up as their full selves, and that my flexibility and the accessibility that I built into the course helped them participate deeply in the course materials. I know I already have a backlog of teaching posts I hope to write, but I am hoping to write a longer post about this pedagogy of care (and how it applies to me, as well as my students!)

Many of the students in my Fall classes will be taking more classes with me this upcoming semester, which I am very excited about. It is always a rewarding feeling to have “tagalong” students, as one of my colleagues refers to students who follow one from class to class.

Finally in work-related news–I wrote and submitted a first draft of my chapter about drag representations in children’s books to the editor of “Reading LGBTQ Picture Books” this summer, and then completed a second and third draft this Fall. The full book has been submitted to the publisher this month, and I looking forward to reading the feedback from the reviewers and editing a final version.

Another neat thing that happened this year was that I learned that a fellow Brave Trails counselor is also doing research on drag kids! They are currently a PhD student at Rutgers University, and reached out to me to chat. We ended up creating a panel about drag kids with some colleagues for the Children, Youth, and Performance Conference, and will be presenting there in June 2022!

Personal Life Updates:

In December 2020 my friend Indigo came to live with me, as they needed a place to stay and I was lonely living alone in the middle of a pandemic. They are an extremely sweet human, with an open heart, a thirst for adventure, and a deep love of stickers and snail-mail. We had met at the University of Maryland four years prior, and then were pen-pals for a year and a half before they came to stay. We have a lot in common, and it didn’t take long for us to both “catch feelings.” There were a lot of things that were difficult about my Spring, including another semester of remote teaching, and the death of a beloved great-uncle to cancer in April, but my home was also filled with a lot of love, laughter, and joy. It was a welcome change to the darkness of the Fall 2020 semester.

In June, Indigo and I spent a few weeks with family and loved ones in Maryland, and then I was fortunate enough to travel to England for five weeks in July and August. I was finally was able to see my grandparents for the first time since the pandemic began! Delta made travel within the UK difficult, but I managed to find a safe way to see my Yorkshire relatives after my ten day quarantine at my grandparents’ cottage. The weather was thankfully mostly sunny so we were able to meet out in the garden or walk on the seaside. I also was able to see my best friend Kavita, and stay with her for two weeks supporting her and loving on her newborn. Given the uncertainty of covid, I feel endlessly grateful that I was able to spend that time with her.

This Fall, Indigo, Pippin, and I spent quite a bit of time exploring Indiana. We went to Cataract Falls Park, and saw a red-headed woodpecker and snake! We have also spent hours at the DePauw Nature Preserve with our dog, Pippin, and visited Fern Cliff State Park. I have started learning about mushroom foraging, and found Winter Oysters in December, which was super exciting!

The absolute highlight of the Fall was going to see the Sandhill Crane Migration at Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Area. I have never seen anything quite like it! 30,000 birds parachuting down into a marshy field at sunset. I imagine their calls are what dinosaurs sounded like. Sometimes they floated down gracefully, and other times, their wings tipped sideways and their legs splayed out and they awkwardly crash-landed out of the sky. It was incredible.

Another highlight of the Fall was my little sister’s wedding at my parents’ house in rural Maryland. I was the officiant of the ceremony, which was held on the river bank. We had to speed things up because of a storm rolling in–but I was able to read my favorite poem “New Face” by Alice Walker, and they said their vows, and were officially married before the rain started. And then we danced the night away under a big tent in our field. It was a beautiful, magical experience all around!

In other updates: Indigo and I have started taking Sign Language classes together with the Canadian organization, Queer ASL. Their classes are fantastic. We took 101 in the Fall, and we just started taking ASL 102 this January! We have also been watching Star Trek Voyager, playing the board game Wingspan, writing snail mail letters to friends, and reading. I love that Indigo reads so much. We spend many Saturday mornings curled up on the couch drinking coffee and reading together. We also were able to socialize a bit more in the Fall, thanks to the vaccine, and we now have a weekly crafting afternoon with a colleague of mine and her wife on Sundays, as well as a regular DnD RPG group (although that is currently online because of Omicron).

I hope where-ever 2022 finds you dear reader that you are holding on. These pandemic times are tough. I hope you have a warm place to curl up, loved ones to talk to, and things to keep your mind and body nourished.

