hvincent @hvincent@scholar.social

hi!

i have a computer science and creative writing background, and i've worked in lab/studio management at a photo program for a while. i've also been doing history and anthropology coursework in an unofficial postbac/predoc kinda way, and considering real grad school in the next few years.

my interests are identity construction/boundary making, knowledge systems, land/environment usage; i enjoy being a generalist, though, so i'm stoked to hear about what y'all do!

#introduction

(i have always been the sort of student that is either a horror or a delight to have in class, with no middle ground. it's just taken me like 26 years of being a student before i stopped feeling bad about it and learned how to seek out teachers who are willing to support what i do to learn and do good work. sorry to all the teachers who couldn't deal with me being kind of a total weirdo!!)

i think there will be a lot of things that the owners would answer on behalf of the dogs, but i also fully belive it's possible for me to establish a dialog with a dog alone and glean some information that i can then interpret!

okay honestly i'm stoked about this extremely silly idea that i am actually dead serious about doing, i have nothing to lose by trying it

i just want to figure out a good method for interviewing dogs, okay!

okay so for this semester's #anthropology of pollution project what if i do an #ethnography of urban dog-walking

am i rapidly sliding towards #anthrozoology now

(as a reminder of what sort of stuff i am into, last semester i wrote a second person bot ethnography, i have no problems with this trajectory of anthropology-includes-more-than-humans)

when my boss signs off his end of the week text with 'enjoy monday off' and i reply with '✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿'

(when we're closed for MLK day, i hang up a long taped-together printout of 'letter from a birmingham jail' across our hallway and leave it up for a few weeks to make sure everyone sees it)

(i say "petty" because it's a difference of, like, minutes, because in fifteen minutes i'm going to go into my drafts and go down the line hitting 'send' for the four different emails i typed up that are dayjob relevant, but i don't want to set a precedent of being """available by email""" when i'm not clocked in. especially since i'm hourly for that job!)

* on break from dayjob but still seeing email since i use the same email box for academic/freelance work
* starting typing a reply to my boss out of habit
* instead of sending it right away, just leaving it in my drafts so i can hit 'send' when i get back on the clock for dayjob

this is a really petty distinction but i think unless something is truly time-critical (or a quick email can ease some anxiety for a student), i'm just not going to reply when i'm off the clock.

(also, just want to say, this isn't to say that i am personally opposed to mainstream environmentalism as a thing in general! there's lots of really important work being done there, for sure; i'm instead choosing to focus on what it leaves out, and what sort of approaches can fill those gaps.)

personal history and experiences with particular assumptions and expectations play a big part in this; do you consider nature as a place that is distinct from where you live or work, and dedicated for a particular sort of usage? or do you think of nature as a part of the world that you are extended from?

these are some of the things that affect people's responses to policy, actions, etc. that affect the environment, as well as determining the scope of 'environment'.

so, it's important to acknowledge that whether or not nature and humanity are separate (or ought to be) is an issue informed by worldview and culture, not an absolute fact about how the world just. where someone's coming from on this topic has a deep effect on their priorities when it comes to environmental action.

this semester's coursework for me focuses on environmental justice, starting off with reading on a critical approach to mainstream environmentalist movements, which frequently paint nature as something that is separate from humanity (and thus set up to have a paternalistic approach to land management that forgoes traditional or pre-existing human-environment relationship).

my general strategies are gonna be doubling down on:
* addressing small problems before they build momentum into big problems
* enforcing policies meant for preventative measures
* communicating what's on my mind with people early and often
* drawing stricter lines between work and not-work so i can quarantine work stress more effectively
* asking for help when i need help, and not turning down earnest offers out of pride

let's do this!

i mean, i'm getting a decent amount of support from above and below, and everyone knows that our resources are more strained than usual this round, and my read is that people are on board with pitching in and doing their best. it feels good to have that sense of camaraderie, i just hope i don't make unrecoverable mistakes and can keep morale up, and not at the cost of my own sense of being!

💪

only three days into the semester and things are feelin' pretty hectic already; doing my best to keep my energy up so i can support all the instructors. i'm not attached to a particular class this semester, but there's a lot of new stuff to get settled in (new classes, new faculty, new student workers).

i've been here a decade as full staff. i don't think i intended to stay here for this long.

this semester, instead of treating my office like a locker room on top of everything else, im gonna go to the actual campus locker room to change for my afternoon runs.