Sadly, I couldn't find a word to disagree with in your post. I encountered the same problems during my stint in college teaching, but also, to my surprise in related fields. The curator of a small museum promised her modest collection to the museum when she died; as a result they took very good care of her. But she never bought anything for the museum that might overshadow the pieces in her collection. As a result, the museum, which could have had a growing very respectable collection in a particular area, had a second-rate collection not worth the money spent on it.
I spent 3 years as a researcher at a European university, one of these jobs that renowned professors dole out because they land a government contract with attached juicy fees. I can testify that throat-cutting was widely practiced in the research ranks too. Understandable. When you're on a temporary contract, with no guarantee of renewal, and you plan to make a career out of this (with maybe an elusive prof spot somewhere along the way), every other researcher is a potential threat. And the prof holding the contract is an almighty god.
I have many stories similar to Lev's. Some are in my current in progress novel about the tumultuous and historic San Francisco State college strrke from November 6,1968 to March 21 where, led by Bllack Students Union and the Third World Liberation front of Asian-Ameriican, Latino/Latin x,and Natiive Ameriican student groups, 14,000 students with significan union support especiallyt faculty support especially from the AFT teachers union, and hundreds of communiity supporters,'s fought head to head with police on an almost daily basis, and won the nation's first Department of Black Studies and an entire School of Ethnic Studies that celebrates our 50th anniversary in 2019 with panels, film showings, classroom talks, and poetry readings.
Our strike, despite over 700 arrrests and a plethora of student expulsions and teacher firings, changed the face of higher educaton and set off a tsunami of chang with scorres of Black Studies and another Ethnc Studies, along with Woman's Studies, Midd-east studies, and in some cases even Labor Studies. IT IS THIS FIRM PRESENCE IN US COLLEGES THAT IS NOW UNDER ATTACK AS ITS LEGACY HAS BEEN APPEARING IN HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS FOR AT LEAST 20 YEARS, with literature classes featuring "Writers of Color,BIOPEC, DIVERSE) all pallid insipid appelaton for many of the greatesst writers in the WORLD inclung Toni Morrisons, Richard Wright, Pablo Neruda, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Isbel Allende, Juan Rulfo, Derek W, Laalront, Gwendolyn Brooks,Martin Espada, Carlos Fuentes, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe,Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker,Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Toni CadeBambara, GracePaley, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Janice Mirikitani, Gail Tsukiyama, Toshio Mori, Amy Tam, David Hwang, Mohammed Darwish,Lorraine Hansbuy, Roddy Doyle, Witola Symborska, Alan Ginsberg, Sterlling Brown, Ishmael Reed, Amos Tutola,John Edgar Wideman and man many others.
One more point. Many universities have done awnderful lob ofpublishing international wirters of maor. talent. Many concentrate on different parts of the world. The University of Arkansas and TheUniversity of Texas and Syracuse University all publish Middle Eastern Literature (, and,recently,Yale). Michigan State published Eastern European lit under its ANVIL imprint. The University of Virginia publishes Caribbean Lit. U of Pittsburgh publishes Latin American Lit. The University of Nebraska has an African Poetry seriess. The University of Hawaai publishes Chinese fiction writers and poets. University of Berkley,California published Latino and Middle EasternWriters. TheUniversity of Washington publishes Asian American classcs and some contemporary works of Asian writers.
The University of Arizona does outstanding work in publishilng contemporary NativeAmerican writerswhich they have doneoovertwentyyears.
There are pros and cons to the American academy. But perhaps the worst con is the cowardice of hundreds if not thousands of colllege professors, new and old, who have not brought in for the deepin ofng theirstudent s' dLlassion for literature and LEARNING THE EMOTIONAL LHISTORIES AND CULTURE of our INTERNATIONAL SISTERS AND BROTHERS. There are too many teaches, for example who STILL teach American Lt Classs as they been taught for tweenty years - as a big jar of literary mayonaaise all white( but middle class white - you will seldom find John Beecher great poem book sequenceREPO TO THESTOCKHOLDERS or ChesterHimes searing novel of race and labor IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO or Denise Giardenias masterful multiBplevoice novel about West Virginia miners, or BH Fairchilldl'sl poetry book The Art of The Lathe. this is also why many universities have Schools of Businees, but very few have Schools of Labor. Yet college have always prattled " We strive to present all sidess." YEAH, RIGHT. IF YOU COME TO BROOKLYN, THERE'S A BRIDGE ID LIKE TO SELL YOU.
The bit at the end was exactly what I was thinking before I got to it.
I’m a private teacher, with a music education degree, so I’m not sure if that makes me an academic.
But I’m embarrassed reading about this phenomenon of academics not wanting to help their students find out about possibilities for enrichment, because they’re more concerned about the turf thing.
A variation of this that may be a little esoteric-- I told a private teacher of mine that i had been frustrated in college that the music professors were woefully ignorant about various musicians who had advanced the medium of improvisation. Our studies in improvisation were decades behind the field.
He told me this was because academics have to protect their embattled fiefdoms from the encroaching of music they didn’t understand. His take on it was actually empathetic toward them, even though he agreed with me. But that is probably because he’s a Buddhist.
Having been immersed in academia for many years at different times, my compassion wore thin but it helped me write well-reviewed mysteries: https://www.levraphael.com/mystery.html
Yes...depending on the venue, the engagement of the group, and how much energy you have to work the room. It can be harder, I've found, to speak to five than to five hundred.
Sadly, I couldn't find a word to disagree with in your post. I encountered the same problems during my stint in college teaching, but also, to my surprise in related fields. The curator of a small museum promised her modest collection to the museum when she died; as a result they took very good care of her. But she never bought anything for the museum that might overshadow the pieces in her collection. As a result, the museum, which could have had a growing very respectable collection in a particular area, had a second-rate collection not worth the money spent on it.
