Bousquet's writing about the jobs crisis in the humanities has been unimpressive to me, precisely I think because he's far better at raging against things as they are than being the revolutionary he often positions himself as being.
And I think there's a value in works that you have to have read and understood Spivak to read, even (perhaps especially) if it's only to other readers of Spivak. The whole point of academia as currently constructed is to produce specialized communities of knowledge. Whether or not one agrees with this as a goal is another thing, but I don't expect to understand debates in legal theory, after all.
I agree that there can be value in works that you have to have Spivak as background to read; I just didn't think that the essays in question justified the investment.
Regarding the hope of universities to provide a 'downloadable education,' I've always thought it's funny how much money institutions are willing to waste on trying to go this direction without seeing any return on their investment. I'm several years behind on this, but before I went back to school I worked for various technology companies and at that point no one from an educational had managed to work out how to turn a profit using the internet or distance education or any of the other devices that aim at cutting out traditional teachers. I don't think much has changed: the accounting techniques have simply gotten better at hiding the losses
( ... )
Thanks for the detailed comments. I think you're coming through very clearly -- the position of a non-tenure-track academic is just terrible, and tenure-track jobs are as scarce as hen's teeth these days.
I like the point about fandom -- nobody wants to think she's a dupe, but you could see it not as being duped but as being treated as a valuable demographic and having an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the producers, and that's a good thing.
Thanks so much for posting this review! I love reading what you have to say about these subjects. I got over my reflexive rejection of anything containing Bernstein (bad classroom experience with him) to download the collection.
I hope it's worthwhile for you. It's very interesting how some professors can be articulate and engaging on paper but lose all that in person. Maybe it's the lack of time to plan.
Thanks for the link and the detailed review which allows us to hit the more valuable essays rather than slogging through the useless crap! "If the discussion is always starting from scratch, the participants with greater experience may drop away" is just a great summary of so many levels of discourse (like the recent complaints I've seen pop up about academic writing on fans that *gasp* does not reinvent the wheel but expects you to have a passing familiarity with the research! (like you, i think there's a time and a place to pull out the heavy duty theory, and while most of the time the same can be said without the heavy jargon, we do need a basis of ideas which we can reference or we'll start with the cave allegory every single time
( ... )
Comments 8
And I think there's a value in works that you have to have read and understood Spivak to read, even (perhaps especially) if it's only to other readers of Spivak. The whole point of academia as currently constructed is to produce specialized communities of knowledge. Whether or not one agrees with this as a goal is another thing, but I don't expect to understand debates in legal theory, after all.
Downloading now...
Reply
Reply
Reply
I like the point about fandom -- nobody wants to think she's a dupe, but you could see it not as being duped but as being treated as a valuable demographic and having an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the producers, and that's a good thing.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment