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•URGENT:
Support Job Security for College
Teachers
•NO,
YOU CAN'T HAVE MY
JOB
•MINIMUM
DEMANDS
•Response
to article on South Asia
search
•i
lend you my
name
•R-E-S-P-E-C-T
please
be polite, not disruptive, at south asia
job talks to find my
replacement
(A
letter sent on 2/4/07):
Dear
students and other friends,
Just
a note to inform you of an upcoming job
talk, probably part of the ongoing search
to replace me, this Friday (please see
"Open
Searches").
I have not been asked to give a talk, nor
have I been informed of this (I had to
pull this information off the website).
For the past year at least, I have not
been kept informed of what is going on
(for reasons obvious now).
As
you know, I would welcome a colleague, so
I don't have to do all the work, teaching
all the South Asian religion classes. If
the History Department wants to hire
someone to teach post-colonial theory, as
Satadru Sen used to do, that would be
wonderful. The students would indeed have
more choice (although Hindu students may
or may not appreciate an instructor who
regards religion as [nothing but?]
a "historically
constituted category, embedded in power
relations.")
It seems to me, however, that we need
someone with this speaker's specialty, and
her course offerings would complement mine
very nicely. So, under the right
circumstances, I may endorse her
employment, but not at my expense. (Please
see "call
me old-fashioned").
For
my views, see www.jeromebauer.com.
Please support Lecturer's
Policy Reform,
not just for me, but for all Teaching
Faculty here and everywhere. This is
becoming quite urgent.
Please
do not disrupt this talk, that would
reflect badly on all of us, and this
University, and would be in every way
counterproductive. Please be polite and
civil, and give the speaker, and this
search process, the benefit of the
doubt.
Thank
you!
Jerome
Bauer
Sacred
Cows? The Politics of Religion in Colonial
North India
Catherine
Adcock, PhD Candidate, University of
Chicago
Friday,
February 9, 2007, 11:00 am, Cohen Lounge,
Busch Hall room 113
Catherine
Adcock will receive her PhD from the
University of Chicago in the History of
Religions in the summer. Her dissertation,
titled "Modern Religion and Political
Culture: The Arya Samaj in Nothern India,
1877-1927," focuses on religion as a
historically constituted category,
embedded in colonial power relations in
order to illuminate the contribution to
the Indian nationalist imaginary of an
organization which scholars commonly class
with contemporary organizations for the
Hindu right.
Sponsored
by the Religious Studies program. For more
information please contact Sarah Massey at
935-8677 or smassey@wustl.edu.
2/10/07
To
All My Students, Alumni, and Other
Friends:
I
was not able to attend the job talk
described above, due to a conflicting
doctor's appointment. I am hearing about
it from my students. Just a few
observations, while we await the next job
talk in this series, and the outcome of
our effort to reform the ambiguous and
deeply flawed Lecturer's
Policy.
First,
it is a discourtesy for me not to be
invited to give a talk in this series,
even if I had not formally
applied
for the job,
as I did (under protest).
This is most inappropriate. Perhaps the
Committee wants someone who thinks as they
do, instead of someone who is open and
fair to all points of view. Or perhaps my
Lecturer's job is being renewed without
troubling me to defend it (as it should
be). We would all like to know.
Second,
it is ironic, but not unexpected, that
someone taking a "Neo-Marxist,"
"post-colonial," "post-structuralist"
stance ("focus[ing]
on religion as a historically constituted
category, embedded in colonial power
relations..."),
would be the first to cross
a [virtual] picket
line.
I have nothing at all against Marxists,
but I much prefer those who actively
support worker's rights (including the
living wage, and Lecturer's Policy
reform). I want to know the candidates'
record on these issues, not theory but
action. (Please see "No,
You Can't Have My
Job,"
and "My
Courses Are My Intellectual Property, Not
Yours").
It
is important to remember that this sort of
approach is the PC view, the ideologically
orthodox perspective, in this discipline
at this time. I remember having many
conversations with fellow graduate
students in South Asian studies, who just
wanted to hand in their dissertations and
get out of this business. They asked me,
in frustration, "What is
post-structuralism, anyway, and how do I
write that way? (because you have to be a
post-structuralist to get your degree)." I
have learned to watch my back around
people who genuinely think this way, but
not every graduate student who employs
these cliches, or this research
methodology, is a true believer in this
particular orientalist perspective, or a
power
reductionist..
Let us hope not. This is only one
potentially valid approach, not the only
one. So let's give these PhD candidates
the benefit of the doubt.
(By
the way, "Neo-Marxist" and
"post-structuralist" are often used
interchangeably and imprecisely; these are
"big box" words, like "fundamentalist" or
"postmodern" or "New Age," an interesting
topic for sociologists of knowledge, and
students of the cultural politics of
academia, to pursue),
Just
in case you haven't noticed, the issue
really is, what kind of Religious Studies
Program will we have here in the next few
years, a "religion-friendly" one, or the
opposite? Should Religious Studies be
annexed by, or under the controlling
influence, of so-called "cultural studies"
or "area studies"? Let the tuition-paying
students and alumni help us decide.
(Please see "Questions
About Religious Studies: Science Marches
On?")
Sincerely
and respectfully,
Jerome
Bauer, proud to be Lecturer in Religious
Studies for the last eight
years
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