Winter is coming

We're considering hibernation

Good afternoon friends,

It’s been a minute. Last time we wrote it was election day and, whew, what a week that was.

We’re now approaching the long tail end of this short and surreal semester. Students who went home from thanksgiving aren’t coming back. Instructors are beyond burned out.

Anyway, we’ve missed you. Anyone want to come over for popcorn and a movie?

Hannah for the VFC

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We have swag now.

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This week in feelings

The semester is almost over. How are you feeling this week?

At risk of triggering some bad memories, here’s how you said you were feeling on the eve of the election:

Wildly unable to focus

Haunted by memories of election week in 2016

Just so many of these feelings all at once.

i just want things to be finalized, decisive.

pinche país y su sistema electoral de mierda

It was a difficult week.

Last time we talked y’all were feeling all the things.

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Academic Tarot Kickstarter ends today!

We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the support you all have shown for this labor of love. We’ve been sewing masks and tote bags, and printing prototypes of our Major Arcana deck.

If this project brings you the same joy it brings us, it’s not too late to support us. Any profits we make will go to furloughed artists, to the VFC’s research fund, and to mutual aid.

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We’re two semesters into the pandemic university. What happens next is up to us.

Higher education, and especially the humanities, has been operating in a state of crisis for decades. I have been under the influence of crisis thinking for the entirety of my academic career. It’s not a surprise that when the pandemic started, many of us thought that the higher-ed apocalypse we had been fearing was finally coming to pass.

But the apocalypse didn’t come, and two semesters into the pandemic, universities are operating as they always have: taking advantage of crisis thinking to extract money from students, force out members of marginalized communities, and exploit workers.

The way this crisis is unfolding is not new. What is new, and what is transformative, is what we can do about it.

This is not an essay about the crisis in higher education. This is a call to action.

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A VFC grad student studies academic tarot in situ.