AC is GEO

This email was in my inbox this morning, a note written by Afia Ofori-Mensa, a brilliant young scholar and a good friend. Her casual shout-out to thank members of the American Culture graduate student community reminds me that my experience at the University of Michigan has been just as much about creating community as it has been about creating scholarship.

American Culture boasts some of the best, most committed, most creative, brilliant young academics at the University of Michigan. I am so happy to be surrounded by such excellent people. Check out the email below:

From: afiaao@umich.edu
Subject: picket pride
Date: March 26, 2008 12:50:38 PM GMT-04:00
To: ac.grad.issues@umich.edu

dear ac grad community,

yesterday, when i went out to join the picket lines on central campus, i was moved, again and again, every time i saw an ac face appear in the crowd. it made me think about what a meeting of the generations this moment was, with many of us who were out on the lines three years ago joined by so many ac grad students who weren't here back then to be on those lines, but who now have taken up positions of activism and leadership--in geo and in the ac community--with an enthusiasm i haven't seen since the mid-contract health care crisis my second year of grad school.

i'm sitting here thinking about how proud i am of our ac community and of geo--these amazing groups of people that were not the reason i came here in the first place, but that i feel lucky to have been educated and radicalized by these past six years. i'm thinking about how, at this very moment, back in 2002, i was sitting in my dorm room, trying to figure out how i was going to make this monumental decision, in less than a month, about where i would be spending years and years of my life. and just because i was comfortable with the idea of coming back home, i ended up here, in this place that has become more of a home to me in the past six years than it ever was in the first ten years i lived here.

so i wanted to take a moment to thank everyone i saw out there yesterday:

to lani and tyler, who were up at all hours of the morning to help shut down construction sites and loading docks...

to rachel, who was passing out quarter sheets to students walking by on the diag, right near strike central...

to wittmann, who handed me a sandwich from inside a cardboard box on the line outside of west hall, and who i saw still toting around that box hours later...

to kiara, who gave moving speeches about progress and solidarity during the day's rallies, who ran from place to place throughout the day with a smile on her face the whole time, and who never hesitated to thank all of us for the work we were doing...

to brian, who i saw waving his sign and screaming support at the rally...

to margot, who was holding it down enthusiastically on one of the key picket lines right outside haven hall...

to stiffler and kiri and paul, who led spirited chants on the lines i was on outside angell hall and the ls&a building...

to jessi, who answered those chants tirelessly, her sign in the air the whole time...

to anyone else who was out there but who i didn't run into myself. to anyone else who has taken the time to support geo and ac grad students at any point in this process. thank you. i'm really proud of us.

i just thought you should know.

peace,
afia