Cover photo: Is a snowy riverbank on the Choptank, lit up in the afternoon night. Taken by me.

2021 BOOKS

Books I Read for the First Time (in no particular order):

1. Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damien Duffy (adapted from Octavia Butler’s book)
2. Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
3. Real Queer America: LGBTQ Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen
4. The Stars and The Blackness Between Them (audio book) by Juneada Petras (YA. fiction. So beautifully written, but also so, so sad)
5. Felix Ever After (audio book) by Kacen Kallender (YA fiction. this book is EXCELLENT! Yay for trans joy!)
6. Insomniac City by Bill Hayes (one of my favorite reads of the year! Essays about NYC and his relationship with Oliver Sacks)
7. How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature by Scott D. Sampson
8. Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans by Michaeleen Doucleff (this book was fascinating)
9. Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister by Anne Choma (non-fiction–Anne Lister was such an interesting figure in history)
10. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
11. The Space Between Lost and Found by Sandy Stark-McGinnis
12. Three Keys (A Front Desk Novel) by Kelly Yang
13. Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
14. The Boy, the Mole, The Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackery (another beautiful book)
15. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
16. Into the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel Delaney (this was a wild book, would love to process it with anyone who has read it! It is also the longest book I read this year at 872 pages)
17. The Divide by Nicholas Evans
18. You Better Be Lightening by Andrea Gibson (love their poetry so much!)
19. We Were All Someone Else Yesterday by Omar Holmon (beautiful poetry book about grief)
20. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward (This book is a must read! I quote it in conversations all the time!)
21. Raising a Rare Girl: A Memoir by Heather Lanier
22. Connected Teaching: Relationship, Power, and Mattering in Higher Education: by Harriet Schwartz (hoping to write a blog post about this book at some point)
23. Call Me Max by Kyle Lukoff (excellent children’s book about a trans boy)
24. We Move Together by Anne McGuire and Kelly Fritsch (children’s book about different bodies and ways to get around)
25. Be Amazing: A History of Pride by Desmond is Amazing
26. Tabitha and Magoo Dress Up Too by Michelle Tea
27. Auntie-Uncle Drag Queen Hero by Ellie Royce
28. Little People, Big Dreams: RuPaul by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara
29. The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, by Little Miss Hot Mess
30. Calvin by Vanessa and JR Ford (another lovely children’s book about a trans boy)
31. Bingo Love: Jackpot Edition by Tee Franklin (I love the depictions of older queer folks in love in this comic book/graphic novel!)
32. Continuum by Chella Man
33. The Freelance Academic: Transform Your Creative Life and Career by Katie Rose Guest Pryal
34. The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (lovely graphic novel about a Vietnamese-American boy trying to coming out to his parents.)
35. Special Topics in Being Human by S. Bear Bergman (graphic novel full of valuable advice!)
36. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (audio book) by Ocean Vuong (so glad I finally had a chance to read this book!)
37. Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett
38. Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Queer Feminist Sci-fi and Fantasy Anthology edited by Elly Blue (this is a really fun collection!)
39. Ash by Malindo Lo (a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. The way this book honors grief is beautiful.)
40. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharp (a beautiful, complex book)

Books that I taught this year (I have taught all of them before):

1. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
2. Octavia’s Brood edited by adrienne maree brown
3. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
4. Sissy: A Coming of Gender Journey by Jacob Tobias
5. Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Other books that I Reread (I reread a lot of my childhood favorites this year):

1. The Fifth Season by NK Jemison
2. Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
3. Wolf Speaker by Tamora Pierce
4. The Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce
5. In the Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce
6. Sophie’s Snail by Dick King Smith
7. Sophie’s Tom by Dick King Smith
8. Sophie Hits Six by Dick King Smith
9. Sophie in the Saddle by Dick King Smith
10. Sophie is Seven by Dick King Smith
11. Sophie’s Lucky by Dick King Smith
12. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
13. The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton
14. The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton
15. The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton

Books that I started but haven’t finished yet:

1. The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Spacetime, Dark Matter, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod Weinstein
2. The Power of Adrienne Rich by Hilary Holladay