Award: Graduate Employee Activism
Workplace wishes to thank Steve Parks of TDC for including us in this project. 

Teachers for a Democratic Culture (http://www.tdc2000.org/home.html), in partnership with Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, is now seeking applications and nominations for the first of what we hope will be an annual award to a graduate employee in recognition of exceptionally-committed contributions to the dignity of the academic workplace. The award carries a $500 cash stipend. The recipient will be interviewed and profiled in the spring issue of Workplace (http://www.workplace-gsc.com).  Our aim in creating this award is to expand the notion of what is recognized as "service to the profession" to include the activities of workplace struggle appropriate to the graduate employee (for whom the Ph.D. now typically signifies the end and not the beginning of a long teaching career). These activities include but are not limited to: organizing; unionism, including service as an elected union officer or paid organizer; direct action; and public outreach.

To be eligible, the nominee must have been enrolled as a graduate student at any point during fall 1999, spring 2000, or spring 2001.  A committee composed of members of the TDC board and the Workplace collective will award the stipend and communicate recognition and appreciation to other applicants, using the same
distribution list used in this announcement. All applications and nominations will be acknowledged. Deadline for applications and nominations is November 1, 2000. The winners of the cash award and other recognition will be notified in early December. 

Self-nomination is encouraged. The content of all applications and nominations will be kept confidential.  To apply for this award, or nominate someone else, send an email to Steve Parks, Director, Teachers for a Democratic Culture, at: sparkss@astro.ocis.temple.edu

Or use the following snail-mail address: Steve Parks, Director, Teachers for a Democratic Culture; Temple University Dept. of English; Philadelphia PA 19122.

Please include the following in your application or nomination:

Name of Nominee or Applicant:
Nominee or Applicant Contact Information:
(school affiliation, email, home telephone)

Name of Nominator: (if appropriate)
Nominator Contact Information: (if appropriate)
(school affiliation, email, home telephone)

Please provide for us a brief description of why you feel this graduate employee has made a significant contribution to improving the dignity of the academic workplace over the course of the last year. Please limit
your text to 500 words.
 

Marc Bousquet wrote:

> Also, please remember that Workplace: A Journal of Academic Unionism would
> like to celebrate thirty years of graduate employee unionism with a special
> section in the issue coming in November of this year. We will be accepting
> SHORT contributions of 3 to 9 pages in a variety of formats (profiles,
> narratives, edited correspondence, photo essays, interviews) that give a
> snapshot of "The State of Our Union." Pretty much anything goes here: our goal
> is to celebrate and support the enormous resurgence of unionism among graduate
> employees over the past three decades. We would really like to have a short
> piece from every graduate
> employee union, at any stage of organization. The short pieces will link back
> to the home pages of your locals.
>
> Please indicate your intention to contribute by sending a proposal of a
> sentence or two to Bruce Simon at
> simon@fredonia.edu
>
> All we need at this time is a working title, sent by September 20. We'll ask
> for the final short contribution to be in hand by October 20.  Please respond
> to Bruce ASAP: just a few words will do. Thanks, Marc
>
> Marc Bousquet
> Asst Prof, English, University of Louisville
> Co-General Editor, Workplace: A Journal For Academic Labor