15 June
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On
In Cancer
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I am in active treatment for bilateral breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes on both sides, diagnosed May 4th. I will have a bilateral mastectomy and left axillary node dissection on July 3rd at 2pm. What that looks like today: a bus along the Croatian coastline, Zadar to Split, the water turns aqua where it hits the land. A whole pizza with peppers and sour cream and a large beer at a table in the middle of the room, the kitchen cut it in triangle slices, I guess that’s how American I look around here. Soccer on every tv, and there areRead More →

06 June
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On
In Cancer
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I am back in my office and nothing has changed. The remnants of the last two panicked weeks are all around me, stray fax cover sheets to request my pathology slides, my food coop disability release form, Instructions for Filing a Claim. It has really only been twelve days or so, and that includes the trip to London. I should clean things up around here. The day of surgery itself was long, with ordinary waits and strange delays. They book you for two hours of intake that takes fifteen minutes, but I’m good at sitting in a chair, staring at my phone. Nuclear medicine didn’tRead More →

18 May
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In Cancer
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Some of this is just facts. I have two different primary cancers, one in each breast. Both are small: right side is six millimeters, left side is 1.3 centimeters. A biopsy shows cancer in the lymph nodes under my right arm. The number of women presenting with two primary cancers at the time of initial diagnosis is somewhere around 1%. I am quite special. The cancers themselves, though, are very ordinary. Hormone positive with strong receptivity for both estrogen and progesterone, HER/2 negative. These are common and therefore treatable breast cancers. We know a lot about them, says Dr. Port. We know a lot aboutRead More →

12 May
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In Cancer
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I have had cancer for a week and a day. Or, I have had cancer all my life. Or, I don’t have cancer yet but I will. I was diagnosed with breast cancer on Friday, May 4th. Today is Saturday, May 12th. I am at a cafe in midtown across the street from the synagogue where my kid goes to Hebrew school. I wasn’t supposed to have cancer and he wasn’t supposed to have Limmud today. When my biopsy in October came back clear I thought that meant I was too. The kid’s baseball team has a game today and he is so much inRead More →

10 April
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In Lockout, union
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When this administration locked us out, we learned that they believed they could run a university without faculty. We won the lockout battle and showed them it wasn’t true. But the war continued and continues. As management shrinks the campus, cutting courses and credits without consultation with us, we see them attempting to run a university without classes. These actions mean that our colleagues are losing their jobs: NTTA contracts are not renewed, long-time committed part time faculty are cleared from the rolls, and anyone without tenure is at risk. As a union, our job is to push back against administration, to organize ourselves andRead More →

02 April
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On
In Lockout
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I am pasting below an email exchange with Ann Larson from earlier today. I replied to Ann, and included my union colleagues and those who have invited me to speak on these experiences. I am aware she will be waging a public campaign on social media against me and my work. I have her blocked on social media and am aware that they are happening. Please do not forward these attacks to me. Dear colleagues, I am writing to let you know about a public disagreement regarding the lockout and contract campaign at LIU Brooklyn last year. There were disagreements regarding the direction of theRead More →

03 March
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In Uncategorized
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So many thanks to Karen Nicholson and Maura Seale for inviting me to write the foreword to their fantastic new collection, The Politics of Theory and the Practice of Critical Librarianship. And thanks to Library Juice Press for facilitating open deposit of our chapters! Here’s my contribution.  Read More →

04 February
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In Lockout
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I was so pleased to get to attend METRO’s conference on Libraries in the Context of Capitalism. Highlights for me were Roxanne Shirazi‘s investigation into “value” and what exactly librarians are reproducing when we reproduce the academy through our work. Dan Greene‘s talk on librarians and patrons at the Washington D.C. public library was fascinating and left me anxious for his book to come out. Great great stuff. Below is what I said.Read More →