Wednesday, September 6, 2017

a very well-merited award


Sometimes I think that NO ONE knows how much an individual deserves an award quite as much as their partner does ... in other words, someone who day to day to day has seen the hard work, the negotiations and dealings with the administration, the drafting of reports, the phone calls and the skype sessions, the budget crises, the scheduling conflicts, the people who suddenly go on leave or into retirement, the major questions, the endless minor questions ... Here's Alice, after six years of chairing Gender Studies, receiving the Splash award for - basically - inspirational service to Gender Studies - an award hereafter to carry her name.  This is, indeed, an even bigger accolade, and totally fitting for the person who has done such a huge, huge amount to set Gender Studies at USC on the path to become a full department (and hence have its own lines! its own power to hire!) after being, for years, a Program.  No one could be a worthier recipient, and I was so proud, today ...

... Splash, you ask?  The program's acronym when it got going was SWMS - Studies in Women's and Men's Sexuality - was it that? - maybe, in the long-ago past ruled by binary divides - so, well, I guess it's like a swimming merit badge ...

But.  Why is Alice staring at the ceiling of the Faculty Club?  Is there a bird up there?  Captions, please ...

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