New Publication from FFPP Fellow Juno Morrow

Marginalia Cover Image

Juno Morrow’s new memoir, Marginalia, is slated for release on June 23rd 2020 from CLASH Books. Marginalia was completed as part of the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program.

Constructed of words, artwork, photos and personal artifacts, Marginalia is an intimate and unconventional account of what it means to be a hybrid. It seamlessly interweaves experience with elements of sociology and psychology, exploring how one cultivates an identity containing multitudes — queer, trans, mixed-race, other.

Juno Morrow is a multidisciplinary artist, independent game designer, photographer and educator living in Brooklyn, New York. She is an Assistant Professor of Game Design and Unit Coordinator at the City University of New York’s Eugenio María de Hostos Community College. At Hostos, she has been developing the game design program, the first public degree program of its kind in New York City, since 2015. Prior to that, Morrow earned an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. As an internationally exhibiting artist and designer, Morrow has presented games and spoken at sites such as SXSW, GDC, MAGFest and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With over 10 years of experience as an award-winning photographer, she’s had work featured in The Guardian, Dwell magazine and released 3 monographs of urban photography.

Her unusual games, often infused with dark humor, feature distinctive aesthetics and novel premises. Examples include Oral Perspectives, a VR game taking place inside the player’s mouth, and Mastering Tedium, an existentialist laundry simulator played inside a text terminal. Recent work includes Pruuds vs. Sloots, a “dumb versus game,” Blood Broker, a consent-based human sacrifice management simulator, and Marginalia, a memoir examining intersections of mixed-race and transgender identities.

Award Pre-Proposal Support from the Research Foundation CUNY

The Office of Award Pre-Proposal Support (APPS) at the Research Foundation CUNY has been working hard to keep us connected to opportunities for funding in the Arts and Humanities as well as STEM fields. The resources below will help you begin planning to apply for future grants and fellowships. Please take a look!

 

Revise and Resubmit.  Ugh.  Wait, Yay!

Revise and Resubmit. Ugh. Wait, Yay!

Hello Everyone.

We thought you’d appreciate some advice about the revise and resubmit (r&r) processes that define our publishing careers.  In this brief post, we’re sharing two bits of excellent advice on how you can successfully survive the double-sided challenges that go along with the dreaded/welcome r&r.

First, please read Cathy Davidson’s “How to Cope with the Dreaded–I mean, AMAZING–“Revise and Resubmit”” from HASTAC.  Some of you may know that Cathy was scheduled as our Professional Development Day keynote speaker.  Her advice is always on point, and we both think of her as a Mentor.

We also attached an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, How Your Journal Editor Works by Devoney Looser.

We know it helps to remember you’re not alone.

Take care,

Shelly and Matt

Helpful Resources

Dear Fellows,

At times like this it helps to have good information at hand, so we want to share several CUNY-wide resources. The “CUNY Continuity” page is a place to start:

https://www.cuny.edu/cuny-continuity/cuny-continuity-for-students/

From here you can access University-wide resources as well as each CUNY college’s “coronavirus page” for information specific to the individual campuses.

Because this week is likely an especially difficult one for the CUNY community and for New York City, we also want to mention that CUNY has resources focused on health and wellness, including counseling and mental health services, as well as child care and food security on our campuses. Links to campus counseling centers can be found here:

https://www.cuny.edu/current-students/student-affairs/student-services/counseling/campus-centers/

More general information about health services at CUNY are here:

https://www.cuny.edu/current-students/student-affairs/student-services/health-services/

At some CUNY colleges, individual departments have compiled resource lists. An example of a departmental resource list is the following from Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College:

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/blackandlatinostudies/?page_id=9

Many campus webpages also point CUNY community members to health and wellness resources outside the CUNY system, including NYC Well Counseling Services:

https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/en/

As ever, and on behalf of our Mentors, we want you to know how thankful we are to have you as colleagues and how deeply we value your participation in the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program.

All our best,

Shelly and Matt

 

Debra Schultz Wins ACLS/Mellon Prize

Former FFPP Fellow and Kingsborough Community College (KCC) faculty just earned an ACLS/Mellon Community College Faculty Fellowship Prize for her project, In the Footsteps of Emmet Till:  And Intellectual and Experiential Engagement with Civil Right Movement Legacies.  Her award will support a participatory research trip with six KCC to civil rights sites in Mississippi.

Debra began her work on this amazing project during her time in FFPP, and we are thrilled to celebrate this recognition of her scholarship as an inspiration for students to learn and to engage racial justice.

 

Congratulations, Debra!

Tenure and Promotion Advice

Hello Fellows!

How are you doing?  As we make our way through all of the challenges facing us in this moment, it remains so important that we all practice Self Care.  We are doing all that we can to stay healthy and sane in this time of isolation.  Have you tried a free dance class with the legendary Debbie Allen?  Or the free 90 day trial from Peleton?  Their an app offers short stretching exercises, yoga and cardio classes, guided meditation and more.

