At any given moment in time, the intersection of life causes an unexpected clash of realities.  Today, I’m learning the wisdom of silence, the discipline of twisting spokes, and the reality of chasing pavement.  As a more extraverted and yet intentional scholar who values a good beer at the Hopleaf, nice introspective conversation, the opportunity to twist some spokes and the contemplative & meditative way of life–that sense of awareness that is beyond oneself–there is a sense that wisdom is a well where one is able to dwell for a long period of time.  At times, there is difficulty for one dwelling or one contemplating the wisdom around the well.  

I keep returning to the the process of integration.  There is something about the process of growth and growing/introspection and the politics of identity that motivates many of my questions around the politics of friendships, the difficulty of relationships, and the wisdom of silence.  I’m finding myself chasing pavement right now, and that’s okay.

I am happy that I have met some new friends who are asking some important questions.  I am grateful [largely b/c I'm unsure what "happy" means] for these folks who aid me to find a way to wisdom, to the well, to place where I am able to drink fully.  This is both lovely and loving; it is a family whose who has girded me with the necessary tools to live life fully in a time when the San Francisco fog is thick in Chicago.

There is wisdom around the well, and there is a place for me to dwell at the well.  I find myself needing a deeper sense of wisdom.  California, you’re my fault line whose saved my insides.  Thank you!

No more hanging chads…This one is the best one I’ve seen yet!!!

As one who is quite familiar w/ Ruether’s work,it only made sense to post this article from Inside Higher Ed.  Ruether’s work is hugely important for Catholics, feminists, Protestants, etc, and for her to be denied on ideological reasons seems academically shallow!

Please, read on….

From inside higher ed JULY 21

Theologian Uninvited to Hold Chair

Activist groups that try to pressure Roman Catholic universities to adhere to certain measures of fealty are praising the University of San Diego for telling a prominent theology professor that the invitation for her to teach there next year was being rescinded and that she would not hold a visiting endowed chair.

The professor is Rosemary Radford Ruether, who currently teaches at the Claremont Graduate University and has also taught at the Pacific School of Religion and Holy Names University, and written a column for many years for the National Catholic Reporter. Ruether’s numerous books about theology have strong pro-feminist positions (she advocates the ordination of women, for example) and she identifies herself as a “progressive Catholic,” but very much as a Catholic thinker.

This fall, the New Press will publish her latest book, Catholic Does Not Equal the Vatican: A Vision for Progressive Catholicism, in which she challenges Vatican teachings on a range of issues. In the forward to the book, Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, writes: “In a truly just world, Rosemary Radford Ruether would be pope.”

While Ruether has no expectations of becoming pope, she did think she had an endowed chair. San Diego announced in June that Ruether would be named as the next Monsignor John R. Portman Chair in Roman Catholic Theology, a position that involves a one year appointment, teaching, and a major lecture on campus. The announcement - since removed from the university’s Web site - set off alarms among critics of Ruether’s views, who published articles on Web sites calling her a “radical non-Christian” and charging, among other things, that she calls God “Gaia.” (For the record, she said that she calls God “God,” and did so in a conversation with this reporter.)

In an interview, Ruether said that she was strongly recruited by the university for the position. She said that she has more invitations than she can handle, but that she agreed to the visiting chair after faculty members attended a lecture she gave, and spoke about how much they wanted her to teach. Terms were negotiated and the announcement was made, she said. Subsequently, she said, Provost Julie Sullivan called her and explained that the theology department “had not consulted with the donor and the donor had a different vision” of the chair, so the offer to Ruether was being rescinded. (The donor is anonymous, according to a university Web site.)

“This is obviously a case where the faculty were not able to ask the person they wanted to ask because of ideological bias,” Ruether said. She added that her academic freedom would not be affected because she would continue to write what she believes, but she said that the academic freedom of San Diego faculty members had been hurt by having her appointment blocked. She said that “it’s their academic freedom being denied,” when the faculty have appointments vetoed just for being controversial.

Lance Nelson, chair of the theology department and the person who recruited Ruether, declined to talk about the situation and said that only the provost could talk about the matter. The provost did not respond to e-mail messages. Pamela Gray Payton, a spokeswoman for the university, confirmed via e-mail that upon “review of the specific purpose of the Monsignor John R. Portman Chair in Roman Catholic Theology, the University of San Diego is no longer considering the appointment of Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether as the 2009-2010 chair holder.” Payton added that Ruether was “never officially appointed” to the position.

LifeSiteNews.com, which had previously urged Catholics to call the university to oppose Ruether, is praising the university’s latest action and urging readers to write the university to express support.

