From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: No Dead White Males: Activism, Social Change At The New College

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No Dead White Males: Activism, Social Change At The New College

April 19, 2005

You've got to read this to believe it. Take a look at what some students are exploring in the Master's Degree program of the Activism and Social Change Program at The New College, an accredited institution in San Francisco.

Bryan Burgess.... Bryan�s thesis is an exploration of theater methods used to challenge gender binaries and gender oppression. Bryan�s goal is to develop a theater model that can be used as an organizing tool for cross-identity alliance building. Bryan is currently working with People in Search of Safe Restrooms (PISSR) and the Transgender Law Center on their campaign for safe bathroom access and is the events coordinator for New College�s Activism & Social Change program.
Jayden Donahue..... Jayden�s thesis focuses on the intersections of gender identity and HIV prevention in the Bay Area FTM (Ed. female-to-male transsexual) community, specifically among FTM who are having sex with (HIV) assigned males. Jay has structured a series of focus groups with FTM to establish the HIV prevention needs of this community as well as to elucidate the ways in which trans bodies are excluded from dominant discourses on health. ....He currently co-teaches an undergraduate class at New College on Contemporary Gender Theory and is very interested in the ways to connect education, activism and praxis.

Shauna Jo Gunderson....Shauna�s areas of interest and inquiry include Latin America; indigenous resistance to imperialism; the invention of a history outside of oppression; Helene Cixous; "political" poetry; and explorations of femininity spacious enough to include masculinity. She is a member of a collective that works on the promotion of Fair Trade flowers, water problems, women's issues, and the indigenous fight against oil development in the Amazon.

Mike Lewinski received his B.A. from the UC Santa Cruz where he majored in Architectural Studies. For his thesis work Mike is investigating intersections of green architectural planning, working class activism and alternative urban development. As part of his research Mike will look at urban squatting communities from the U.S. and Europe.

Mary Miller is a singer/songwriter/spoken word artist from Cleveland, Ohio....Having worked extensively with both perpetrators and survivors of domestic violence, Mary is interested in challenging social constructs that perpetuate cycles of violence in personal and institutional relationships, such as victim blaming, gender inequality, and issues of power and control. She is also interested in LGBTIQQ issues and hopes to use performance as a means of affecting social change.

Heidi Misken received a B.A. from UC Berkeley; she majored in American Studies with a focus on "Race, Gender, & Sexuality in Film." For her New College of California graduate thesis project, Heidi is organizing Fluid, a community for people who don�t fit neatly into the sex, gender, and sexual orientation binaries: www.groups.yahoo.com/group/SFFluid. At the moment, Heidi is heavily involved in developing the SF chapter of Fluid, in working to open Fluid up to folks who don�t fit into conventional categories of race and ethnicity, and in creating academic theory that addresses the fluidity of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity.

Natali Smith received her B.A. from St. Lawrence University, majoring in Sociology and Gender Studies. Natali�s thesis is a documentary video that argues for more aggressive, disciplined, participatory (at least in the form of ownership), goal-oriented and sustained direct action where activists are actively problematizing privilege and vanguardism. The thesis will debate the notion of non-violence where it is moralistic and strategic in its intention and champion both violent and non-violent tactics as they fit the above criteria, while also dissecting and reinterpreting the definitions of violence and non-violence. Natali works with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children as development coordinator, and is actively engaged in anti-corporate globalization, police brutality, former prisoner discrimination, anti state-sanctioned relationships, transnational feminist, environmental racism justice and queer and gender-queer advocacy/struggles. Also facilitates Culture Jamming and Know Your Rights (On the street and during a direct action), Protest/Direct Action 101 Lectures/Trainings.

Manish Vaidya...received his B.A. from Penn State University with the self-designed curriculum of Social and Economic Justice and minored in Women�s Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies. For his Master�s thesis he is interested in using experimental performance, internet and alternative media to engage a new generation of activists in broad-based, multi-issue, cross-constituency organizing. He is an Electoral Action Trainer with the U.S. Student Association. Manish is passionate about queer rights, South Asian organizing, the separation of church and state, and battling the right-wing.

As you can see, the training and institutionalizing of the "activist class" is becoming more and more problematized. Daunting are the challenges stemming from the classist, corporate, capitalistic constructs of an anesthitized Amerikkka, and its allies in pursuit of global market hegemony. One can only hope that soon, very soon, high school curricula will expand to include instruction in dialectics and transformative activism around social justice issues including gender-nuetral public restrooms for transsexuals; other forms of discrimination against transsexuals; indigenous resistance to imperialism; urban squatting communities; Fair Trade flowers; performance as a means of social change; the stifling nature of sexual orientation binaries; the moralistic nature of non-violent protest and the situational efficacy of violent protest; culture jamming and multi-issue organizing.