Of course also, we are doing what we can to remain productive.  Some of you may be wondering and worrying about tenure.  And since we won’t be meeting in person on April 3 to talk about your questions and your plans, we’ve curated some good advice for you from “The Professor is In” column at The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Please follow these links for PDFs of “10 Things No One Ever Told Me About Applying for Tenure,” “Publishing as Strategy,” and “4 Steps to a Strong Tenure File.”

And, in case you haven’t heard, given the current circumstances, The University is offering the option to delay tenure for one year.  This option is outlined in the Guidance Memo (March 24, 2020) from CUNY’s Vice Chancellor of Labor Relations.  It states that it is “going to permit faculty whose candidacies for tenure are coming up in the fall 2020 semester to receive a one-year extension, if they so desire.  Such faculty must request a tenure clock extension by emailing their request to their college Provost by May 1, 2020.”

“Going forward,” the Guidance Memo states that “faculty on the tenure track who subsequently want to request a tenure clock extension based on the circumstances of Spring 2020 must apply by February 1 in the year immediately preceding their tenure review…their request will be subject to a fact-specific review, in accordance with past University practice.”

This announcement might be a much needed reprieve for some.

Whatever the case, we look forward to seeing you all at our revised Professional Development Day on Friday, August 28.  Please mark your calendars!

 

Take care, Shelly and Matt

Research Foundation Guidance + Work-Life Balance for Faculty of Color

Hello Fellows,

We are truly heartened to hear that you have been relying on the structure provided by your writing groups and your Mentors to stay focused and find professional support in the face of adversity. The underlying strengths of the FFPP are becoming more vivid than ever: the capacity to connect, draw on professional resources, build layered support systems, and persevere together.

We have several timely informational items to share with you.

  1. The CUNY Research Foundation has just released the following for PIs and grant workers:  https://www.rfcuny.org/RFWebsite/about/announcements/coronavirus-guidance/ and specifically  https://www.rfcuny.org/RFWebsite/learning-resources/covid-19-guidance/faqs-for-rf-field-staff-and-principal-investigators/   This guidance will be updated periodically, so please check back at the RF site.
  2. The current moment only highlights something the FFPP has long focused on: the question of how faculty of color can achieve a good work-life balance in academe. Dwayne A. Mack, professor of history and Carter G. Woodson Chair of African American History at Berea College, offers his perspective here.

Finally, our STEM Mentor, William Carr, recently gave a talk about coronavirus (COVID-19). Thank you to William for sharing your expertise with us!

We look forward to communicating with you regularly–even as we want to respect the fact that we’ve all been a bit overwhelmed with email lately! The FFPP Commons will be, we hope, a valued site of connection, resource-sharing, and collegiality as we move ahead.

Very best wishes to all,

Matt and Shelly

Professional Development Day Postponed

Hello Everyone,

By now you may have already read our post about the importance of self-care in a time like this.  It is more important than ever.

We’d also like to remind you that we’ll be sharing some selections from our Professional Tool Kit—items like tips from publishers and editors, advice from grant makers, and slides about tenure and promotion.  You’ll find them here, in our digital community so please continue reading our posts as they land in your inbox.

We know the personal connections Fellows make during our Professional Development day are really important, so we’ll schedule an event early next fall.

Stay tuned and stay well!

Shelly and Matt

Now More Than Ever: Self Care

How are you doing?  We have been thinking a lot about you, hoping that you are finding a way to take care of your mind and your body as we all adjust to this new (temporary) reality of “social distance” and teaching online.

With this goal in mind, we’ve collected some tips and resources for you to help insure your self care.

  • UNPLUG OCCASSIONALLY.  Take a break from the news every now and then so you can recharge and (try to) relax.
  • FIND SUPPORT.  Please don’t forget you are part of an academic community.  Check in with your Mentors and fellow Fellows.  Message us, if you need to (shelly.eversley@baruch.cuny.edu or matt.brim@csi.cuny.edu), or try meditation.  The Breathing App is a free option.   And Tricycle, a Buddhist magazine is offering free meditation practice sessions online (using Zoom).
  • STAY SOCIAL.  Keep in touch with your friends and family.  Group chat, set up a virtual happy hour, or even a virtual writing session.
  • MOVE YOUR BODY.  Now is a good time to develop an at-home work out routine.  There are plenty of free, on-demand options on Youtube and on Spotify.  Try Yoga with Adriene, FitnessBlender, or Tiny Workouts.

Most of all, please be sure to honor your feelings and remember we’re in this together.  We’ll get through it together.

In the coming days and weeks we’ll post some gems from the Professional Tool Kit we were going to share at our Professional Development Day.  We’ll also schedule an in-person, abbreviated workshop in the fall so we can gather and celebrate our community of scholars.

Stay tuned and stay positive.

XO, Shelly and Matt

Congratulations, Matt Brim! #PoorQueerStudies wins #MLA Prize

Matt Brim at MLA, holding an advance copy of his new book!

FFPP’s co-director Matt Brim won the MLA’s Crompton-Noll Award for Best Essay in LGBTQ Studies!  The article became the introduction to his new book, Poor Queer Studies:  Confronting Elitism in the University (Duke UP).

You can read it here.

Congratulations, Matt!  Your scholarship, your leadership, and your commitment to quality education for everyone makes us so proud!