I'm Just a Midwesterner..

As a non-"Southerner" living in the South, I watch in curiosity at the culture I am surrounded by.  From locals in my small town to academics, I feel at times like an outsider (or intruder), but yet, this view also lets me see things an insider could not see.

I grew up smack dab in the middle of the US. Iowa to be exact. The Midwest is where I born, raised, and educated. I moved to Nebraska for college-the Midwest- and then moved to Minneapolis - technically the Upper Midwest- for graduate school, spending 13 years there ultimately.

As far as I know, there is not a Center for Midwest Studies (though I think there might be one for Plains Studies or the such in Nebraska) or to preserve the heritage and culture of the Midwest. And I say this after attending my first academic regional Southern conference hearing about Southern centers like this. I feel as if coming from the Midwest, Iowa in particular, that people see me as existing without culture or as a "Northerner", part of our collective agenda is only to talk bad about the South. Neither of these is true. Sure, some folks in the North have a certain disdain for the South, particularly about politics and the legacy of slavery, but this is not generalizable to all of us Northerners.

I am a transplant. I am an outsider. And no one gives a damn about where I was born and raised. This does not feel good either. I've also faced the stereotypes of being from the Midwest from some folks from larger cities on the East and West Coasts. Every region has its stereotypes. But we all have culture... Sociology 101 teaches this.

And just as much as I question "Southern identity" when I hear the term here as I have a hard time seeing that applied to every person the same, I wonder what a or my "Midwest" identity is.  I lived in the same town in Iowa, even the same house for all of my young adult life. My parents held the same jobs for years. They both hail from this town and still live there.

Yet, my mom comes from a strong Polish and Russian heritage, which is still influential for the women in my family. Her family ended up in Iowa on both sides because of the meat packing plants. My maternal grandmother, despite all her faults and not knowing her well before I died, was a strong woman. She was a USDA meat inspector in the 50's and 60's; a job not many women had.  Russian was spoke by my grandma and her siblings. My mom  tells me stories of Borsch, vodka tables, Russian newspapers, births at home for my grandma and her siblings, distrust of banks, picking up coal by the train tracks, and living on the hill with other Russian and Polish folks. Indeed my grandma's baptismal certificate has the Russian spelling of her name.

My paternal grandma hails from a farm in Iowa. One of three daughters, they helped on the farm. The family story is more complicated on this side in terms of heritage and something I can't express here nor do I even know the full story in terms of her family or my paternal grandfather's. She moved to the "big town" as she hated farm life, went to beauty school, worked all her life, and ending up owning her own beauty shop before she retired (what she called it, not my words). My paternal grandfather died the year my dad graduated from high school and my uncle went to Vietnam, so I do not know him.  My grandma was strong. Despite some gendered comments to me, she would tell me many times I could do what I wanted even though I was a girl. She was wonderful and I miss her very much.

What does this have to do with my "culture" and hailing from the Midwest? Well, I always think about even though I am from Iowa, the Polish/Russian influence still runs strong, looking at women in my family (which I wrote my women's studies undergrad senior paper on). And yes, I do know a lot about meat... sorry vegetarians, but when your family worked in the industry and your parents were influenced by this, you know.  Yet, my paternal grandma had her roots set more in the traditional Iowa farms you might think about. But I hardly visited a farm, but maybe a few times of a distant relative.

Here is what I know about living in Iowa. I had a great education. I learned the history of my town. I learned the history of my state. I was never taught to dislike another region of the country- indeed, I might have fantasized about them since I was smack dab in the middle of the country and wondered at that age about other places. I did learn about slavery, but I was never taught to hate the South. My home state has the first presidential primaries. We had both Democrat and Republican leaders. We had clean air (well minus the smell from the meat packing plants to breath). I had parks to play in. My childhood was good. Yes, it took awhile to travel to a big city, but what did I know when I was little? 

For Minnesota, I could say different things. I love Minneapolis. I love the political and progressive ideas there. But at times the place could be narcissistic (for example, something would happen in the Middle East and the news would ask how does this affect Minnesota??). But let's get back to growing up in Iowa.

People say with the German and Scandinavian heritages often found in the Midwest, we have stoic personalities. Yes, this could be true and my dad could fit this, but I might reason this was because of his father's family history. Yes, some folks are stoic. But  I grew up with great values from parents who were by no means perfect, but believed in social justice and me. And my parents were Christian, though a liberal sect. I was taught to respect others. I was taught to give back what I could because I had the means. I was taught about service to others and hard work.

When I think of "Southern Culture," I try to think of what this means as someone who is an outsider and learning from being here.  I actively seek out information to understand this concept  by talking to folks , attending academic sessions about this topic, and reading both academic and other information. I still do not understand, and I don't think I ever will as I'm not from here. Yet, as a sociologist, I must remind myself that there are different stories and different interpretations of the past and the present.  As an outsider, if I ask a question, particularly in an academic setting,  it is not a critique of the culture. It is not my Northern/Midwestern bias. It is a legitimate question based on using analytic frameworks that sometimes an outsider might see. Sure, my question may not ever come up in reviewing your work, but this is also part of helping academics. When our work is reviewed, reviewers will ask or challenge the analytic frameworks we use.

