{"id":2862,"date":"2019-12-15T00:03:21","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T05:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2019-12-01T19:00:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T00:00:41","slug":"submitting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/2019\/12\/15\/submitting\/","title":{"rendered":"Submitting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Literal bed time reading.<\/p><\/div>\n

Recently, I have been re-reading Michel Houellebecq\u2019s 2015 novel Submission<\/i><\/a>. It\u2019s about a hedonistic literature professor who sleeps with his students, has the diet of a frat boy, and occasionally does \u201cwork\u201d researching an obscure (at least, to me) 19th-century French novelist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the man has tenure.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s employed at a public university which is not-so-subtly government run. In a surprise election, a conservative faction\u2014led by Muslims\u2014takes power. Polygamy is legalized. Women must wear veils. The main character is offered a more lucrative job in terms of pay and power. There\u2019s just one catch: to get this job (and<\/b> not lose his current), he must convert to Islam.<\/p>\n

The book was highly controversial because of its description of Islam and its (ironic?) timing of being released the same day as the Charlie Hebdo shooting<\/a>. To me, beyond any politically incorrect statements about religion, it lambasts academia (see below) and really makes me think about \u201ccompromise.\u201d Specifically, compromising personal beliefs and character. The climax of the story is whether or not this professor will give up his preferred lifestyle for more pay. Will let his bosses choose his wives for less teaching. Will fake being a social and religious conservative and take on a faith he doesn\u2019t believe in just for a check.<\/p>\n

Spoiler alert…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He \u201csubmits.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while that ending may be disappointing, it\u2019s really not at all surprising.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c<\/i><\/span>The academic study of literature leads basically nowhere, as we all know, unless you happen to be an especially gifted student, in which case it prepares you for a career teaching the academic study of literature\u2014it is, in other words, a rather farcical system that exists solely to replicate itself and yet manages to fail more than 95 percent of the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Have you ever been told by a colleague \u201cyou need to make sure your course evaluations are good no matter what<\/i>\u201d? Have you ever been told by a colleague \u201cI do things this way because otherwise I\u2019ll have low course evaluations<\/i>\u201d? Have you ever been told by a colleague, \u201cNow, we can\u2019t treat students like you did at [insert your previous institution].\u201d? (I\u2019m not sure what floors me more about that last statement. (1) The arrogance in \u201cknowing\u201d how these other places function, or (2) the ability to simultaneously and indirectly put down your own students and make someone with high standards feel bad for having high standards.). Have you ever \u201cwarned\u201d another (possibly pre-tenure) colleague of these types of realities, masking them under the veil of \u201cinstitutional culture\u201d? This is all submission; it is putting politics ahead of your own beliefs about teaching and learning and what\u2019s right for your students and your classroom. Because when you say and hear things like this, you realize teaching and learning and pushing students past their pre-conceived knowledge limits are not the top priorities; winning a popularity contest known to be biased<\/a> against groups like women and minorities<\/a> administered to a bunch of 18-21 year-olds in the most stressful week of their term to keep a dream of tenure alive is the bigger priority.<\/p>\n

Have you ever been told by a colleague before a meeting \u201cwe just let [insert another colleague\u2019s name] talk\u201d? Has a colleague told you, \u201c[insert colleague\u2019s name] is very mercurial\u2026we all just make sure to stay on their good side\u201d? Have you ever heard a colleague say \u201c[someone not even on a relevant committee] really needs to be consulted\u2014their support will determine whether or not [item in question] gets done\u201d? This too is submission. There\u2019s a difference between being polite and being meek; there\u2019s a difference in not speaking up because it\u2019s distracting or counter-productive to a cause, and not speaking up because of fear of repercussions. There\u2019s a difference between asking a colleague for support, and appealing to a title-less despot. And why would you do anything other than run when someone describes a colleague\u2014let alone one with apparently nontrivial power\u2014as mercurial?<\/p>\n

Are there real world parallels? Most definitely. But that\u2019s actually what makes this so sad. Academia is marketed as the \u201copposite\u201d of the real world. More than that, academia wants to see itself as \u201cbetter\u201d than the real world. It\u2019s partly why people on the market have identity crises thinking they may have to leave. Academia is the dream. It\u2019s more open-minded, more intellectual, there\u2019s more freedom of expression\u2026or is there? The fact that academia mirrors the real world\u2014especially in these ways\u2014is, if anything, utterly soul-crushing.<\/p>\n

One major difference, of course, between academia and the real world is tenure. You get tenure, and unless you\u2019re caught on video doing something illegal with a chicken, you\u2019re not going to be fired (and even then it\u2019ll take at least a year of investigations, during which time you\u2019ll still be paid but won\u2019t have to show up to work at all, and you\u2019ll likely get a golden parachute instead of a pink slip). Tenure gives you the luxury of speaking your mind, of putting right back before might.<\/p>\n

