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Sleep-Out | 4 comments

[new] inside, outside, in-between? (Avg. Score: 3.00 / Raters: 1) (#1)
by Aileen on Sat May 3rd, 2003 at 03:13:42 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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As a drop-out from the academic world, your description of making observations from "outside" the object of study sounds very familiar. Once upon a time, I used to be a theologian, a field of academic study, where any kind of personal stance is possibly more suspect than in other fields.
I'm not sure what you mean with your description of a "sleep-out", though. Is that a physical or a mental space or both at once? Are you sure it is wise or "safe" to occupy a space like that?
After I "blew a fuse" and abandoned the university environment, I continued to work as a feminist theologian for some time, doing workshops and seminars on liturgy and ritual, which always took place in improvised or "leftover" spaces, because I was invited by women, who wanted to work with me outside a conventional academic environment. With a ball of string and bits of wire and paper and scarves, I was fascinated by the way it was possible to appropriate other spaces and change them, but in the long run, it seemed questionable to me to only be able to appropriate spaces that no one else was really interested in. It didn't seem to have enough impact to satisfy my anger at the slipperiness of so-called critical intellectuals, who remained inside the academic institution by remaining outside embodied, lived experience.

Sleep-Out | 4 comments

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