Academia Alternatives

Hi Friends!

So I am in a particularly introspective mood. I just spent the day with my good friend Kathy who I love dearly and who loves me too! We both belong to a group called Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Instead of studying for my midterm next week in Theories of Social Research I had a long conversation with Kathy about life, "the movement", struggles, hopes etc.

Speaking with Kathy always gives me energy, imagination and hope - truly. It also reminds me of the long time struggle I have had with whether or not to finish my degree. For those who don't know me I go to a large, private, urban university in Philadelphia. Because of both the community movement I am in, the work I have done (and learned from) at Word and World, and the circles I have spent my time in over the years more or less active with Voices - I have built myself into such a place that I constantly feel limited, bored, frustrated. . . by going to school. Which is somewhat suprising because I love to read, write, learn new things and stretch myself.

I just feel that academia generates very little active, intimate, collaborative work. There are countless law schools with numerous international law departments and yet so little work taking that learning outside the comfortable halls it is taught in. Can academic labor be doing transformative, interesting, expanding, deepening work helping movements of social change think more critically and creatively? And can these movements inspire academia to practice their work in such a way that it may be relevant to the lives of the poor, confront the state, disarm the narratives of racism, sexism, homophobia that we daily swallow?

An idea (and perhaps concrete example of what I mean) one of my professors ALWAYS talks about is not equating the market with capitalism - asking instead how we can resist the latter while thinking creatively about the former.

At my school there are brilliant, sensitive, aware students whose lives of privilege and comfort have (along with huge loan bills to pay back) led them to imagine a future with a huge, global private corporations where all their curious and imaginative energy will be poured back into the "military industrial congressional complex" that is devastating the planet. And that breaks my heart. There is one young man in my Palestine-Israel class who is especially outspoken, organized, thorough and brilliant - getting his degree in International relations who has concentrated on the Middle East and when I asked him what we was going to do after graduation he told me he was thinking of working for a company that sells information to the CIA. AH! Many students in my language courses are studying farsi and arabic not because they are beautiful, ancient, and relevant - but because they can get a good job in the defense industry.

Since going to Penn three years ago I have never seen a single class under the Peace Science category. . .

I am ever more convinced that if we are interested in (and I think this is basic) security and survival of ourselves and our planet we will need to do lots of education. I am all for education. But I think that it will have to be done differently - priorities will have to be readjusted and risks taken. We are so fortunate that we can take risks in our country with very little redress - if you block the federal building the worse punishment you may get is a week in prison, you won't face a death squad.

I feel like there are a lot of things I am saying here:
1. We need to rethink pedagogical practices at the University.
2. The University needs to think more about how academic labor may be more intimate, active and collaborative.
3. Doing education differently might help us also to be inspired to take more risks with our lives, social relationships, bank accounts etc.
4. We need to think critically and creatively about our relationships to brothers and sisters in our world whose lives are deeply affected by our accumulation of wealth and precious nonrenewable resources.
5. Loving and caring for our children demands that we also care for their futures. I know lots of parents who wouldn't think twice about spending loads of money on their children's lessons, schooling, clothing etc. But rarely connect that love to parents outside their national borders and to how their lifestyle is creating a very unstable, scary world into which their children will be growing up. (Okay so this point wasn't really a part of what I was saying earlier).

All this to say that I feel I have received a wonderful education outside my University and feel I am in existential crisis about whether to quit and continue to find ways to learn that are life-giving or suck it up, get the degree and get out?

Farah Marie

Declaring Peace

This is a picture of me being taken away to the clink during last week's Declaration of Peace (DOP: www.DeclarationOfPeace.org) events in D.C.

The particular action I, along with 12 other women and 13 men, participated in was directed at the various committees, especially committees related to deciding on the funding going to the Iraq war, demanding that they stop the funding that is leading to (as the picture clearly illustrates) the death of thousands of Iraqi people and many soldiers.

