Join Katina Rogers for a discussion about rotting logs, universities, and critical hope—and how to find your footing in difficult terrain. Drawing on a metaphor of the ecological functions of fungi, Rogers will consider elements of interdependence, coalition building, and collective thriving in and beyond the university, even in less-than-pristine terrain. The discussion will consider the higher education landscape as it is now while offering a speculative consideration of what might be possible with different value structures and different ways of making meaning in community. Just as mushrooms spring up from the rot of the forest floor and return nutrients to depleted soil, perhaps something new might emerge in higher education from the decomposing remnants of what came before.

Katina Rogers, PhD, is a writer, educator, and independent scholar. She works to make universities more equitable and joyful, and is forever thinking about what emerges from the ruins. She is the author of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom (Duke University Press, 2020) and Presence of Absence: Meditations on the Unsayable in Writing (punctum books, forthcoming 2024). Her current writing project considers what might be possible in a mycelial university.

9/28 at 4 PM in the Skylight Room

Please register in advance. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work.

 

 

 

This event is co-sponsored by The Writing Center and the Office of Career Planning and Professional Development. It is made possible through the generous support of The Council of Graduate Schools.