In this essay, the author offers a reading of both Sigmund Freud's and Madelaine's Acropolis encounters to propose an "affective conflict" at play in historical relations more generally. On the one side of the conflict, the author explores at some length Freud's (1939) theory of history as "archaic inheritance," which takes the form of psychical…

In this article, the author suggests that a Foucaultian analytics of power may be used to explain not only how white, middle-class parents make school choices, but also the effects such choices have on these parents. This essay looks at an empirical moment in which a group of white, middle-class parents responded to a change that occurred in their…

In approaches to education in the tradition of critical theory, and particularly in the philosophical tradition following Paulo Freire, the idea of history as a space of possibility allows for hope, intervention, and educational and political transformation. The process of historical becoming to which liberatory education is dedicated is both…

Emerging from the entanglement of tensions with the perception that if one is a minority, female, and short, it would appear that one is likely never to get to the top of the corporate ladder. In addition to what people already know about the stark realities of gender and racial discrimination in the workplace, some studies suggest that physical…

The politics of body size has been the topic of intriguing feminist work. Although in the author's view this issue is still undertheorized, the author has long sought for a way to bring what "does" exist in the literature into her academic activities. The opportunity arose when, as a graduate student at the University of Michigan in 2001, she…

This paper draws upon 10 interviews conducted with staff at two science centres as part of a research project on science centres and social and cultural inclusion. The authors argue that these science centres have developed a highly differentiated configuration of science that stands at some removes from the standard conception of science as a…

In this paper, the author makes a case for why stories are important for learning: why they can provide the conditions to listen to the expelled voices, otherwise drowned even by those who are left leaning, and how they can challenge some political premises. She proposes that art and narrative are resources for political imagination and for…

In this article, the author focuses specifically on her teacher-body and its place in various dynamics of projection in the classroom in order to discuss how drawing on queer performativity can be a critical resource in teaching about normativity and otherness. Queer theory has challenged individuals to think more critically about their reliance…

In this article, the author addresses how the professor's body is perceived and how those perceptions influence promotion and tenure decisions. She observes that many writers have argued that the "normal professor body" is white, male, middle-class, middle-aged, able, heterosexual, and thin, which also describes the "normal body" in American…

Contemporary academic fiction features a plethora of characters, male and female, identified by a bodily defect or medical malady as a primary character trait. These representations of the damaged college professor have joined other popular academic stereotypes, such as the absent-minded professor, the lecherous professor, and the sadistic…

This article illustrates how global corporate education initiatives, though profit-motivated, sometimes function both as an instrument of foreign policy and as a manifestation of a broader imperial project. According to neoconservative scholars, as well as their critics, the events of September 11, 2001, allowed the implementation of pre-made…

This article describes the author's concerns, as a brand new teacher, about competence and failure which manifested themselves in a focus on the body. It discusses the effects of diversity among teachers and students. While the author's fears corresponded to the situation, given that she would be subject to the specific and often intense gaze of…

This essay reexamines pedagogical practice and its normative assessment in the American university system by employing an approach derived from Michel Foucault's knowledge/power nexus. While a systematically applied curriculum such as Gerald Graff's "teaching the conflicts" has the potential to democratize higher education, it may be ineffective…

In her well known keynote address at the Responsibilities for Literacies Conference, Mary Louise Pratt defined "contact zones" as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power." Pratt's view of a contact zone hints at the fact, but does not make explicit, that…

In this article, the author discusses various conceptions about the teacher's body. He states that the teacher's body is not just a pile of organs and meat in a skin corset. As part of the performance metaphor--commonly read as part of education-as-spectacle--it translates institutional systems and institutional ideas into a social order, and at…