Here & There

So last night I spoke at an Iftar for the Muslim Student Association and Penn Arab Society (PAS) who were raising money for UNICEF in Lebanon. There were perhaps 200 people there. I shared stories while a Lebanese American friend of mine, Sara, who spent the last year in Beirut described the situation before the war. The whole event raised approximately $1200. Later the VP of PAS asked me to join the group and I explained to him that I would love to but I was not Arab. Another friend piped in that it was okay I as I was "Arab by ignorance" meaning most people think Iranians are Arab, and sometimes, like in my Father's case, this really tics them off because they are very proud of their heritage as Persians. Anyhow, needless to say I am now an honorary member of the Penn Arab Society.

Last week I joined the Declaration of Peace (www.declarationofpeace.org) in D.C., some friends of mine are the organizers, and I joined an action on the 27th where we staged a funeral procession carrying coffins of soldiers and Iraqis who have died and demanded that congress act to stop funding this ridiculous war. Those of us that choose to risk arrest staged a die-in in front of the Rayburn buildings entrance and were hauled off to the clink. Thirteen men and thirteen women risked arrest and many wonderful people supported. I was really glad I took the two days off from school for the events.

It felt very healing to be a part of the DOP. For various reasons I felt a good amount of fear this time being arrested, and when I started feeling overwhelmed with the fear I focused on this mother I met in Cana and the story she told me about her six year old son and the experience of losing him to the war. Maybe it seems strange but remembering and focusing on her story and that of Zaineb helped to centre me and calm me althought he story itself is very unsettling. I felt centred because the spirit of why I was participating in the event was very present. Also because I participated in the event with my friend and (he might not know it) mentor Bill Wylie-Kellerman, one of the most gifted, gentle and generous men I have ever known. While I was laying under the white shroud I was thinking about him and how he recently lost his dear wife Jeannie, who I hardly knew but deeply respect, and that helped me to focus on the sacredness of life and how important it is to continue to work to protect that sacredness, to live in that mystery and wrap ourselves into the joy and sorrow of living. I have participated in a few protests and risked arrest a good number of times but this time I really lived into the event more deeply than ever before.

. . . Not-so-brief interruption from our friend Shauna from the streets. She used to be by our house all the time but is less so now. . . I think its because she's cleaning up a little, hasn't been doing as many drugs as she used to do but is still occasionally out here to get high. She came in for something cold to drink and a new t-shirt and when we walked back into the kitchen she asked if she could wash her hands which turned into an impromptu shower in the kitchen sink! I was more humored than upset and she left happily clean with a large jar of blue moon soda.

So balancing school and all the other activities I am involved in is going okay. I got back my first philosophy paper and had a big fat NP on it - that means "not pass" which is very upsetting to me as I worked hard on the paper and have gotten great grades on previous philosophy papers. I can't be sure as to the precise reason why I failed the paper other than the fact that I used the last paragraph of the the 2 pages we were allotted to talk about how I think its possible that we live in a simulation if you consider advertising, corporate media and outrageous governments. I think the other aspect is that I have a natural aversion to following the "rules" or "norms" or "structure" of just about anything, and sometimes if you posses this natural aversion it can be difficult to put that aside even for something as easy as writing a two page Philosophy paper.

Its difficult for me to appreciate the "intellectual journey" without understanding contexts and practical applications. For example, Descartes' Meditations, classical Phil 101 text right?

Well I want to know why he is writing the Meditations, is it revolutionary or maintaining a master narrative?

What was going on in his life that made him need to doubt everything? Was he dumped by a lover? I read his daughter died in that time which makes me think that his meditations must have been influenced by this event.

I feel that loving or appreciating a text means locating that text into its history. I don't like intellectual gymnastics unless they impact life in some way, assist us to grow deeper or stretch our creative capacity.

I hate the snobery of intellectual discourse, playing the who can reference more dead white men than the other sort of stuff. Maybe I am just ignorant and naive, don't get me wrong I can appreciate the need for intellectual exercise, but if it doesn't give me tools for life or deconstruct "the empire within" or help me to experience beauty in some way. . .I guess I just have an aversion to it. I think that is why W&W exists - its journey oriented. We aren't about hording intellectual property to impress other intellectuals, we are interested in doing school differently creating models of hope and social transformation within the structure. Ah, does anyone here what I am trying to say?

So, we shall see how the old Philosophy class goes and if my TA will work with me, or I with him for that matter.

Farah Marie