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The complexities of Slow Violence

Posted by Leunys Bonilla (She/her) on

Rob Nixon’s text articulates the idea of slow violence and its connection to the Anthropocene, the current geological era defined by human impact on Earth’s systems. Nixon contends that slow violence, a form of harm that unfolds gradually and often invisibly, is central to understanding the long-term effects of human involvement in climate change. He argues that “by slow violence, I mean a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all” (2356). This concept is especially relevant to climate change, where many of its most damaging effects, rising sea levels, biodiversity loss, and the destruction of ecosystems are not fully recognized until it is too late to prevent irreversible damage.

Nixon emphasizes that this slow violence is insidious because its gradual nature makes it difficult to capture public attention or motivate political action. The effects of climate change, pollution, or deforestation are often acknowledged only when the damage is beyond repair, limiting the immediacy of response from global institutions. By the time environmental destruction becomes visible, such as through extreme weather events, the underlying processes have been unfolding for decades, unnoticed.

While Nixon’s concept of slow violence is compelling, one might argue that it risks undermining the urgency of more immediate climate-related crises. For example, the wildfires in California, the smoke that covered New York City from Canadian fires, and the increasing frequency of hurricanes are direct consequences of climate change. These events demand immediate attention and pose the question: Does focusing on “slow violence” potentially underplay the severity of these occurrences, which are anything but gradual? Nixon’s framework, while important, might not fully account for these rapid environmental disasters.

Furthermore, the deforestation of the Amazon provides a prime example of Nixon’s slow violence. Although media coverage often spikes during moments of heightened destruction, the long-term ecological damage continues with little sustained attention. The Amazon, a key regulator of the Earth’s climate and a crucial source of biodiversity suffers from slow violence as its deforestation contributes to climate instability. However, as Nixon suggests, because this violence is dispersed over time and space, the full impact is often only recognized when it is too late.



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Slow Violence Rob Nixon Post #1 – Satu Paul

Posted by satu paul (she/her) on

Slow violence is a slow but prominent thing in society that is often overlooked because of how it is seen as something that’s not going to happen in a short period of time like the name refers to. How the environment and climate is changing day by day from the impact of human actions is a scary action that has a short period of time to be reversed as shown by the climate clock which many activists are trying to bring attention to. The countdown is used in many cities to display the amount of time left to try and better the earth before it reaches the point of no return. Not every act that contributes to the destruction of the planet is visible to us but how they affect the poor is an invisible thing many people don’t pay much attention to. Classism plays a big role in the destruction of the environment as not everyone has the luxury of picking the most organic or ethically sourced items when it comes to daily living as they’re extremely expensive and the prices are hiked up compared to unethically made items. Organizations like Shien, Primark , Fenty by Rihanna are all Unethically sourced but they all have a different standard in society because of the brand that they represent. When it comes to how items are sourced and what materials are used, Fenty by Rihanna scores worse than the most used fast fashion site in the world but many people are still buying from Fenty because of the name and how in society it is more accepted to be seen wearing Fenty rather than Shien. From stealing designs from artists to underpaying their workers, many companies profit off of these things while using the worst production methods and materials that are not meant for long term use so that their target market comes and buys from them again. In the short term point of view of the buyer the item is worth it because of either social media’s influence or how they like the item but in the long term it contributes to the harm of the planet and the exploitation of the poor. The factory workers for these brands are heavily exploited both mentally and physically because of how long their work days are and how poorly they are paid as well as how terrible their working conditions are. Many people have lost their lives to fast fashion from buildings collapsing, terrible management and even worse pay that does not make the job worth it but when you are in poverty it is not a choice, it’s more of a matter of survival as money is everything when you are not rich. The idea of quality over quantity is something many people cannot afford to have because of the price tag on quality while quantity is cheaper. Nixon’s slow violence in a way shows this a lot because without money we are nothing and without the earth there is no money. Using writing to show the importance of the environment can be helpful but at the same time, time is a luxury that many people also don’t have to spend on it. The average person is consumed by a constant cycle of work and sleep with no time for a social life as many jobs exploit their workers and treat them as cheap and replaceable labor that can be fired and hired at any time as money is a necessity. The slow violence is something that has to be stopped but the poor don’t have the luxury of doing that as they are the victims of it.

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Blogging 101

Posted by Jeff Allred (he/him/his) on

A central feature of this course will be the writing we do on this site.  In what follows, I will outline three things:

  • a rationale for why I ask you to blog in the first place, rather than write traditional essays
  • a quick primer on how to create your first post
  • a simple rubric to guide your writing + an example of a good-looking post

First things first: why blog?

1. Blogging is sharable: rather than have a private circuit between you and me, we have a much more dynamic conversation across the entire class.

