First of all, I am happy for the students in Literary and Cultural Studies who were able to present at the MLA in December. I agree that your travel should be funded. But so should mine.
Both the English Dept Travel funds and the Humanitites Dept Travel funds are exhausted by conferences in lit and cult studies like the MLA, which are scheduled for earlier in the academic year. The Travel funds are exhausted by the time I am eligible to apply for funding to attend my conference (CCCC), which is scheduled in March.
When graduate students in composition, rhetoric and tech comm present our research at conferences, we travel on our own dime. I refuse to accept that this perennial, systematic slight is a mere accident of the calendar. Rather, the lack of Travel funding for students in nonacademic writing communicates a subtle message about the value of our research and professionalization : We are second-rate.
Disclaimer: I am not claiming that the Department of English should withold Travel awards from graduate students in lit and cult studies and reserve them for comp/rhet. I am trying to suggest that our administrators and supportive faculty should acknowledge the problem as a problem and find new and other sources of Travel funding for graduate students in composition.
My professionalization is getting expensive.
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3 comments:
Maybe you should file a grievance.
-Mitchell
Mitch, you're right. I thought of you when it happened but was unsure whether travel funding is within your ... jurisdiction.
Is it?
My comment apparently exceeding the limits of this restrictive template.
Information you may be interested in reading has been communicated via e-mail.
-Mitchell
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