MUNACA Strike Update

Tomorrow (friday) there is a massive solidarity rally at 11am at the Roddick Gates. If you’re local, go. More information at http://munacastrike.wordpress.com/, which is where you can get lots of other good MUNACA strike news. Today I got a very nice thankyou note from a MUNACA picket captain for bringing croissants with me this morning(I …

Announcing MFLAG, and other news from McGill’s second week of labor disruption

The MUNACA strike continues, though both sides have agreed to meet with a conciliator, so there is at least some hope that they will work towards an agreement. A group of concerned faculty have formed the McGill Faculty Labor Action Group (MFLAG), and we joined the student solidarity group in Thursday’s protest (note that the …

Update: MAUT disingenuous?

Last night’s message from the provost indicated that The University has a signed agreement with MUNACA representatives, designating animal care as an “essential service”. These essential services will ensure that proper care of animals will be maintained for the duration of the strike. For specific details as they relate to your area, please contact Dr. …

McGill University Non-Academic Workers on Strike

MUNACA, McGill’s union of non-academic professionals, went on strike yesterday at 6am. MUNACA members do a great deal of the work that keeps the university running. Our department has three MUNACA staff, and I depend mightily upon them as a faculty member. In my time as grad director and then chair, I got to know …

Logics of the Humanities and Online Long Form Argument

Thursday’s talk at the NEH/Vectors institute by Alex Juhasz raised some interesting questions for me about online argument. Humanistic thought has, for hundreds of years, operated in relatively linear and long-form arguments. Even those works that challenge linearity (I am thinking here of the standard stable of poststructuralist critiques) exists with reference to it, and …

Academic Freedom

I’m sure this has had a gazillion retweets, but I find it a pretty interesting reflection on academic freedom in the 60s. And I like Ohmann’s scholarship, too. The landscape certainly has changed today, but I find his point about the connection to new social movements particularly profound.