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Hello from Denver
Mar. 21st, 2025 06:27 amI am in Denver for a big academic conference which makes me happy on some level because I get to see cool people. The state of the US is casting a pall over many things, and I realize this will probably be the last time this conference is able to attract many/any international scholars so I am determined to enjoy the presence and energy of my colleagues in the moment.
Traveling means that yesterday I was offline for a good portion of the day as we flew, checked into our hotel and scoped out the different locations for the conference, and wandered around downtown Denver looking for places to eat. This means I was not fully following the news, at least in the format I consume it which is to see what people are talking about in social media spaces.
I awoke at 5:00am local time, which would have been 7:00 back home and saw a text message from a friend in Sweden that simply said: "Checking in. Saw the news. Any immediate effects on you?" and a sense of dread bloomed in my stomach because I didn't know what I had missed and how bad it was that my friend texted me about it.
I immediately got online and started my day looking for "news" about things that might directly affect me. I saw there was a fire or explosion that had shut down Heathrow airport, which is going to affect some people traveling to the conference. People are still sharing their stories about being detained for long periods of time by ICE or turned away at the US border, but that is not new.
Then I saw that another drunk angry guy had been appointed to root out all forms of race consciousness in higher education and my stomach dropped even further. I figured that might be what my friend was referring to and yes that is going to have an impact on me because I have modules about culturally responsive pedagogy in my courses and just three weeks ago when talking about bias in AI, we read an article in Science that unpacked the covert racism in ChatGPT4 and several other AIs.
I texted my friend back to find out what news and she said the executive order to shut down the Department of Education and I felt relieved it wasn't something worse. The government has been dismantling the DoE in parts and already shut down arms associated with foreign language education, which is directly related to my area. The effects of this on the major journal in my field that I blogged about in a previous entry is something I had planned to ask about at the special session being held at this current conference concerning the impact of the administration on our field. I want to know what plans are afoot to save this journal and the research published there and to offer help if needed.
Mass layoffs in administration were also going to have trickle down effects on support for students with disabilities, IEPs and 504 plans and this came up in the online townhall meeting with my senators that I attended in February. But there is so much other stuff going on that we as teacher educators need to be able to help teacher candidates with that are ongoing whether the DoE exists or not - like ICE raids at schools and on campuses and how to protect/prepare/comfort children when this happens.
I was touched my friend was reaching out to check in on me, but I still have this ball of dread in my stomach and that is how I am starting my day. This is why I am typing this entry here now. It is a strategy for an outlet of anxiety so I can release this ball of dread and also not carry this negativity and fear into every interaction I have going forth throughout the day.
Traveling means that yesterday I was offline for a good portion of the day as we flew, checked into our hotel and scoped out the different locations for the conference, and wandered around downtown Denver looking for places to eat. This means I was not fully following the news, at least in the format I consume it which is to see what people are talking about in social media spaces.
I awoke at 5:00am local time, which would have been 7:00 back home and saw a text message from a friend in Sweden that simply said: "Checking in. Saw the news. Any immediate effects on you?" and a sense of dread bloomed in my stomach because I didn't know what I had missed and how bad it was that my friend texted me about it.
I immediately got online and started my day looking for "news" about things that might directly affect me. I saw there was a fire or explosion that had shut down Heathrow airport, which is going to affect some people traveling to the conference. People are still sharing their stories about being detained for long periods of time by ICE or turned away at the US border, but that is not new.
Then I saw that another drunk angry guy had been appointed to root out all forms of race consciousness in higher education and my stomach dropped even further. I figured that might be what my friend was referring to and yes that is going to have an impact on me because I have modules about culturally responsive pedagogy in my courses and just three weeks ago when talking about bias in AI, we read an article in Science that unpacked the covert racism in ChatGPT4 and several other AIs.
I texted my friend back to find out what news and she said the executive order to shut down the Department of Education and I felt relieved it wasn't something worse. The government has been dismantling the DoE in parts and already shut down arms associated with foreign language education, which is directly related to my area. The effects of this on the major journal in my field that I blogged about in a previous entry is something I had planned to ask about at the special session being held at this current conference concerning the impact of the administration on our field. I want to know what plans are afoot to save this journal and the research published there and to offer help if needed.
Mass layoffs in administration were also going to have trickle down effects on support for students with disabilities, IEPs and 504 plans and this came up in the online townhall meeting with my senators that I attended in February. But there is so much other stuff going on that we as teacher educators need to be able to help teacher candidates with that are ongoing whether the DoE exists or not - like ICE raids at schools and on campuses and how to protect/prepare/comfort children when this happens.
I was touched my friend was reaching out to check in on me, but I still have this ball of dread in my stomach and that is how I am starting my day. This is why I am typing this entry here now. It is a strategy for an outlet of anxiety so I can release this ball of dread and also not carry this negativity and fear into every interaction I have going forth throughout the day.