- Scott Jaschik

The original story and user comments can be viewed online at http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/07/21/usd 

Assistant/Associate University Librarian for Technical Services
University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis, one of the nation’s top public research universities with an enrollment of approximately 30,000 students, seeks an Assistant/Associate University Librarian for Technical Services (AUL).  Reporting to the University Librarian, the AUL fills a vital role on the senior management team and is responsible for a wide range of duties related to the management of the Library’s Technical Services Departments.  The AUL serves as an advocate and as a resource person for innovative tools and technologies that support bibliographic control, acquisitions, metadata creation, and linking and maintenance of library collections in all formats.

The successful candidate will possess experience in managing technical services within a large research or academic library, including experience with managing digital collections. For a full list of the required qualifications and characteristics, please see the official campus job posting at: http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/jobs/. Read the rest of this entry »

Please find a Call for Papers…
Call for papers for book:

Sexing Travel: Intimacy and Subjectivity in Women’s International Tourism

Edited by Susan Frohlick and Jessica Jacobs

Abstracts accepted until January 15, 2008
Full chapters due by July 1, 2008
2009 publication target date

We are seeking ethnographically informed papers that focus on the multiple dimensions of women’s participation in sexual and intimate relationships with local men or women in international tourist destinations, to be included in an edited volume on transnational/cultural intimacy and sexual subjectivity in women’s travel. We are currently looking into various channels for publication, and are aiming for eight contributors.

Scholarship on ‘ethno-sexual relations’ (Nagel, 2003) between tourists and locals is growing and reflects, in our view, the expansion of sex tourism in late capitalism from a predominantly masculine terrain (tied into ideas around the modern subject) and historical practice to a global phenomenon that includes the gendered consumption practices of First World women shaped by some women’s increasing economic power and mobility. Most work to date draws almost exclusively upon a political-economic framework that refers to “female sex tourists” or “romance tourists”, whose parameters are defined by women’s similarity (or difference) to male sex tourists. As well as sustaining the male subject at the center of the conceptualization of female sex tourism, we feel these approaches ignore the complex sensorial and emotional dimensions of women’s inter-racial, transcultural sexual and intimate relationships with local people in largely Southern and Third World countries. They also miss the opportunity to comment on the role these encounters play in new subject formations and transnational relationships.

Read the rest of this entry »

Postdoctoral Fellowship Positions in Sexuality and Gender Research in HIV Infection

Focus: The HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute sponsors postdoctoral fellows in the area of sexuality and gender research in HIV infection.

Setting: The HIV Center is a large interdisciplinary research program on behavioral aspects of HIV (and other sexually transmitted infections) with a special emphasis on sexuality and gender. Among the many ongoing projects are studies on the determinants and contexts of sexual behavior in various adolescent and adult populations, on the prevention of sexual risk behavior, and on HIV treatment adherence. Both qualitative/ethnographic and quantitative methodologies are being applied.

Eligible applicants: Best suited for these positions are applicants with interdisciplinary research interests and appropriate research training in psychology or related behavioral and social sciences. The program also accepts applications from persons with medical training. Applicants must have obtained their doctoral degree (Ph.D., M.D. or other) by the time of their appointment. Fellowship is open only to U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents.

Funding of postdoctoral fellowships: Fellowships are funded through the Behavioral Sciences Research in HIV Infection Training Program (Directors: Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D., and Theo Sandfort, Ph.D.). The program provides an opportunity for fellows to receive intensive training in human sexuality research as applied to HIV prevention and HIV-related health interventions. This is an NRSA institutional training grant that provides up to three years of support for fellows. Tuition support is available through a partnership with the Mailman School of Public Health for concurrent matriculation in a Master of Science degree program in Biostatistics.

Timetable for applications: Positions to begin July 1, 2008. Anyone interested in the Fellowship Program can begin the application process by downloading (from http://www.hivcenternyc.org/training/nrsa.html), completing, and emailing the application form with a current Curriculum Vitae to postdoc@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu. Further information about the program will then be mailed to all eligible applicants, along with instructions for completing the application process (including writing a personal statement and sending letters of recommendation). The complete, final application packet must be received by the HIV Center no later than February 1, 2008. Applicants are urged to send the initial application early enough to allow themselves ample time to receive, complete, and mail in the final application packet.

More information about the HIV Center and the Training Program can be found on the HIV Center’s Website (www.hivcenternyc.org). We are an equal opportunity employer.

Please forward this announcement to any other list serves that might be interested in seeing it.