[ANPPOM-Lista] "Tenho um dos melhores empregos da academia. Eis porque vou meter o pé."

[Carlos Palombini]

I had read all of the doom-and-gloom think pieces
<http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/04/there_are_no_academic_jobs_and_getting_a_ph_d_will_make_you_into_a_horrible.html>
about the status of the American university system, of course, but it felt
like none of that applied to me. I had a full-time position, secured early
in my career — the possibilities were endless. Although a legal historian
by training, I viewed myself as beyond such simple labels: I was a
*cultural* historian, in command of critical theory and immersed in the
latest and best work on gender and sexuality. Activism informed my
teaching; I exhorted my students to transcend and transform the status quo.
I coached my university's legal debate team to a national championship bid
and served on nearly a dozen PhD and EdD dissertation committees. I
launched several digital humanities initiatives and curated a museum
exhibit about professional wrestling, attracting mainstream attention
<http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/arlington/headlines/20150824-how-did-crowd-react-to-von-erichs-uta-exhibit-zooms-in-on-fans-enthusiasm.ece>
in the process.

I had not just survived the academic *Hunger Games —* I had emerged
triumphant.
------------------------------

Then it all began to fall apart.

First there was sniping, from peers and administrators. Critiques of my
teaching and debate team coaching, often made through backchannels and
delivered to me secondhand or not at all, centered on my easygoing personal
style (He doesn't use the title "doctor!" He teaches in T-shirts!), my
effusive student evaluations (If he's pleasing them, he must be doing
something wrong!), and my relatively calm demeanor (If a young academic
doesn't seem stressed beyond capacity, he's not working hard enough!).

Then there was official pushback and politics. A proposal to create
interactive teaching materials from archival materials was derided as
bewildering and gimmicky. I learned that the public outreach in which I
engaged — that is, publishing in popular magazines — had ruffled certain
feathers. I watched administrators and donors who had championed my career
be shown the door, or at least swept under the rug, by an incoming
presidential administration — proving that the autonomy I had imagined upon
entering academia really was an illusion.

Finally, I realized not even students were too invested. When my best
friend visited my campus to give a talk, he observed one of my lectures.
I've got many shortcomings as an academic, but lecturing isn't one of them.
I've been on TV, radio, podcasts — you name it
<http://www.oliverbateman.com/in-the-media/>. By professor standards, which
admittedly aren't that high, I could rock the mic. But while my friend sat
there, semi-engrossed in the lecture, he found himself increasingly
distracted by the student in front of him.  That student, who like all
in-state students was paying $50 per lecture to hear me talk, was watching
season one of *Breaking Bad* <http://twitpic.com/cdgxj3>. In a class with
no attendance grade, where the lectures were at least halfway decent, he
was watching *Breaking Bad*.

Later during that same visit, my friend asked me, in total sincerity, "Why
aren't you doing something meaningful with your life?"

"This *is *important," I insisted. But there was no passion behind my
words. I was a priest who had lost his faith, performing the sacraments
without any sense of their importance.

Op-eds about the failings of higher education are like certain
unmentionable body parts: Everybody's got one. Professors are or aren't afraid
of their liberal students
<http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid>, adjuncts
are underpaid and exploited
<https://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-teaching-class/>, grade inflation
is rampant
<http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-grade-inflation/373251/>,
college graduates can't find jobs
<http://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/05/millennial-college-graduates-young-educated-jobless-335821.html>,
student loan debt will doom us all
<http://www.sanders.senate.gov/college-costs>.

But these are just parts of a larger and even more troubling story. After
spending four years working in higher education, trying to effect piecemeal
improvements, I'm convinced that the picture is more dire than most people
realize: There's no one single problem to fix or villain to defeat, no
buzzword-y panacea that will get things back to normal.

And so now, after devoting nearly 20 years to this life, I've decided to
walk away. I'm quitting my tenure-track position; by May of next year, I'll
be out of this side of academia forever.

Here are some departing thoughts.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/8/9261531/professor-quitting-job

-- 
carlos palombini, ph.d. (dunelm)
professor de musicologia ufmg
professor colaborador ppgm-unirio
www.proibidao.org
ufmg.academia.edu/CarlosPalombini <http://goo.gl/KMV98I>
www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Palombini2
scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=YLmXN7AAAAAJ
-------------- Próxima Parte ----------
Um anexo em HTML foi limpo...
URL: <http://www.listas.unicamp.br/pipermail/anppom-l/attachments/20150911/f19d5638/attachment.html>