My Topeka Travels

I just returned home from the capital city of Kansas. Topeka, meaning "to dig good potatoes" is a pretty direct shot straight south from good old Northfield. My great friend and co-worker Glen (or Doug as my family often mistakenly calls him - have no idea why) and I made the drive down and had a blast along the way. We visited 2 Universities (Washburn & Kansas), explored 3 cities (Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City), drove through lots of random cities, ate lots of bad food and made a few pretty cool friends from Gustavus.

The purpose for our travels was the 2011 UMR-ACUHO Conference, which is the Upper Midwest Region of the Association for College and University Housing Officers. It was hard to beat last years UMR conference in Minneapolis, but we made the drive and had a blast along the way. Most of my favorite memories from the weekend were the car rides to and from Topeka and our dinners out but we did have a few really interesting sessions at the conference.

It's always interesting to hear what our colleagues from all over are up to at their institutions but sometimes I find it hard to connect to their mission. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not a "true" housing person or if my passions are just a bit different within the context of student affairs. But I was attending a session on how to engage men in meaningful conversations and I found myself feeling very much on the outside. Before the session began, the presenters explained how they identify as gendered beings. The female presenter identified herself as a cis-gendered non-conforming female. (Cis-gendered is used as an adjective in the context of gender issues to refer to a class of gender identities formed by a match between an individual's gender identity and the behavior/role considered appropriate for one's sex.) The non-conforming label came in as she described how she dresses less femininely and denies some of the socially constructed labels women are taught and therefore is non-conforming. She explained further that because she was not wearing a skirt and high heels, she was non-conforming. They continued to describe the labels that have been created for the spectrum of masculinity and femininity and I found myself very confused. And a bit frustrated. Depending on the day, I have a very different style. I wear a skirt when I feel like it and love to get dressed up once in awhile but much of the time, I'm wearing some kind of athletic wear. According to their labels, I don't fit nicely in any little box. I identify as a girl 100% of the time yet I don't really belong anywhere on their scale. I was so distracted thinking about how it seems that those who fight labels and feel excluded are often the ones creating more of them and in turn, excluding what I consider the norm. I'm about as biologically and physiologically normal as they come yet for some reason that seems abnormal. You're either male, female or in-transition, right?! Maybe I'm missing something...

Anyway...other than that, I attended a couple pretty good sessions about grant writing, becoming a better advisor, synthetic drug use and vandalism. It was a beneficial weekend and we are already looking forward to Wisconsin Dells UMR 2012 next year!

Here are a few Instagram pics from the week...