Annual Review — What is it good for?

Valuation is relative. Perceptions of value are context dependent.

Sometimes you have to be your own sunflower.

In the past year, I have participated in a range of personally interesting yet mostly academic projects and pursuits. These include peer-reviewed research and creative nonfiction, conference panels and papers, and a collaborative “citizen artist” residency. I was also accepted as an Honorary Fellow (2018–2020) with the University of Wisconsin — Madison Department of Forest & Wildlife Ecology and promoted to Associate Professor at my home institution, Unity College.

Good? Good for what? Good for whom? It depends on who you ask.

Does it matter? Again… it depends. I find these topics and collaborations fruitful. Partnerships and collaborative projects matter to me. That’s the bottom line. These efforts emerge not as ends but means to further growth in my own matrix of personal-professional endeavor.

This reflection is spurred by a request for a “report on faculty accomplishments” needed for the institution’s Board of Trustees. I composed a brief summary of “notable scholarly accomplishments” in the year, prior to September 2019. Below is a version of the summary I submitted:

In December, 2018, the journal Latin American Research Review published On the Pursuit of Good Living in Highland Ecuador: Critical Indigenous…