It was another afternoon in class today, which meant it was another night of doing slide deck prep and a morning of getting the final details in and then the afternoon in class. At least it was warm and sunny out, and so it didn’t feel like I should be somewhere else while sitting under florescent lights.
I’m kidding. There are giant windows in the classroom I’m in right now and the natural light is plenty. We don’t even turn on the lights some afternoons.
In my criticism class we talked about this episode of Bomani Jones’ podcast. If, for no other reason that everyone loves Deion Sanders and, Jones is right, Spencer Hall is one of the best writers going today. I’ve been reading him for decades. Had him on a podcast in 2006 or so. And look at him now.
So we’ve now heard two different styles of podcasts in the last week, a narrative-documentary hybrid and now an interview show. We’ll have another variation for their midterm next week. I will be asking them questions they should be used to by now. After that, it will be back to video products. We’re going to spend a day on short form packages. I’m waffling on what I want to use for that day.
In org comm I followed up the Tuesday conversation about social identity theory with a talk about Role Identity Theory. These two approaches complement one another, and they cover a lot of ground about
Social identity theory gives us the in-group and out-group concepts, and tries to explain how we define ourselves based on their group memberships, like religion, nationality, or, in our case, fandom. In SIT identities come from difference based on the activities in which we partake. Role identity theory concerns itself with the meanings and expectations associated with various roles we play in our lives. This is all shaped by social and contextual factors and, interestingly, acknowledges the conflict that comes within our many roles, because of those expectations. These two ideas, SIT and RIT, work nicely together, but it’s all about cognitiion; they don’t get to emotion.
Which allowed me to talk about identity fusion theory. It has become an important psychological theory in the last few decades, and tries to explain how we develop these profound senses of alignment and unity with a group. It’s an interesting area because it gets into the extreme pro-group behaviors, including self-sacrifice that people make. The theory goes through the deep emotional investments that motivate action, while allowing people to maintain their personal agency. The general idea, in a sports context, is that we see these personal connections and interactions in shared spaces.
It’s an interesting approach, because what is fandom but a huge expression of emotion?
Identity fusion is currently the leader for a class I’m teaching in the spring, too.
The view from our office. If you look closely enough, you’ll see my lovely bride, who is walking back from a class in another building.
And now the rest of the week will just be computer work. There will be plenty. I have a great deal of grading to do. I am already plotting out how the next three days will go, based on meetings and batches of grading. I think I can get it all in over the wekend, without going too crazy, and just in time to start the cycle over again next week.
Sometimes it is difficult to see how you can get all of your work done when so much of your time is spent on part of your work.
I took this photo of the honeysuckle last week and never got around to sharing it. Safe to say that the radical pruning we did on the thing in the spring has been overcome. It has grown a bunch over the summer and fall, and is still flowering a great deal.
This variety has no nectar in it, however, and that’s a shortcoming. It’s a disappointing under-performing, over-performing, bush vine. But it has covered much of the new garden trellis in just six months, so there’s that.
Are you all caught up on Catober? It always over-performs. Click the link, and see them all. And come back tomorrow for more.
