Databite No. 146: Moving Through Molasses: On Intellectual labor, Productivity, and Belonging

In this conversation, 2020-2021 Faculty Fellows Meredith D. Clark and Shaka McGlotten reflect on their experience at Data & Society during a global pandemic. Moving through molasses invokes the challenges of adapting to the existential and emotional fatigue of incessant telepresence interfaces, performative intellectual labor, and the need to balance a professional career amidst ongoing collapse. The talk offers insights on how Queer, Black scholars can move through institutions without forsaking authenticity. It makes a case for productivity refusal as a generative tactic for self-preservation. Molasses as a decelerator medicine for the slow, somatic surrender our bodies need. Molasses also alludes to the thick absurdity of online discourse with its noxious disinformation feeds and the inevitable co-optation of Black vernacular content creation. Despite these traps, one can cultivate community in platform mediated digital spaces. Often, the virtual sense of belonging is enough to get by.