Delanty (2010) declares “…only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction. Only in the extreme case will such a community have any more reality than a consciousness of community” (113). Community’s discussion of the fluid relationship between the self and other, along with the resulting possibility of opening up communities, sparked a plethora of questions in my mind. The biggest of these emerging questions being what possibilities and pitfalls may WPAs face when turning to the everyday– the “flux of life” (111), power in community and communication, the non-static sense of world community and its path towards common discourses (125) – in an effort to open up, queer, and/or subvert dominant (cultural, disciplinary) discourses? These everyday discourses arise in various contexts, at a grassroots level at times, reinforcing the idea of the communicative flows, which also avoid reductionism, that form discursively constructed communities.
Recently I have been (re)considering the purposes and possibilities of a professional development activity I am responsible for (the WAC Academy) and the participants’ final products (Content Curation Projects). While reading this text, I contemplated the ideas of the WAC Academy as a grassroots, non-organic (112), 3rd space (50) for the faculty who participate in this annual event. What (good, bad, and all shades in between) could come from considering the WAC Academy as an alternative and/or postmodern community? Also, what may be gained or lost in approaching these communities (and identities) as threshold concepts in teaching writing across the disciplines? …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
Perceiving the WAC Academy as a liminal situation in the context of a reflexive community may create new, particular, abstract, and specifically self-conscious communities (113). Taking time to dwell in this liminal, in between space, or communita (31), provides a time and place to reflect on the often-unarticulated instructions, patterns, or rules of various academic and discourse communities. While discussing liminality in the context of symbolic communities, Delanty points to the possibility of moments of symbolic renewal as creatively expressive and socially significant. …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
What may these creative and social moments unlock for those who linger in and/or are privy to them? They could be Pandora’s box, a pirate’s chest of treasures, or something else if we think critically about the cognitive function(s) of community while imagining and establishing a new and different kind of everyday life (95). …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
For example, emotional is not terms we often directly associate with the university. But what could we learn from an emotional and communicative approach, like that of Nancy and Blanchot’s notion of reflexive communities (110), if it were to disrupt dominant academic discourses by expressing and valuing emotion? Delanty suggests that viewing communities in terms of such shared nature can provide participants with a sense of empowerment in that they will be opting into, or choosing, to be a part of it. In turn, such a view can encourage reflexivity and self-transformation (109). In this context, such a disruption seems worth the risk. …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
I am currently considering Community in the context of my work with the university writing program, and I have developed this tentative thesis: through WAC Academy participant’s CCPs, ECUs WPAs can work toward disrupting the concept of academic communities and discourses to work towards transforming the university into a postmodern community in which group boundaries are ambivalent, porous, and not based on an underlying unity (118). For now, this statement leaves us with more questions than answers. One such question is what may be the implications – the virtues and dangers - for WPAs if they purposefully move towards being a community of action (95)? …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction. Only in the extreme case will such a community have any more reality than a consciousness of community.
Recently I have been (re)considering the purposes and possibilities of a professional development activity I am responsible for (the WAC Academy) and the participants’ final products (Content Curation Projects). While reading this text, I contemplated the ideas of the WAC Academy as a grassroots, non-organic (112), 3rd space (50) for the faculty who participate in this annual event. What (good, bad, and all shades in between) could come from considering the WAC Academy as an alternative and/or postmodern community? Also, what may be gained or lost in approaching these communities (and identities) as threshold concepts in teaching writing across the disciplines? …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
Perceiving the WAC Academy as a liminal situation in the context of a reflexive community may create new, particular, abstract, and specifically self-conscious communities (113). Taking time to dwell in this liminal, in between space, or communita (31), provides a time and place to reflect on the often-unarticulated instructions, patterns, or rules of various academic and discourse communities. While discussing liminality in the context of symbolic communities, Delanty points to the possibility of moments of symbolic renewal as creatively expressive and socially significant. …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
What may these creative and social moments unlock for those who linger in and/or are privy to them? They could be Pandora’s box, a pirate’s chest of treasures, or something else if we think critically about the cognitive function(s) of community while imagining and establishing a new and different kind of everyday life (95). …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
For example, emotional is not terms we often directly associate with the university. But what could we learn from an emotional and communicative approach, like that of Nancy and Blanchot’s notion of reflexive communities (110), if it were to disrupt dominant academic discourses by expressing and valuing emotion? Delanty suggests that viewing communities in terms of such shared nature can provide participants with a sense of empowerment in that they will be opting into, or choosing, to be a part of it. In turn, such a view can encourage reflexivity and self-transformation (109). In this context, such a disruption seems worth the risk. …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction…
I am currently considering Community in the context of my work with the university writing program, and I have developed this tentative thesis: through WAC Academy participant’s CCPs, ECUs WPAs can work toward disrupting the concept of academic communities and discourses to work towards transforming the university into a postmodern community in which group boundaries are ambivalent, porous, and not based on an underlying unity (118). For now, this statement leaves us with more questions than answers. One such question is what may be the implications – the virtues and dangers - for WPAs if they purposefully move towards being a community of action (95)? …only when something unusual happens will there be any verbal interaction. Only in the extreme case will such a community have any more reality than a consciousness of community.