I've got my fingers crossed.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 19, 2005 08:22 AM

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Comments:

These read like parodies.

Posted by: Ken J at April 19, 2005 10:20 AM

"These read like parodies."

Seriously!!! Even the Monty Python crew couldn't come up with anything as whacked-out as this stuff, even on their BEST day.

I try to console myself by believing that all of this is some clever humor by the current college generation, aimed at older folks to see if they're awake. Then I meet and talk to some of these kids. The level of intelligence for such clever pranks is clearly lacking, and their passion too genuine to console myself for long.

Posted by: Jeff B. at April 19, 2005 01:04 PM

Laughing out loud. No really, I am.

Posted by: MBMc at April 19, 2005 10:28 PM

I can see the bumper stick now on the Volkwagen bus, "Proud parent of a student challenging social constructs that perpetuate cycles of violence".

Posted by: Gary B at April 20, 2005 10:10 AM

I can see the bumper stick now on the Volkwagen bus, "Proud parent of a student challenging social constructs that perpetuate cycles of violence".

Posted by: Gary B at April 20, 2005 10:10 AM

NCoC says right on their history page http://www.newcollege.edu/news/historyncoc.cfm) that they're proud to still be alternative after 30 years, even though many other alternative-wannabe schools have "retreated or collapsed" since then. Isn't that a bit like saying, "By God, we're proud to still be selling sardine-flavored ice cream, even though every other company that tried to do has since gone bankrupt!" ?

Posted by: Kimberly at April 20, 2005 10:20 AM

Okay, Jeff B. talk to some of these kids. Kids, mind you, who range in years from 21-50. Here I am. One of the people listed above. I won't begin to argue your academia crap, but it is much easier for one to bitch from the outside, isn't it?

Posted by: Guess at May 5, 2005 12:04 AM

ry to fight the meritocracy we livein. Jeff, buddy, let me tell you about the "kids" in the program. Our ages range from 21-50. You say you'd like to talk, so talk. Here I am. We tryo to combine academia and activism into one. You just complain and worry about what our degrees will do to the merit of your degrees. Your degrees do nothing unless you do something with it, just as with ours. It is so easy to whine about people you have not met. If you met us, you would probably be surprised about the depth or our knowledge. ANd frightened.

Posted by: New College MA Student at May 5, 2005 01:08 AM

Another of the New College "kids" here.

My initial response to this blog was, "Wow! If I've upset these morons so terribly, I must be doing something right." So I want, first of all, to thank each and every one of you for affirming my choices.

Secondly, like the other two kids who wrote in, I'm willing to engage in dialogue about my academic work as a student in the New College Activism & Social Change program. Well, provided my shoddy education doesn't affect my ability to construct a decent argument that is.

Posted by: Bryan at May 6, 2005 03:11 PM

Oh, so you've seen my mom's bumper sticker? She'll be so happy you noticed! She has another one for the Volkswagon bug...it reads, "My activist daughter can outwit AND beat up your anesthetized offspring, but she won't because she is not especially interested in battles for power and control, which is why she's not pursuing some elitist graduate degree from some sterile university that produces self righteous arrogant pricks like you." I told her it was a bit wordy, and not especially nice, especially for a volkswagen drivin' hippy like her, but she insisted, knowing that I would never waste my time defending myself or my education to narrow minded peas-for-brains. Gotta love those protective hippy parents.

Posted by: Daughter of the Volkswagen Drivin' Momma at May 7, 2005 08:10 PM

Another one of the New College "kids" here too! I have kids 19 & 22, by the way!We are just people, the same people you buy your running shoes from, see at the clinic, pass on the street. We say NO to imperialism, sexism, racism, ageism, capitalism,pollution, war, probably like you do! I suppose you can avoid being vulnerable by taking shots at us instead of being willing to say, "Hey this sounds strange to me, where are you coming from?" My friends, brothers, sisters here at school have brilliance AND beauty! Our education teaches mutual respect, respect for the academy, respectful discourse. We demand and receive an education that is not dis-embedded from our real lives, real bodies. If this makes you uncomfortable, act like a man and come out from the bushes instead of just virtually stoning people. ENGAGE! Respectfully! Not like Jerry Springer. Like Sartre says, A man is not a man until he becomes engage".

Posted by: SHAUNA at May 9, 2005 01:41 PM

OK, Shauna, what's wrong with capitalism? I like it.

Posted by: Matt R. at May 9, 2005 02:10 PM

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