The World is My Campus

(That was a catch phrase for my undergraduate campus-ing, back in 1992. . . I always found it ironic, though, 'cause the setting for said campus was predominantly middle-class caucasian, and many a time I received comments from "Oh, you speak English so well!" to "What tanning salon do you go to?".

Frightening. The World has never been so small.)

Commentaires

Unknown a dit…
No, unfortunately, universities everywhere do not have the multicultural, multiethnic milieu that people like us so crave. However, perhaps at least they can strive to bring unbiased knowledge of the world into its borders and therefore validate the catchphrase.
dimanche, 05 février, 2006
Unknown a dit…
I already left a comment I know, but I have another one on the same topic. When I was in Guatemala, and a group of Canadians were visiting, one old beared white man said to me in shock after I spoke a few words 'You speak English!'. Combine that with the fact that all the Guatemalans were shaking their hands as foreigners yet not shaking mine because I was an 'invisible' foreigner I guess. Oh the trials, the tributations.
dimanche, 05 février, 2006
little brown a dit…
bringing 'unbiased knowledge of the world into its borders': beautiful. just heard from a friend who's planning on attending the American Sociological Association's annual conference in MTL whose convention theme, "Great Divides: Transgressing Boundaries," explores the complex processes and institutional underpinnings that create boundaries. . .i can't help but wonder if we will always have as undercurrents to our perceptions differences and divides. even the concept of 'exotifying' is contextualised within a particular ethnographic identity. and, as this conference title implies, the act of crossing one to embrace the other seems deviant and dirty. at what point can we balance convergence as a theoretical discourse with opening up our eyes to the practical experience of pluralities that already exist?
lundi, 05 juin, 2006
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