2. Blogging is public, sort of: I like the idea that we are responsible for our ideas in front of broader audiences.  In practical terms, I doubt anyone is listening in most of the time, but I think it’s important that we roll up our sleeves and defend our arguments in an open and public forum as often as possible.  And of course, you can show your family/friends/pets what we’ve been up to in class.  For those who have reservations about privacy, note that a) I’m happy to help you get a username with some anonymity, so you have relative privacy beyond our class; and b) you are free to delete your posts at the end of class.  If anyone has serious reservations despite all this, feel free to contact me.

3. Blogging is sturdy: rather than forget the piece of paper once it’s been handed back, we can link back to prior statements or observations, or to each others’. If you like, you can leave your posts up for future students to see.

4. Blogging is responsive: rather than only getting comments from me, you’ll comment on and get comments on each other’s work.

So how do you post? Here’s a quick guide to posting on WordPress for newbies. It’s super easy once you figure it out the first time. So here goes:

1. Make sure you’re logged in: if you’re logged in, you’ll see your avatar in the upper-right-hand corner of the window. If you aren’t, you’ll see the text “log in.”

2. START A POST: there are several ways to post. Here’s the easiest: click the <+ NEW> icon in the top middle of the screen and select “post.” It looks like this:

Screenshot 2016-01-27 22.00.33

3. WRITE SOMETHING: “New Post” will take you to a basic text editor. So write something. If you want to get fancy, you can add italics, bold, indentation, insert images or other media, and whatnot. But most of the time you’ll just try to write some reasonable sentences. When you’re done, click PUBLISH on the right (see image below). Or, if you’re not quite ready, you can save it as a draft and reopen it later, via the “POSTS” section of the dashboard. Helpful hint: WordPress autosaves your work every few seconds, so it’s very, very rare to lose stuff. Nonetheless it’s not a bad idea to compose posts on a word processor and then paste them into WP just in case. I personally live dangerously most of the time and have never lost anything, but your call.

If you want to get really fancy, add a tag or two or some media. In the right-hand column, you’ll see a bunch of options. Most of the time you can ignore most of them, but “tags” allows you to add, say, the name of the author you’re writing about or a topic that you hit in the post. So for a post on Du Bois, you might tag it “Du Bois,” “SOULS,” and/or “double consciousness.” If you want to add media, for example a relevant image, click “add media” in the top left-hand part of the window and follow the prompts.

We’re good, right? Happy blogging.

What makes for an excellent post? For this class, posts should:

  • be between 400-800 words (use word count in WordPress or your word processor)
  • explain a given text’s argument (for secondary readings) or analyze its form and themes (for primary readings), using quotations and paraphrases of the text with page numbers in parentheses
  • engage a text critically, noting its limitations, its links to other texts we’ve read, its unstated assumptions, etc.

Here’s a simple rubric, adapted from Mark Sample, that lays out what makes for a great/good/decent post (see how the academic blogosphere encourages sharing and exchange? I told you so!). The letter grades are not relevant for us, since we’re “contract grading”: anything that is “satisfactory” or better will do. But the descriptions help you see what good, if informal, analytical writing looks like.

Rating Characteristics
A Exceptional. The post articulates a clear, original argument that is well-supported with textual evidence. The argument is “weird,” examining aspects of the text that will not be obvious to casual readers. It develops organically, leaving readers in a different place than they started, preferably with some gestures of introduction and conclusion. Where possible, it gestures to peers’ posts or other relevant criticism.
B Satisfactory. The post is reasonably focused, and provides textual evidence to support its argument. Its argument is coherent if perhaps a bit predictable.
C Underdeveloped. The post privileges summary or description over analysis,  without consideration of alternative perspectives, and may contain misreadings of the text. The entry reflects passing engagement with the topic.
D Limited. The journal entry is unfocused, or simply rehashes others’ comments; it fails to settle on any consistent argument.
0 No Credit. The journal entry is missing or consists of one or two disconnected sentences.

Last but not least, here’s an example of a good-looking post.  I’ve linked to it in a Word doc so you can see some marginal comments that explain why it’s good.  And remember: it’s not an exercise in cookie-cutting: your results may vary, and there are lots of ways to write an excellent post.

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1st Day async video+questionnaire

Posted by Jeff Allred (he/him/his) on

Here’s the video that walks you through the basics of the course:

Day1

Here’s the link to the GDoc with links (also in a title on the video): bit.ly/AllredDay1

And here’s the doc with links to course resources, so you can follow along:

bit.ly/AllredDay1

Finally (and this is on the doc above too), here’s the questionnaire you should fill out to be counted as “present” for the session:

1st Day Questionnaire

These questions have two purposes: a) to prove that you were “present” and attentive for this async session and b) to give me a chance to field questions and figure out what was/wasn’t clear to you.

See you Th Sept 5th!

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Welcome to Fall 2024 students

Posted by Jeff Allred (he/him/his) on

This is the blog we’ll use all term to share reading responses and course-relevant material for Prof. Allred’s ENGL 252. All prior posts are either my own posts or students’ posts from a prior instance of the course. They are there by permission of the author/s and are for your benefit, so feel free to browse.

If you have questions about the course or about this site, contact me.

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