Week of 4/27 Update!

Hello, poppy friends and family! I have some resources/updates to send over to you.

1) I wanted to let you all know that currently, Paizha Stoothoff is our Cal State LA subject librarian for philosophy. She reached out to the club recently, keeping us posted with resources, events, library services for philosophy students, research interests, and more. She is also available for research appointments if you wanna speak with someone! She sent me two resources that I’ll relay to you here:

a) Paizha’s built and updated the library’s Philosophy Research Guide, which, as the name suggests, has resources for research in philosophy, and a link to set up research appointments with her if you so need/desire!

b) The library is also teaming up with L.A. Zine Fest and hosting a virtual event tomorrow ( Tuesday 4/28), from 11:30AM-1:30PM, on an introductory workshop on zines and self-publishing! They’ll go over different types of zines, zine history, and brainstorming ideas for zines. If you’re interested in attending this, please let me know, and I’ll forward the Zoom meeting link over to you. It’s an especially cool event for folks interested in self-publishing!

2) A club member of ours, Jafet Rodriguez, has been working with some other graduate students to build a resolution to the university to address many of the issues students are facing during the present virus crisis. They will be sending this resolution to ASI in the hopes that they adopt it. I’ll link this pandemic resolution to the university here, and if you support the asks and demands in it, please do sign it at the bottom.

That’s all for now. Hope you’re all well. For those of you who are muslim, Ramadan Mubarak! Especially if you’re fasting, stay healthy, and do not push yourself beyond your limits. For everyone else, also stay healthy, take care of yourself and loved ones the best you can!

Best,
Sakib

4/23 Online Check-in

Hello, friends and family! I hope you and your loved ones are doing alright.

We have been on an impromptu, unannounced hiatus from any club activity. I didn’t know that club meetings would be something useful while we transitioned into our current circumstances; I felt they’d add on unneeded stress onto folks.

We’re still not doing meetings as usual, but I’d like to check in with you all. This Thursday (4/23), from 3PM-4:20PM, I’m holding a little Zoom meeting check-in/virtual get-together, to check in with one another, see some friendly faces, hopefully have a laugh here and there. I’ll keep a Zoom meeting room open between those times, and anyone is welcome to stop by and say hi. Obviously, no need to prepare as if for a regular meeting or read anything beforehand; you can just bring your own person!

Here is the link to the Zoom meeting room. (If that hyperlink doesn’t work, copy and paste this into your browser: <https://calstatela.zoom.us/j/9142743987&gt;.)

Lots of love and well wishes to you all.

Sakib

Roundtable Cancelled

Hi friends and family!

Unfortunately, we got word from the Arts and Letters Dean this morning, and they are cancelling all National Humanities Advocacy Day events today. Since our Retheorizing Sexuality roundtable is a part of those events, it is also cancelled. If we postpone it to a later date, I’ll send out an update later on with the new date and time.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Best,
Sakib

3/10 Roundtable!

Hello, transhistorical friends and family!

1) We will not be holding a club meeting this Thursday (3/12).

2) That is because this Tuesday (3/10), from 4PM-5:30PM, at the State Playhouse by the Music building courtyard, the club and department will be co-hosting “Retheorizing Sexuality: A Roundtable“! A panel of students and faculty will be answering important questions about sexuality together! We’ll talk shop about desire, ethics, violence, minor and marginalized identities, and a great deal more. It will be a lovely time; I am very excited for it. I’m attaching the event flyer to this message.

3) The roundtable is happening on a special day: National Humanities Advocacy Day! Different clubs and departments across the humanities will be tabling across campus, talking about what’s interesting about our fields and what people in the humanities do with their knowledge and skills. The Philosophy department will be tabling on the main campus walkway between 11AM-3PM. I will be there; be sure to join us! I give no guarantees, but there may be a chess table present alongside some paradoxes and thought experiments.

That’s about it! I’m tired, and I must now sleep.

Best,
Sakib

3/5 Meeting!

Hello, peppery friends and family! I am drinking hot chocolate, which is known in parts of the world as “Blessed Cocoa Liquid”. I have two things to mention this message.

1) We will be meeting this Thursday (3/5), from 3PM-4:20PM, at KH C2096A. We will be addressing some questions about sexuality, and the philosophy of sexuality! There is a philosophy roundtable coming up soon on sexuality (more on that in number 2), and so we’re gonna take a look at a couple of the questions that will come up in the roundtable. Let me give you two to think over. You obviously do not have to come up with full answers to either of these! I just pass them over to you to mull over before next meeting:

a) We make sense of a lot of sexuality through the sexual orientations that we live–being gay, bi, straight, or so on. These categories are immensely helpful in understanding ourselves, but how may sexuality be more complicated beyond these categories? How does sexuality complicate these orientations themselves?

b) How do we talk about ethics and morality in sexuality in a necessary, important way? Sexuality has often been, perhaps, wrongly regulated according to social norms and conventions, thus harming people in the process. Yet, it seems evident that some expressions of sexuality really are wrong, or harmful. How do we navigate this difference? What vocabulary do we need to navigate it?

 

2) We’re talking about sexuality next meeting because on March 10th, from 4PM-5:30PM, at the State Playhouse by the Music building, we’re holding a philosophy roundtable event on sexuality! A panel of students and faculty will be working through important theoretical questions about sexuality along with the rest of the audience. I’ll remind you again next week that this is coming up, and I’ll include some extra details at that point as well. For now, mark your calendar! It’ll be a lovely time.

That’s all for now! I’m going back to writing now.

Best,
Sakib

2/27 Meeting!

Hello, waking friends and family!

Last meeting, interestingly enough, we ended up saying nothing about nothingness. That is fitting for the topic, but we should, unfortunately, say something about it. So, this Thursday (2/27), from 3PM-4:20PM, at KH C2096A, we will start our discussion on nothingness! What at all does it mean when we try and talk about nothingness? Why is there something in the world rather than nothing–and what does that question even mean? What is at stake? What do we make of moments in our lives where we “feel like nothing”? Bring your feelings and thoughts, and we’ll air them through Thursday.

Reminder to drink some water! Take care of yourself.

Best,
Sakib

2/20 Meeting!

Hello, sleepy friends and family! I am projecting a little, as I myself am sleepy. I am also sorry for the extremely late message update; I got caught up with current events, but I am here now!

We will be meeting tomorrow (2/20), from 3PM-4:20PM, at KH C2096A. Last meeting, we talked about material constitution: what it means to say that things are made out of other things. This meeting, we’ll wrap up some points we left unfinished last time. Afterwards, it seems appropriate to do a complete 180 and talk about nothing, and about nothingness! It is easy enough to talk about things and different things in the world, but what does it mean when we talk about something like nothingness? It’s not something, but it seems that we can say many things around nothingness, vaguely showing around it. What is that feeling of being almost nothing we have when we think about the vast universe beyond us? What is the feeling of nothingness we fear when we think of dying? We do have the word for it, so what are we talking about when we invoke that word?
That’s all! Lots of love and well wishes to you.

Best,
Sakib