shelling the p's

Hi--this is Kaye Edwards, who along with my friend and colleague, Anne Dalke, will be the other co-teacher/learner for P5 this fall.  Anne and I began our brainstorming for this version of the class knowing that Judith Butler would be giving the Flexner Lectures at Bryn Mawr this semester and wanting to feature her work on precarity and performativity.  However, I felt constrained by those categories and wanted to expand our sights to include lighter/brighter dimensions that could focus our attention on new opportunities for social justice.  Loving alliteration, I suggested "play" (to which Anne immediately agreed) and "potential."  As a natural scientist (my academic training is in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology), I have long loved the concept of "potential energy," which requires there to be a difference between two states and which can be used to drive change within a system.  To me, "potential" combines both power and possibility, both of which I want to nurture in our class.  See you soon!