Ellen Muehlberger
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emuehlbe.bsky.social
Ellen Muehlberger
@emuehlbe.bsky.social
Michigander with ideas about ancient history, writing, cats, bikes

I'm probably gonna ask you what you're writing

Things Unseen, available open access from University of California Press: https://luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1525/luminos.253
<3
December 1, 2025 at 10:14 PM
no, no worries---not great but maybe a silver lining in the smaller pool, ie, people make decisions knowing they'll still be there to feel the benefits and/or consequences? unfortunately, there's a whole lot of pie-in-the-sky/cv-polish thinking happening when you don't have to stay to see it through
December 1, 2025 at 7:51 PM
wait, no, Under*world*
December 1, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Underground?
December 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
associate deans, yes, usually but the folks above them---dean of arts and sciences, provost, pres, all tend to move on

part of it is that UM is like the nursery for growing Ivy and Ivy-Plus admins, but that's intersecting with the emerging nomadic class the OP was talking about
December 1, 2025 at 7:34 PM
when the symbolism is too much: the admin building was literally half-deconstructed for the shiny CV-ballast project as bow tie left town
December 1, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I am here putting it online that I'm mad

but it's at myself for not noticing this very obvious aspect of the thing I was writing about, which could have strengthened my argument, ugh
November 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
these are my sudafed-and-boredom-fueled thoughts, might delete later
November 28, 2025 at 2:41 PM
fun enough as a boy to talk convincingly, in speech-in- character, as a former sex worker, to the standards held by your teacher and fellow classmates, all male

show up as the girl and do that? hmmmm

no wonder that exercise was a workhorse, as it was doing multiple jobs every time it was performed
November 28, 2025 at 2:40 PM
all great, but I missed the obvious angle that Bucknell points out: having that kind of exercise to do as a rhetorical student *already* slants the whole thing against women going through the curriculum
November 28, 2025 at 2:39 PM
having been created by teenaged boy writers, she stays in their minds and is more known to them than actual women---and thus can trap them into not knowing actual women, and thus not being politically or socially responsible to them
November 28, 2025 at 2:38 PM
and I am so, so mad that I did not observe that in my chapter---I start with a ubiquitous rhetorical exercise, answering the question "what would the prostitute come to her senses say?", and I argue that the lasting character it creates, the impossible woman, is part of the persistence of patriarchy
November 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
That is, if you got to study rhetoric, part of what you got to do was to practice writing super-basic stereotypes about women---shrew in the kitchen, ape in the bed type stuff
November 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
so, our TG guests canceled (illness) and then I also got up sick on Thurs (flu), so I've been ensconced on the couch, reading, and Clare Bucknell has a review of Elizabeth Scott-Bauman's work on women writers in early modern England, where she points out the rote misogyny of rhetorical exercises
November 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Rob, the one on the left is a part of the Best Jigsaw Puzzle of All Time, the gateway puzzle, the one we do at least once a year!
November 27, 2025 at 9:52 PM
che strano
November 26, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Dove l'hai trovato? c'e` un link?
November 26, 2025 at 7:41 PM
the keyyyyyyssss
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 PM
💀
November 25, 2025 at 6:46 PM
that was the very first session and you went a full three days to the very end---seriously, kudos
November 25, 2025 at 1:41 PM