Comments on: Making the grade

By: Vince

Vince — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:23:47 +0000

No. The mood doesn’t take me.

And that’s more pretentious guff. Bet you thopugh, you can guess or decode this one.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:54:29 +0000

Hey Wince, why don’t you answer Munchkinman’s questions? You make a sweeping comment about the numbers of atheists and agnostics that adore the trappings of Catholic church rituals only, it now seems, to take a swipe at either or both of them. Don’ t hide behind the exasperated ‘Oh don’t be so tedious’ argument and them come up with some pretentious guff about the militaristic aspect of The Great Schism. Answer his questions

By: MunchkinMan

MunchkinMan — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:17:35 +0000

It’s sunny here, nearly all day today, that’s why my thinking is so clear on this issue and why I crave such detail…the post The Great Wha? Excuse while I put on my robe/gown/whatever to show that I’m in charge of the barbecue and for which function I deserve respect…;)

By: Vince

Vince — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:02:14 +0000

Oh don’t be tedious on the wettest summer we’ve had in years.

And I was actually thinking about the militaristic aspect of the post The Great Schism western church, be that RCC or Lutheran in aspect.

By: Anna Notaro

Anna Notaro — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:38:23 +0000

I would argue that the ‘transitional identity’ experience is not unique to students (learners) but to lecturers as well, being involved in any learning process cannot but challenge notions of fixed identity almost by definition. Also, liminality, as defined by Turner among others, is an existential condition most academics can easily identify with!

By: MunchkinMan

MunchkinMan — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:58:31 +0000

Ah, yes, I was wondering when the Catholic Church (Roman, I presume) was going to be brought into this one…Vince, what ARE those numbers that you refer to? And are they worryingly high, or surprisingly low (or vice versa?)…

By: Vince

Vince — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:26:41 +0000

What’s remarkable is the numbers of confirmed atheists and agnostic that adore the trappings of the 2nd millennium Catholic Church rituals.
Still I suppose it could be viewed as a form of birth as distinct from a ‘recognition’ .

By: thelearningprofessor

thelearningprofessor — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:20:23 +0000

Not forgetting the kilts, of course, which are increasingly popular at Stirling with some of our overseas students. I have happy memories of one young Bangladeshi striding forward in Inverness cathedral to receive his doctorate, dressed in tartan and smiling with pride. His parents were thousands of miles away, and I can only imagine how they received the photographs.

The anthropology of ritual is full of ideas about the symbolism of clothing and the body on occasions that mark transitions. I’ve been drawing on Victor Turner’s work on liminality as a way of understanding ‘studenthood’ as a transitional identity. It is helpful to a point, as of course studenthood is a very protracted form of transition, and its outcomes are often uncertain. But this way of looking at things does make sense of our academic fancy dress for the final ritual ceremony.

By: Anna Notaro

Anna Notaro — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:10:31 +0000

This ‘History of Graduation’ web site really made me laugh, so cheesy & what a lovely song http://www.brownielocks.com/graduation.html

By: MunchkinMan

MunchkinMan — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:05:25 +0000

The dress code for graduations should be according to the university’s house rules, no exceptions permitted. Formal dress codes are required by those institutions that value the importance of education. One dresses out of respect to the VALUE of education, as Ferdinand quite rightly puts it. One puts something esle before one’s own self-centered desires (a virtue which in places seesm to be diminishing rapidly). For instance, if a good friend requires you to be best man at his wedding and to wear a morning suit and you arrive in denims you may be expressing and satisfying your own individuality but you are doing your friend a grave disservice. Dress codes are important. They are there out of respect to the value of the event and to those persons who are guardians of it (in this case, in universities). Anyway, it all adds a bit of colur and not a few laughs:)