I'm learning. Yes, like anyone I do have my own biases, which I try to check.  Yes, I don't like some of the politics down here (i.e. bring your guns anywhere bill). But when I express what I know it does come from the context of the places I have lived. It's not right or wrong, but a perspective. Let's learn from each other instead of becoming defensive. I also have culture.

Sounding Elitist

As today I prepare for a virtual meeting of feminist bloggers, I finally organize and write thoughts on a topic I have been pondering for a long time. As we push for public sociology, particularly feminist public sociology, what are we aiming for?

I have heard about some feminist research being covered in the media and in the public. Great! We do great research and it should be publicized.  But sometimes I wonder if this is not a discipline war. Are we trying to say our research is just as good and needed as, for example, psychology? Is this a way we are trying to professionalize our discipline?

Yet, here is why sometimes I don't blog like a researcher. In my own life, I feel that I walk a fine line, especially in my new location, between those who are highly educated folks and those who are not. I'm surrounded by PhDs and MA/MS in various subjects. But I also interact with folks with Bachelor's degrees and less. Even my educated partner in the "hard sciences" tells me I talk to much to him like a professor.

So, my point being how do we make sociology interesting? Accessible?  How do we make it feel not like sitting through one of our classes (which is great, but I'm figuring not everyone one wants to).

Who is our audience? Do we only want other academics to read our blogs, which would be similar to publishing without the peer review. Do we want educated folks to read our blogs? Great, but who and why? Why can't we also reach out to those who lives are affected by our research and teaching.

Let me give you an example from different students and institutions I have taught at. At one prestigious private school, where the students had cultural capital and means to attend the school (usually generations had attended the school), they got theory. They got the big theoretical ideas. Yet, they didn't get how theory applied in everyday experiences as well. The kids were smart and privileged. When I taught at a community college with first generation or older students, they struggled with theory, but they could get the examples of everyday life in terms of demonstrating sociological concepts. They were smart also, but experience resonated with them more and I made assignments, from a feminist pedagogical perspective, in which they could examine their own lives. The point was that their lives mattered and they could be the analyst.

I have  PhD in Sociology. I have a Masters in Social Work. With the PhD in Sociology, I should be reading every newspaper and research study. But I don't. With my MSW, I need think about Evidence Based Practices, but I also have to think and realize what the lives of my clients are or maybe beyond what is said on a piece of paper about them.

So, back to a point. Who do we blog for? What is feminist blogging? Does feminist sociological blogging have to cite every important research study using concepts the general public may not know or care about (I'm being a realist). Or can we blog about the everyday experiences, even if we have our own privileged stance, to increase understanding of the value of sociology to our own lives? 

A roller coaster of thoughts and emotions

DISCLAIMER... Written last week and posted later.

Where to start today?  I traveled from my small town to a lovely city near us for a SOTL conference today. As part of service to the University, I agreed to moderate a session.  While I have a great attention to details in some aspects of my life, in picking a session to moderate, I went mostly by time and the general title of the session instead of the full (and I will add "fine print") details about the session. So I ended up moderation a session about an online repository for chemistry materials.  Before, I though well, this will be either fascinating or a long hour of my life. BUT it was great. I learned a lot that may be applicable to sociology and different organizations I am involved with. This will be a post for another time.

I also attended another session on internships, which was interesting. I coordinate internships for my department. I am also charged with revising this, which has been challenging being new and taking over something that has not had structure for a long time. I also met a colleague from my campus, which is great to speak to about these issues. Importantly, I also met someone in art design from another institution who faces similar problems and questions I do. 

Ms. Knowledge has been quite "sheltered" in her new small town lately and during spring break, spent a majority of the time in her small, depressing rental house trying to revise papers. Ms. Knowledge started missing the Twin Cities greatly in thinking about how if she was bored she could just to IKEA and look around, go to a free museum, or another place, while here the options are limited. And she is still carrying around the guilt of moving her family here (spoken of in other posts and a post for later wondering about how the move affected her children).

So, going to a "city", not a major metro area, stopping by her favorite thrift store, and a better grocery store in the city, put a smile on Ms. Knowledge's face today.

Yet, I was called back to my campus for departmental obligations. After what we will call a meeting, some of the faculty were chatting. Our chair motioned at us. A colleague, whom I did not know as he had been on medical leave before I started, passed away today.  The colleague died of cancer at a young age; the day this colleague was supposed to go to Hospice. Colleagues were in tears. It was a sad time.

I did not know the colleague as they were on sick leave by the time I came. However, this was a hard day. My heart went out to my colleagues for their grief. I also felt awkward as I didn't know the colleague. But it also brings up personal things. My father-in-law died of cancer two years ago. It was only 4 months from diagnosis to death and it was around this time two years ago we were making our plans to visit him for the last time, which we didn't know at the time.