2010 GRPP

hi.

i decided to start this blog for two reasons. 1. i do not have a blog (and now i do!) and 2. i received a summer's worth of living expenses to allow myself to research for my dissertation. i need something to organize my thoughts. this blog will organize my thoughts

grpp?

grpp stands for graduate research political praxis. no it doesn't, but that is what it means to me.

what do you do all summer?

i struggled with accepting this very gracious funding. i love to teach. because i took on the grpp, i cannot teach this summer through my department. i am still uncomfortable with this funding. i basically am getting paid to read and write. i may do this by sitting in the library, out in the sun, in my house, in NYC, on trains, et al. for example, tonight i started reading one less car by zack furness (a foundational text for my research) while sipping on iced coffee in the sun. it is a luxury i cannot fully accept. i have physically labored in the service industry for the last 10 years of my life. summertime meant working over 40 hours/week running my butt off. this summer i will labor over books and microsoft word.

intellectual labor

as a grad worker unionist, i believe my work as a graduate student is labor. but it is a privileged labor. one way i tolerate my life choice in academia is by focusing on being an activist at all times. i whole heartedly believe in praxis (the combo of theory and practice). thus my summer is also dedicated to finishing up minneapolis presents, an all-female, non-sexualized bicyclist calender. all proceeds will go to grease rag, a bi-monthly female bike shop night here in MPLS.

so what?!

i am going to use this blog to report my grpp progress through the summer. this may include: the literature i am reading, current thoughts i have on my research, my response to intellectually laboring, and any activism i partake in.

research focus

i research what i am currently referring to as untold bicycle culture stories/cultures/histories. more on what bicycle culture means later. examples of my research include looking into a feminist bike gang, an anti-gang urban bike group in oakland, and bike porn.

and remember: