Re the “professional performance of political engagement” - I am reminded of a story a friend told me just earlier this week. At a certain London PhD program involving some 50 candidates in decolonial studies an e-mail was circulated suggesting they all gather for a BDS meeting later in the week. Just one person accepted the invitation. Just what exactly are the rest of these students doing? A professional performance of political engagement it would seem.
Oh god yes Catherine: the right to pursue interests out of curiosity is turned to dust. That line pierces the heart of an academic manqué such as myself. And as for anger, well, anyone who’s paying attention would have to be full of rage wouldn’t they? There’s a lot of rage in that Creedence classic. As James Baldwin put it so beautifully, “The rage of the disesteemed is personally fruitless, but it is also absolutely inevitable; this rage, so generally discounted, so little understood even among the people whose daily bread it is, is one of the things that makes history.” (Notes of a Native Son)
Heard you on Bad Faith podcast again! Terrific interview. The point of faculty having a union and thinking of themselves as workers is not lost on us in the CSU. We have a union, but it is extremely liberal/democratic and actively punishes dissent. The rank and file are excluded. Some of us started a rank and file org to challenge the leadership and fight to democratize the union and we are already having success. But I have 2 additional goals: (1) Extend our efforts to collaborate with R&F of other campus unions (e.g., staff, grad students, facilities) and (2) Directly take away the power of the administration/PMC by capping their numbers and funding. Also make CSU FREE tuition. We'll see how it goes! Your talk on Bad Faith really inspired me!
Thinking you could very easily write an in depth bio for your Dad; I’d read it. Kind of amazing really, imagining everything that he must have had to be endure, experience, participate in, overcome, accomplish and maintain, even for the chance opportunity to present as actual possibility for any of us to reply to this post.
i would appreciate it. i never had the wherewithal to begin to come to terms with my father's position and reading about Catherine's father is cathartic
As an Iranian-American, all of this 🙌🏽 Thank you Catherine.
you are so welcome, I'm glad this was meaningful to you. So many of us live this
Re the “professional performance of political engagement” - I am reminded of a story a friend told me just earlier this week. At a certain London PhD program involving some 50 candidates in decolonial studies an e-mail was circulated suggesting they all gather for a BDS meeting later in the week. Just one person accepted the invitation. Just what exactly are the rest of these students doing? A professional performance of political engagement it would seem.
"Cabinets of curiosity were kept by Enlightenment dandies, men of science and philosophy would collected weird stuff."
cue a montage newton trying to find the philosopher's stone, turn lead into gold, and stick a needle into his eye to learn about optics
Oh god yes Catherine: the right to pursue interests out of curiosity is turned to dust. That line pierces the heart of an academic manqué such as myself. And as for anger, well, anyone who’s paying attention would have to be full of rage wouldn’t they? There’s a lot of rage in that Creedence classic. As James Baldwin put it so beautifully, “The rage of the disesteemed is personally fruitless, but it is also absolutely inevitable; this rage, so generally discounted, so little understood even among the people whose daily bread it is, is one of the things that makes history.” (Notes of a Native Son)
Heard you on Bad Faith podcast again! Terrific interview. The point of faculty having a union and thinking of themselves as workers is not lost on us in the CSU. We have a union, but it is extremely liberal/democratic and actively punishes dissent. The rank and file are excluded. Some of us started a rank and file org to challenge the leadership and fight to democratize the union and we are already having success. But I have 2 additional goals: (1) Extend our efforts to collaborate with R&F of other campus unions (e.g., staff, grad students, facilities) and (2) Directly take away the power of the administration/PMC by capping their numbers and funding. Also make CSU FREE tuition. We'll see how it goes! Your talk on Bad Faith really inspired me!
Thinking you could very easily write an in depth bio for your Dad; I’d read it. Kind of amazing really, imagining everything that he must have had to be endure, experience, participate in, overcome, accomplish and maintain, even for the chance opportunity to present as actual possibility for any of us to reply to this post.
Historically significant: your Dad.
i would appreciate it. i never had the wherewithal to begin to come to terms with my father's position and reading about Catherine's father is cathartic
This is just a beautiful essay. Deeply personal and wonderfully political. Thank you for writing this.