How to find hope in the face of (waves hands frantically)

Plus another photo of Storm, my tuxedo kitty who is always hopeful for more food

Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here.

Over two decades ago, my life felt pretty challenging. After over three months of strict bed rest, including an emergency surgery and multiple extended hospital stays, I had an emergency c-section and my husband and I welcomed our twin preemies into the world. We spent the next two months sitting (standing, pacing) helplessly beside their incubators, watching anxiously as the NICU staff (saints, every one of them) dealt with their infections, jaundice, and bradycardias. Days were slow, stressful, and uncertain.

My aunt, a voracious reader, regularly mailed me parcels of literature to keep me occupied. I read multiple novels each week as I awaited doctor’s rounds and the brief moments when our tiny babies were awake. Her curated book collection kept me company, distracted me, and made me think. They helped get me through to the other side of that period.

One of the novels (title long forgotten) had a scene that remains with me. The protagonist was a woman in a difficult situation: geographically isolated, living with a controlling and unpredictable partner, and fearful. And she had a secret: she was hiding small notes asserting herself and her worth in her braids. Sitting in the NICU, I was moved by the strength of her small defiance.

I write about this now for three reasons. First, to remind myself that good things can come from difficult times. Those tiny babies are now amazing adults with kind hearts and compassion for others. Their very existence, once so tenuous, makes the world a better place. Second, to remind myself that small thoughtful gestures, such as my aunt’s literature care packages, can be the thing that gets others through difficult times. And third, to remind myself that resistance takes many forms.

All three of these lessons matter to me in our current moment, and the last one is the topic of today’s small thing to try immediately.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Witness the resistance

A confession: this is not the newsletter I intended to write this week. I had another topic planned, with practical ideas, cute cat photos, and dated pop culture references – AKA, my usual Academia Made Easier fare. I was looking forward to writing it over the weekend. It was going to be fun!

But on Friday, my anger at the flaming shitshow south of the Canadian border hit a record high as the behaviour of the self-appointed king and his slimeball sycophant hit a record low. (Well, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, “record low so far.”) So my planned topic and pop culture shoutout will have to wait (but not the cat photo, as that would be unkind) while I unpack what’s on my mind.

And here is what is on my mind: Hope.

I truly didn’t see it coming. I tend to have a limited view of hope as passive, along the lines of ‘thoughts and prayers’ rather than concrete action. But as the world hurtles rapidly into full chaotic evil mode, I keep finding sources of inspiration, large and small. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. Alt National Park Service. People flooding the DOGE email system. Vermont residents voicing their values to disrupt an undeserved ski vacation. The anonymous HUD pranksters. The dignity and conviction of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In the face of a lot of terrible, I am inspired to see people asking themselves, “What does this moment require of me?” — and then acting on their answers.

It makes me feel hopeful in an unexpected way. I do not have hope that things will somehow ‘just work out’. But I have hope that acts of resistance, large and small, will grow in number. I have ‘middle finger hope’: hope that more and more people are or soon will be saying ‘fuck you and fuck this’.

This middle finger hope, this hope for growing resistance, fuels me. Mr. Rogers’ mother told him to ‘look for the helpers’ in difficult times. I am taking a different approach and looking for the resisters. And I am being mindful that, much like the woman with notes hidden in her braids, more people are engaged in resistance than I can see. Not everyone has the privilege of citizenship and job security to be speaking out, and I respect that. Their resistance may be in the form of listening to the concerns of a trans colleague or changing their shopping choices or cancelling a vacation. It may be in the form of discussions with their children or – thoughts and prayers to them – with their Fox News-watching in-laws.

To bring this back to academia, I want to acknowledge the resistance I see every day. I see it in the work of academic colleagues sharing their expertise through media interviews, Substacks, and social media to correct facts in the face of misinformation and outright lies about political systems, society, and science. I see it in the work of academic colleagues supporting students in dealing with the stress of our current times (and thank my friend Christie Schultz for collaborating with me to write “Teaching in a world of bleakness” to share ideas on how instructors can do so). I see it in the work of academic colleagues defending equity, diversity, and inclusion at their institutions. I see your middle fingers of resistance, your fuck yous and fuck thises. It fuels me and I thank you.

Please consider today’s newsletter to be my own contribution, middle finger held high.

Slava Ukraini. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Until next time…

It is truly an honour to be a part of your life and your email inbox. If you found today’s newsletter useful, please share it with your colleagues and networks, hit the like button, subscribe, and/or leave a comment. And watch this space – I aim to follow up with more practical work ideas and embarrassingly old pop culture references very soon.

Stay well, my colleagues.

P.S. I promised you a cute cat photo and hopefully you will agree that this fits the bill. Here is Storm and her box fort. Over the years I have transformed many boxes into cat forts but none has been as successful as this box. Usually she sits in the box, but on Friday evening she chose to sit on the box. Perhaps this is her own form of resistance.

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Buy Canadian!!! If you like the look of classically styled women’s clothing and the feel and functionality of athleisure, I strongly recommend SophieGrace, a Canadian company. Be sure to use my discount code AcademiaMadeEasier to get 20% off.

Have you got your copy of my new book, For the Public Good: Reimagining Arts Graduate Programs in Canadian Universities? If not, please order it now (and/or ask your university library to get a copy), be sure to sign up for the related Substack “Reimagining Graduate Education”, and note that my coauthors and I welcome invitations to work with units to implement the book’s ideas! Reviewer feedback of note:

• “It is the kind of quietly good book we need to see more of. … This book provides a very solid description of the process of defining and developing excellent, sustainable arts programs that serve students rather than academics. And not only is it dead-on in terms of its recommendations about how to design and evaluate programs, it has a lot of helpful matrices and worksheets to help those who are put in positions requiring them to do exactly that … More like this, please." - Alex Usher

• “Nearly half the book is dedicated to charting a transformative course for liberal arts departments.... If For the Public Good can provide the impetus for social sciences and humanities departments to refine their graduate studies programs, the career outcomes for tens of thousands of grad students will be the better for it. That alone would move the needle on Canada’s public good problem." - Literary Review of Canada