Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Arizona Schools' Ethnic Studies Program Ruled Illegal

From Huff Post Latino

"PHOENIX -- An administrative law judge ruled Tuesday that a Tucson school district's ethnic studies program violates state law, agreeing with the findings of Arizona's public schools chief.
Judge Lewis Kowal's ruling marked a defeat for the Tucson Unified School District, which appealed the findings issued in June by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal."

Read the entire story here

It's really not surprising that a court in Phoenix sides with the Superintendent, just another example of Arizona politics. But what's really infuriating is that Judge Kowal agrees with Huppenthal who lied about the results of a third party audit of Ethnic Studies, which found the program not to be in violation of HB 2281.
Art by Xico Gonzalez: http://xicogonzalez.com/casa/

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I Made a Library Search!

"Peer Reviewed" Feels Nice
Just this afternoon, I was reading the most recent issue of Composition Studies ;there's an interesting article by a creative writing professor Rachel Peckham, "The Elephants Evaluate: Some Notes on the Problem of Grades in Graduate Creative Writing Programs," discussing the grading practices, philosophies and responses of grades in creative writing seminars. Peckham makes some interesting points about the disconnection between grades and publish-ability because acceptance rates at literary magazines and presses is much, much lower than the high rate of A's awarded in creative writing seminars.

Speaking of the most recent issue of Composition Studies, I posted on the book review I wrote, but as I was trolling the UA library website, I ran across my review. Despite the fact it has me as "C Medina" with a link to all kinds of other texts that aren't mine, it's still feels cool.



Or check it out here. 
I even was able to use the cite/export function:
Medina, C. "The Writing Program Interrupted: Making Space for Critical Discourse, Edited by Donna Strickland and Jeanne Gunner." Composition Studies : Freshman English News. 39.2 (2011): 167-170. Print.

The book I co-edited is also in the UA library site, but it's nice to get listed.
This We Believe = Nuestros Refranes: Words to Live by from the Class of 2012 Cholla, Desert View, Pueblo and Sunnyside High Schools. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona and Sunnyside High School and Tuncson Unified School District, 2010. Print. 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Another Attempt at "Digital Storytelling"

One of the Reasons I Blog Less
On top of writing my dissertation and teaching, I've also had my hands full this past semester with the arrival of my son Will. A bit like the saying "write what you know," I've been toying with digital storytelling and the use of editing, effects and the like to tell stories like a good digital mestiz@, so of course my son has become a part of my work (filming who I know.)

I used quotes around "digital storytelling" because I realize this little video is a take off on an established meme, but still tries work within the genre while appealing to the pathos of audiences.

Cruzito in monkey pain from Cruz Medina on Vimeo.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Louis C.K. Mexicano? No Puedo Creerlo

Huff Post Latin@ Keeping Me Informed
Huff Post did a story on "People you didn't know were Latin@." I like how Louis C.K uses his identity as a site of resisting ignorance through humor. Still, you have to wonder if many of these Latin@s on the down-low live life experiencing it as someone who is racialized by others as Latin@, or if they regard it less seriously than Louis C.K and do the "oh, I'm Latin@, but with roots to Spain" nonsense.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/latinos-celebrities-you-didnt-know-were-latino_n_1134136.html?ref=latino-voices A good excuse to also post a link to this Louis C.K clip "Being White": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY Found a new youtube version of this: