Rouhollah Aghasaleh: What's Normal?
Using more digital technology
This is an obvious one including Zoom, Jamboard, Shared Slides and documents, GoReact, etc.
Highlighting students’ private lives
I added a blurb in my syllabus about “intrusion of my course in their private sphere” and invited them to be unapologetic about their personal lives (noise from children, pets, messy rooms, etc.). This “intrusion” tended to disadvantage women students (and colleagues) and has been an opportunity for reflection on gender and class privilege.
I started to use this connection protocol more frequently
Every session starts with this now. Sharing about everyday hustles made people realize what seems personal is indeed a shared concern and thus political.
Deconstructing the “normal”
In my teaching I make reference to what pandemic has brought as new norms — not being able to travel, visit family and friends, wearing masks, social distancing, etc. as an example of historicizing (and problematizing) what is “normal.”
Reflecting on how the impossible has become thinkable
This is a great way to critic the “normal.” This aligns with my line of scholarship that is informed by queer theories and poststructural philosophies.
