Over the last seven months I have been on the bargaining team for part-time contract faculty at Carleton University as a member of CUPE 4600. We were fighting for a fair deal for contract faculty like myself who are paid the third worst pay rate in the province of Ontario. After negotiations came to an impasse over intellectual property, TA:student ratios, and salary the union flexed its might and went on strike for a week and a half. Once back at the bargaining table we won full rights to our IP and received an additional bump to the salary offer. We’ll leave the fight on TA:student ratios to the full time faculty union who have much greater leverage than us. I’m very proud of my work with the bargaining team and took heart in being on a picket line with fellow precariously employed contract faculty who make up nearly half of the faculty at Carleton (not to mention all of our TAs/RAs!). The corporate university is a nasty beast and the fight continues, but I am happy to celebrate the small victories.
The SSA’s Annual Conference is quickly approaching! From May 29-31 I’ll be presiding over the last conference that will take place under my tenure as the association’s Chair and a member of its executive. It’s our first in-person conference in three years and I am excited to meet with and learn from my colleagues before passing the torch to incoming Chair Ricky Varghese. The keynote from Andil Gosine and award plenary organized by Gary Kinsman will be a real treat!
My work collaborating with Vtape as part of Archive/Counter-Archive is is coming to a conclusion. We are soon to release a classroom guide for teachers interested in utilizing material from the community cable television program Toronto Living With AIDS (1990-91). The creation of the guide was spearheaded by Axelle Demus and Chloë Brushwood Rose. This fall, Vtape will also publish a chapbook on Toronto Living With AIDS that will including my essay on the series from JumpCut, transcripts of all the interviews I conducted with surviving contributors to the series, and short reflections on each tape written by contemporary artists and activists thinking about the legacy of the community cable television series. Keep an eye out for this in the fall!
I’ll spend the Summer hiding out at an off grid cabin so that I can finish my manuscript on Lizzie Borden’s 1986 film Working Girls for the queer film classics book series edited by Tom Waugh and Matthew Hays. It has been a long time coming, but COVID chaos has delayed this manuscript by a year and a half. I am looking forward to some peace and quiet so I can finish this off and get it out into the world. Stay tuned!