I’ve finished up with my work on an M.S. in Rural Sociology from Auburn University. As the time to do deep archival work and in-person interviews proved difficult to carve out, I switched up to the non-thesis option where I took a couple of extra classes and did a ‘capstone’ paper. It follows – even though I’ve made some updates and changes since the draft passed muster.
I’d wanted to write my thesis on what happened to the people up around Valley and Lanett when the West Point Stevens plants were shuttered and as Kia and the various suppliers came to town. I still think this work might be rather important as there are few places with such a significant change as what’s happened just up I-85. Those older generations working at the textile factories are getting on up in age. They’ll be more familiar with patterns of paternalism and ‘the way things were.’ Here’s a paper I presented on the effort down in NOLA in the summer of 2014.
Neoliberalism in East Alabama: Its Impact on “Lintheads” and Localities
On my work for a Ph.D. in Adult Education, also at Auburn University, I’ve completed enough classes. (I have 160 plus graduate hours at AU and I still must enroll – and pay all sorts of fees, every semester so as to do research.) My dissertation is finally nailed down. Even though I’ve been an official ‘doctoral candidate for a couple of years, there were a few bumps with my committee and then Covid came along and …
My title is ‘Neoliberal Rationalities or Different Drumming? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Adult Education Graduate-Level Programs Through Publicly-Available, Online Materials.’ I’m writing steadily now. Yuck! My expectation is that most programs rarely, or at least carefully, question market-oriented approaches to life, learning, etc. I expect most programs probably reinforce, at times knowingly and in other cases not, the hegemony and neoliberal ‘logic.’ There’s a decent chance I can finish in 2022. I have no need for a credential. In fact, I now find ‘credentialism’ at least somewhat silly. I can at least critique to death the process of chasing paper.
I’m still rather the Gramscian and it, which I think is rather closely tied to critical theory and critical pedagogy, fits into both fields. And yes, I’m quite critical of and nervous about what neoliberalism is doing to our world. That we’ve lately seen a contrived, comical … yet coordinated rather effectively campaign against Critical Race Theory (CRT) is interesting and frustrating for me since I actually know a little about some of this stuff.
Despite my formal efforts, largely because the post-911 GI Bill allows me this luxury, I frequently believe my best learning comes outside of organized classes. Then again, when I’m in classes and doing formal classwork, I’m bad to go off on rabbit hunts from initial reading. The idea of popular education and informal efforts may become more important as higher education increases in costs and also becomes more captured by corporate interests. Additionally, credentialism can vex me at times. I’ll flesh this page out later but might, as often as not, share ideas I’m not necessarily studying because I’m trying to write. Here’s a paper I did in a history of higher ed class that touches on some of my main themes:
Also, feel free to send me a book off my Amazon wish list if you ever want to reward me for blogging or otherwise being involved. I’m all for supporting small and indy bookstores, plus like the idea of buying used books when that’s possible. I once refused to buy via Amazon but have backslid. I still like to use Powell’s when that’s possible and will eventually try to get a partner program set up.