September 2019 Reflections

This one’s late because sometimes your computer keels over dead-like when you are teaching abroad in Greece. Wooooooo.

disclaimer: these reviews are for my own personal accountability and aren’t really meant to be articulate blog posts. if you are curious about anything I write here, feel free to email me at nichole.lynn.bennett <at> gmail.com

highlights from the past month

• presented STEMprov for belonging at WECon
• named Center for Health Communication Doctoral Fellow!
• attended Inclusive Scicomm Symposium, presented a STEMprov workshop, presented on a panel for inclusive pedagogy, and learned and listened to a lot of great work
• cut my hair into a pixie cut and am really loving it
• auditioned for my first scripted production since high school and got my first callback! didn’t end up getting cast, but feels nice to try a new flavor of theater
• BIPAC had our final meeting of the year and developed the 2018–2019 ballot for Austin theater awards

lessons learned from last month

• inclusivity isn’t going to be an add on to my work, it will be interwoven
• at the heart of my work is bringing humanity into STEM spaces
• “I teach students, not subjects” (from Bryan Dewsbury during the inclusive pedagogy panel)
• moments and meaning matter more than words and performative acts
• the most meaningful projects are often collaborative, not done by one person
• I need to define what success means to me

theme or emotion that sums up the month

• listening and learning, asking more questions than giving answers
• ANXIETY and stress, but becoming better friends with it with ritual, meditating, letting go

outcome of last month’s goal, projects completed

• finished The Artist’s Way 12 week program
• first draft of logic model for Planet Texas 2050 project finished and presented to team, working on refining it
• create rejection spreadsheet for pitches and grants for science communication and make a habit of submitting things (so far this month 5 submissions, 3 rejections, 1 acceptance)
• submitted diversity, equity and inclusivity report on science communication fellowships to the Rita Allen Foundation
• finished a bunch of school projects (leading discussion for Interpersonal Communication, presenting a paper for Social Psychology, leading the discussion for Qualitative Methods, presenting theory project for Interpersonal Communication, posing questions for Social Psychology) — this will clear my plate to better able to focus on my research and creative projects

goals for the month ahead

grad school

• write up science communication fellowship paper

creative

• start regularly blogging for STEMprov and develop PR habits

personal

• get back into moving my body without getting fitness orthodox or restriction-diety, complement this with also diving into radical self love for body stuff (inspired by The Body is Not An Apology)
• media enjoyed in the last month

films

• Dagon
• Steven Universe Movie
• Art & Copy

TV

• Shrill
• There She Is!

books

• The Dreams in the Witch House

podcasts

• HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast
• saw a live StoryCollider Show!