Provocations and Suggestions

Narrative Provocations

  • What would department meetings look like if a university’s non-academic community members were granted a vote?

  • If you were applying to undergrad at your alternate-universe school, what would that process feel like?

  • If your graduate student handbook had been accurate and helpful, what would it have said, and how would that have mattered?

  • On your ideal campus, how would parking spaces be distributed?

  • What would happen at a new faculty orientation, in a university that truly valued social justice?

  • What if the Third World Liberation Front student strikes had gotten everything it wanted? Or the Black Action Movement? What would it feel like to teach in, work for, or attend those universities today?

OR: maybe we abolish all vestiges of the current system and build something entirely new. Write it!

Sample dossier genres

  • Department meeting minutes

  • “Diversity and inclusion” plans

  • Bias reporting documents

  • Lecturer / adjunct contracts

  • Teaching evaluations

  • Tenure narratives

  • Academic job postings

  • New course proposals

OR … suggest something totally new!