Access and the Academy (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
BABEL Working Group
Organizer Name
Robin Norris
Organizer Affiliation
Carleton Univ.
Presider Name
Richard H. Godden
Presider Affiliation
Loyola Univ. New Orleans
Paper Title 1
The "Diagnosis" of Pregnancy and Academic Anxiety
Presenter 1 Name
Mary Rambaran-Olm
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Glasgow
Paper Title 2
Re-visualizing Medieval Studies
Presenter 2 Name
Anessa Kemna
Presenter 2 Affiliation
St. Louis Univ.
Paper Title 3
Teaching and Access
Presenter 3 Name
Joshua Eyler
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Rice Univ.
Paper Title 4
How to Use Content Warnings
Presenter 4 Name
Kaitlin Heller
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Syracuse Univ.
Start Date
12-5-2017 3:30 PM
Session Location
Sangren 1920
Description
What does access mean in the social, professional, and institutional landscapes of academia today? How can medieval studies become more accessible to everyone who participates in it: scholars, students, artists, publishers, editors, administrators, the general public? This roundtable seeks to explore capacious thinking about accessibility (in all senses of this word) in academic contexts. Ongoing professional and scholarly conversations in the field of medieval studies (in print, in person, or online) remain unevenly accessible to everyone due to inevitable and welcome variance among medievalists in social class, age, rank, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, physical mobility, mental health, family circumstances, or labor conditions. We seek presenters who can address intersecting facets of obstructed access in the field and/or can explore the potential for new practices and social formations to enable access. How could emergent theories of Universal Design (UD) inform conference organization and presentations, organizational structures, publishing platforms, or teaching strategies? How could new technologies alter (positively and negatively) our conceptions of academic work or community? How could new (and continuing) economic realities redefine the accessibility of the Academy? We invite scholarly critiques, narratives of personal experience, manifestoes, diatribes, and creative reconfigurations of access. This roundtable will draw insights from an anonymous online survey on “Access and the Academy” to be conducted by the BABEL Working Group; the data and stories that emerge from this survey may guide the shape of this roundtable discussion.
Robin Norris
Access and the Academy (A Roundtable)
Sangren 1920
What does access mean in the social, professional, and institutional landscapes of academia today? How can medieval studies become more accessible to everyone who participates in it: scholars, students, artists, publishers, editors, administrators, the general public? This roundtable seeks to explore capacious thinking about accessibility (in all senses of this word) in academic contexts. Ongoing professional and scholarly conversations in the field of medieval studies (in print, in person, or online) remain unevenly accessible to everyone due to inevitable and welcome variance among medievalists in social class, age, rank, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, physical mobility, mental health, family circumstances, or labor conditions. We seek presenters who can address intersecting facets of obstructed access in the field and/or can explore the potential for new practices and social formations to enable access. How could emergent theories of Universal Design (UD) inform conference organization and presentations, organizational structures, publishing platforms, or teaching strategies? How could new technologies alter (positively and negatively) our conceptions of academic work or community? How could new (and continuing) economic realities redefine the accessibility of the Academy? We invite scholarly critiques, narratives of personal experience, manifestoes, diatribes, and creative reconfigurations of access. This roundtable will draw insights from an anonymous online survey on “Access and the Academy” to be conducted by the BABEL Working Group; the data and stories that emerge from this survey may guide the shape of this roundtable discussion.
Robin Norris