Or does it?<\/p>\n

Have you ever said to yourself \u201cOnce I get tenure, I\u2019m changing this\u201d? I don\u2019t care if \u201cthis\u201d is how you manage your classroom, or how you (finally) speak up in certain meetings. I\u2019ve heard just about every pre-tenure individual mention something they\u2019ll change once they no longer have to play the \u201cPlease, give me tenure\u201d game. But for those for whom this is relevant: once you got tenure, did you honestly just change your mind on how wrong \u201cit\u201d was, or did you instead think \u201cMeh\u2026it\u2019s not worth the effort\u201d? If the latter (which again, in my experience with my friends, appears to be the more common situation), then you too have submitted. You have allowed this system to make your square peg fit its round hole; you\u2019ve allowed others to remove any original or counter-“culture” thought you may have once had. And you\u2019ll probably point out that we\u2019re talking about people you\u2019ll be working with until retirement or it\u2019s a small town or you\u2019re hoping to get promoted to admin and need to not burn bridges or something like that; you\u2019ll mention that it wasn\u2019t that<\/b> big of a deal in the first place. You\u2019ll talk about other fish you want to fry (but realistically we both know you won\u2019t).<\/p>\n

I encourage every single once of us\u2014pre or post tenure\u2014to think about all the times we\u2019ve submitted and all the times we\u2019ve encouraged (however subtly) others to submit. <\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\u201c<\/i><\/span>It may well be impossible for people who have lived and prospered under a given social system to imagine the point of view of those who feel it offers them nothing, and who can contemplate its destruction without any particular dismay.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m not advocating close-mindedness. Be open to new ideas, including if not in particular to those that are foreign or initially abrasive to you. Be respectful of colleagues, especially those who have been there longer and know how the system works. Remember, though, that \u201cculture\u201d is a plate of bacteria; it\u2019s not a politically correct rewording of either \u201ctradition\u201d or \u201cgroupthink\u201d and you don\u2019t need to conform. It\u2019s so sad to see a system that so vocally calls itself \u201cfree-thinking\u201d actually be so stifling; it\u2019s depressing to see intelligent, well-intentioned people lie (by omission) and silence themselves because they cannot resist the dangling carrot (of \u201ctenure\u201d) that\u2019s being waved over their heads by \u201cmercurial\u201d megalomaniacs threatened by change and by those who are simply different.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also not endorsing anarchy. Every team\u2014departments, committees, organizations and classrooms are all teams\u2014needs a leader. But others without the title of \u201cleader\u201d, even if they\u2019re not crazy about the one with the title, need to respect and not undermine the leader [don\u2019t worry, in most departments and organizations and classrooms, leaders change with regularity]. There should not be these games of \u201cThis person is the chair, but this other person basically runs the department.\u201d If Dr. X is not on the committee in question, then Dr. X should not determine what that committee does. No one should need kid-gloves. And no one should be afraid to express an opinion, voice a concern, or ask a question\u2014regardless of the opinion\u2019s or person\u2019s popularity. Silencing or even vetting people and their views is one of the most basic manifestations of censorship. Glance over any history book, and I doubt you\u2019d want to mimic any of the societies that have endorsed that.<\/p>\n

In an earlier post,<\/a> I said that if something\u2019s worth fighting for then it\u2019s worth sacrifice. I stand by that comment and to some extent its converse. Even if I disagree, when I see someone else put something of theirs on the line\u2014be it money, or reputation, or job\u2014for their opinion or beliefs or way of life, I respect that. I\u2019ve certainly \u201cpaid the price\u201d for my own beliefs in my career\u2014examples could probably fill another blog post.<\/p>\n

You might think as I bring this to an end that I\u2019ll return to Houellebecq (with, or without, a quote) and how \u201cthe profession\u201d and the research and the students and the pay were worth the sacrifice of personal life preferences.<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

Why? Because the book wasn\u2019t called Sacrifice<\/i>. It was called Submission<\/i>. There\u2019s a huge difference.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t sacrifice something you do not value or do not have in the first place. And the professor in that book didn\u2019t have morals or beliefs or even strong habits to put on the line. He didn\u2019t care about anything other than his daily comfort in the form of money and tenure, which he was NOT going to cede at any cost. It didn\u2019t matter that he totally disagreed with his colleagues, didn\u2019t hold any of the same ideals as his bosses. It didn\u2019t matter that he would just go through the motions and regurgitate what he thought others more in charge wanted to hear.<\/p>\n

It just wasn\u2019t worth it.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c<\/i><\/span>I maintained a tactical silence. When you maintain a tactical silence\u2026[people] talk. People like to be listened to, as every researcher knows–every researcher, every writer, every spy.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Think about that. Think about the difference between submission and sacrifice and whether your actions (or lack thereof) are in one category or the other. Think about the limits to which we\u2019re willing to go to for tenure, for graduation, for I really-don\u2019t-care. What\u2019s more important\u2014keeping a job (in academia), or keeping some sense of self and morality? Speaking your mind, or toeing the (current) line? Is it really the hours and the pay that you like, or the students and your colleagues? Do you feel like you can speak your truth, or do you have blood in your mouth from biting your tongue all week? They say to hate the game and not the player, but how much are you willing to ante up?<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I have been re-reading Michel Houellebecq\u2019s 2015 novel Submission. It\u2019s about a hedonistic literature professor who sleeps with his students, has the diet of a frat boy, and occasionally does \u201cwork\u201d researching an obscure (at least, to me) 19th-century … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,197,41,75,65,24,1,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bias","category-books","category-elections","category-math-in-the-media","category-teaching-evaluations","category-tenure","category-uncategorized","category-work-life-balance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3c1jI-Ka","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2870,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/2870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}