Much appreciated spring flowers with card

Much appreciated spring flowers with card

Thank you, friends — members of the class of 2009, Student Coordinator Debra Trevino, Faculty Liaison Johanna Bos, others — for the unexpected beautiful flowers and gift at the celebration Friday, but even more, for the pleasure and privilege associated with serving as Acting Director of the Women’s Center at LPTS for the past two years!

(The picture here doesn’t do the gift justice, but is the best I can offer. My family and I are enjoying the flowers thoroughly. When I at last could bring myself to open and read the card, I was deeply moved by the expressions of appreciation and affection — which I reciprocate. The card itself is an additional delight, with a gorgeous graphic — a detail from “The May Queen” by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh — and a recipe for Scotch pancakes taken from the book Taking Tea with Mackintosh: the Story of Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms, all aside from the promise of a new book contained therein, so that taken all together this qualifies as a particularly delightful gift.)

As some readers know, I will be taking a leave of absence from the Women’s Center at LPTS beginning in June, with the express purpose, and charge, of finishing my languishing dissertation (“Utopian Discourse in the Work of Three Late-20th Century Philosophers: Adorno, Irigaray, and Agamben”). Even though I want to spend more time on that project, almost desperately, the decision to take a leave of absence was difficult to make. My ambition is to work as diligently and quickly as is consistent with some desirable quantum of scholarly integrity, so as to miss as little of the excitement here as possible.

I have agreed to continue editing the blog. And nothing can induce me to stay away from various Women’s Center events, like the Transgender Day of Remembrance, or the encore performance of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. So I won’t be completely absent — but, I hope, absent enough and absent well enough to meet the looming deadlines.

Breaking news regarding my developing dissertation thoughts should be available, at least semi-regularly, at Utopian Discourse. At least, that’s the current plan.

Once again, everyone, many many thanks and au revoir!