Update February 2021
2 more years since I posted my last update. Finally, this spring I’m hoping to finish my section, Am I still a teacher?–or at least add to it. It’s exciting to return to this. I am very thankful that past Sara took the time to document our life as an academic. This work, which has hardly been seen by anyone, and has yet to be turned into a book or a job or any product, is the work that matters to me. How wonderful to have these accounts to revisit and help guide me in my future work!
Update November 2019
It has been 2 years since I’ve done anything with this project. I stopped because I was stuck on the question of whether or not I could be a teacher and what that would look like. I stopped because the 2016 election happened, Trump was elected, and I lost my love for staying in a constant state of hyper-vigilant critique. And I stopped because I needed to find new ways to be in the world that didn’t involve obsessing over every terrible thing the Trump Administration was doing. So I started a new project about running that involved training and writing about/reflecting on running. Then I took a poetry class and my life was changed. I began studying the craft of writing and experimenting with how to pay attention on my runs above the Mississippi River Gorge. Now I write/read/study a lot of poetry. It’s been fun to step back from my academic training and study something new. Will I ever return to this project and finish it? Maybe.
Welcome to my unDisciplined Dossier. As of October 2016, I’m still in the process of creating it. When finished, it will include records of my student life (Unofficial Student Transcripts), my teaching life (Troubling Teaching Portfolio) and hopefully a reference guide/hupomnemata (a capturing of what’s already been read, said, heard). It will also include an archive of material evidence from my student and teaching life.
I started this project way back in 2013, when I wrote Unofficial Student Transcripts. Now, since 2015, I’ve been working on my teaching life. I’m combing that teaching life, in the form of a teaching portfolio, with an edited version of my transcripts. Sometime soon, I’d like to work with an editor and turn this into a physical book (of some sort) too.
As I create more content, I’ll add it to this site, so check back regularly. Also, if you’d like to follow my process and progress, read the posts on my story blog tagged with #undisciplined book project and #processing notes.