Isn't that sad?
I spent 3 years as a researcher at a European university, one of these jobs that renowned professors dole out because they land a government contract with attached juicy fees. I can testify that throat-cutting was widely practiced in the research ranks too. Understandable. When you're on a temporary contract, with no guarantee of renewal, and you plan to make a career out of this (with maybe an elusive prof spot somewhere along the way), every other researcher is a potential threat. And the prof holding the contract is an almighty god.
The NYTBR said about the series: "The Borgias would not be out of place at the State University of Michigan." :-)
I have many stories similar to Lev's. Some are in my current in progress novel about the tumultuous and historic San Francisco State college strrke from November 6,1968 to March 21 where, led by Bllack Students Union and the Third World Liberation front of Asian-Ameriican, Latino/Latin x,and Natiive Ameriican student groups, 14,000 students with significan union support especiallyt faculty support especially from the AFT teachers union, and hundreds of communiity supporters,'s fought head to head with police on an almost daily basis, and won the nation's first Department of Black Studies and an entire School of Ethnic Studies that celebrates our 50th anniversary in 2019 with panels, film showings, classroom talks, and poetry readings.
Our strike, despite over 700 arrrests and a plethora of student expulsions and teacher firings, changed the face of higher educaton and set off a tsunami of chang with scorres of Black Studies and another Ethnc Studies, along with Woman's Studies, Midd-east studies, and in some cases even Labor Studies. IT IS THIS FIRM PRESENCE IN US COLLEGES THAT IS NOW UNDER ATTACK AS ITS LEGACY HAS BEEN APPEARING IN HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS FOR AT LEAST 20 YEARS, with literature classes featuring "Writers of Color,BIOPEC, DIVERSE) all pallid insipid appelaton for many of the greatesst writers in the WORLD inclung Toni Morrisons, Richard Wright, Pablo Neruda, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Isbel Allende, Juan Rulfo, Derek W, Laalront, Gwendolyn Brooks,Martin Espada, Carlos Fuentes, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe,Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker,Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Toni CadeBambara, GracePaley, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Janice Mirikitani, Gail Tsukiyama, Toshio Mori, Amy Tam, David Hwang, Mohammed Darwish,Lorraine Hansbuy, Roddy Doyle, Witola Symborska, Alan Ginsberg, Sterlling Brown, Ishmael Reed, Amos Tutola,John Edgar Wideman and man many others.
One more point. Many universities have done awnderful lob ofpublishing international wirters of maor. talent. Many concentrate on different parts of the world. The University of Arkansas and TheUniversity of Texas and Syracuse University all publish Middle Eastern Literature (, and,recently,Yale). Michigan State published Eastern European lit under its ANVIL imprint. The University of Virginia publishes Caribbean Lit. U of Pittsburgh publishes Latin American Lit. The University of Nebraska has an African Poetry seriess. The University of Hawaai publishes Chinese fiction writers and poets. University of Berkley,California published Latino and Middle EasternWriters. TheUniversity of Washington publishes Asian American classcs and some contemporary works of Asian writers.
The University of Arizona does outstanding work in publishilng contemporary NativeAmerican writerswhich they have doneoovertwentyyears.
There are pros and cons to the American academy. But perhaps the worst con is the cowardice of hundreds if not thousands of colllege professors, new and old, who have not brought in for the deepin ofng theirstudent s' dLlassion for literature and LEARNING THE EMOTIONAL LHISTORIES AND CULTURE of our INTERNATIONAL SISTERS AND BROTHERS. There are too many teaches, for example who STILL teach American Lt Classs as they been taught for tweenty years - as a big jar of literary mayonaaise all white( but middle class white - you will seldom find John Beecher great poem book sequenceREPO TO THESTOCKHOLDERS or ChesterHimes searing novel of race and labor IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO or Denise Giardenias masterful multiBplevoice novel about West Virginia miners, or BH Fairchilldl'sl poetry book The Art of The Lathe. this is also why many universities have Schools of Businees, but very few have Schools of Labor. Yet college have always prattled " We strive to present all sidess." YEAH, RIGHT. IF YOU COME TO BROOKLYN, THERE'S A BRIDGE ID LIKE TO SELL YOU.
The bit at the end was exactly what I was thinking before I got to it.
I’m a private teacher, with a music education degree, so I’m not sure if that makes me an academic.
But I’m embarrassed reading about this phenomenon of academics not wanting to help their students find out about possibilities for enrichment, because they’re more concerned about the turf thing.
A variation of this that may be a little esoteric-- I told a private teacher of mine that i had been frustrated in college that the music professors were woefully ignorant about various musicians who had advanced the medium of improvisation. Our studies in improvisation were decades behind the field.
He told me this was because academics have to protect their embattled fiefdoms from the encroaching of music they didn’t understand. His take on it was actually empathetic toward them, even though he agreed with me. But that is probably because he’s a Buddhist.
I suppose he came from a place of compassion.
I’m also able to muster up some compassion for these academics. But it doesn’t make their behavior any less fucked up, or any less selfish.
Having been immersed in academia for many years at different times, my compassion wore thin but it helped me write well-reviewed mysteries: https://www.levraphael.com/mystery.html
And I just published this satirical essay: https://medium.com/the-monocle-of-higher-ed/welcome-new-professor-9ac92bb20cda
Yeah, if I were in your shoes I’m sure my compassion would have worn thin too.
Yes, academia is difficult and can be treacherous! Best wishes!
Janet Ruth Heller
website is https://www.janetruthheller.com
Yes...depending on the venue, the engagement of the group, and how much energy you have to work the room. It can be harder, I've found, to speak to five than to five hundred.