Mehr Ermahnungen

Justifications and admonitions in the 'Academia sucks and I want OUT' department: Wenn man die Entscheidung getroffen hat, auf das akademische Leben zu verzichten, braucht man Mut. Denn die Verlockung ist immer da. Daher ein paar Beispiele, aus dem Listserv meiner "bald-zu-sein" ehemaligen Fakultät. Zweifellos versuche ich, mich selber zu rechtfertigen sowie zu bestätigen. Bitte seien Sie der Richter: sind die folgenden Themen reiner Unsinn? Oder bin ich nur ein engstirniger Benause? Oder PC/PK schlechthin?


Ausschnitt 1:

Call for Papers
"History and Power Across American Borders"
Graduate Student Conference at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Saturday, November 4, 2006

"Workers' Movements in the U.S. Confront Imperialism: The Twentieth-Century
Experience"

The UMass-Amherst History Department and Graduate History Association are sponsoring the Third Annual University of Massachusetts graduate history conference: "History and Power Across American Borders."

In a world in which the United States and the nations of the Americas are increasingly politically, economically and culturally connected to each other and nation-states throughout the world, it is imperative that historians research and reveal the myriad ways in which "America," defined broadly, was constructed from its constituent parts. Often that construction occurred through projections of political, economic and cultural power across real or imagined borders and boundaries. This conference will provide a space for presenting and participating graduate students (especially from the Northeast)to engage in a discussion regarding the historical importance of power(s) across borders. [UM HIMMELS WILLEN! THE POOR MOTHER TONGUE!]

We welcome papers on a variety of topics relevant to this conference's theme, including (but not limited to):

Migration
Trade and economic exchange
Foreign policy
History of borderlands
Transnational social movements
Religion and religious movements
Colonial encounters
Labor
Imperialism and the cultures of empire
Intellectual history

(etc.)

{"Etc." means "and the rest." What exactly, pray tell, is "the rest," here? Well, perhaps it is best that I remain unenlightened.}

Ausschnitt 2:

Subject: instructors for --------- City College

We were wondering if you might be able to recommend someone who could teach our “Introduction to Women’s Studies” and “Global Women’s Issues” courses at -------- City College. When one of my colleagues informed me of this need, I immediately thought of someone who might be involved in the Cross-Cultural Women’s Program at ------. Because the emphasis in these classes is interdisciplinary, however, the instructor need not be trained specifically in history.

Verily, the facts reek for themselves. Your taxpayer dollars at work, folks.

"schlechtes Glück" gibt es nicht; man sagt bloss "Unglück." Ganz logisch.
flehen, flehte, gefleht -- to implore
fliehen, floh, geflohen -- to flee