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| Don't be this guy...just be Jenny. :) |
If there is one sure fire way to get under Olivia Gehrich's skin, it is to wax poetic about how much more lucrative your major is than mine. The "Major" battles are common in undergraduate programs, because everyone is trying to prove that he/she works harder or is more useful than another department. Unfortunately, this hierarchical system does not end at the BA level.
As Comp Tale 23 points out, dissension and pettiness exist in MA and PhD programs, as well. The literature PhD caught grief from another literature professor about taking a job in the rhet/comp department. Not only is there criticism across the fields, but also within them.
Tale 24 shares another problem that credentials can create. The anonymous author discusses the 4Cs conference--which was held in Indianapolis last year, by the way! :)--and how the "Big Names" dominated an off topic discussion, yet the author was criticized for not being poignant right away.
Unfortunately, this pretentious behavior is something I have seen a lot during internships, conferences, and just in class. It makes for very uncomfortable interactions and causes me a bit of paranoia. While I want to contribute to the discussion, I never want to seem like one of those narcissistic jerks I've worked with before. Basically, that self-indulgent behavior is bad all the way around.
This section on colleagues seems to get at a lot of the root problems that I have already experienced in some way along the line: pretentious people, being the person who doesn't know something in a crowd, and the hierarchy of departments and degrees. Maybe it's pride or competitive spirits or maybe people are just rude, but in any case, working with colleagues will not always be good or fruitful. There may not be a foolproof solution, but I just try to stay humble and admit when I don't know something, much like the Tale 17 story. You just have to hope the good experiences outnumber the bad and try to be the best version of yourself.
J-Lo was on to something:
"Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got
I'm still, I'm still Jenny from the block
Used to have a little, now I have a lot
No matter where I go, I know where I came from".
-O
First, I love that you're using images in your post---gives me ideas!
ReplyDeleteSecond, I agree with your thoughts about colleague "pettiness." I like to think that the academy--a place for exchanging ideas, being tolerant, and making new meaning--is free from silly, juvenile nitpicking and bullying, but humans make up the academy. So it goes.
I'm not saying that people aren't justified in how they feel about another colleague, and people certainly don't have to like or prefer their colleagues. But, I believe in civility and kindness and respect. Those should be ubiquitous concepts in the academy, but often we humans revert to our more primal ways of dealing with controversy: gossip, passive aggressiveness, just plain meanness.
I have certainly had cross feelings about colleagues before. Not that this always helps me change my mind about the person, but sometimes trying to imagine their struggles and reality, and trying to imagine them as a person who has feelings (feelings that can be hurt) helps me re-see that person in a different way that usually makes me more sympathetic to and tolerant of their idiosyncrasies. And I usually make a friend :)
Because MA was interdisciplinary, my thesis committee had to consist of two faculty members from my concentration (Literature) and one from another discipline (I was talking about television narratives, so my third member was from the Communications department). As we were ending my defense and everyone was congratulating me because my thesis was accepted, the communications faculty member told me that I switch to communications for my PhD and my committee chair joked, "Yeah, because he really wants to coach football..."
ReplyDeleteHe was clearly joking and the two are friends, so there wasn't any ill will, but it underscores the kind of disrespect that we see between disciplines.
ACTUALLY I have a better example of this!
For my MA assistantship, I had to take a teaching practicum. Because my program was interdisciplinary, the TAs were from a number of disciplines, not just English. The instructor for that class was a sociology professor and she despised literature. Her freshman lit prof must've given her a C or something and she still holds a grudge. She would make backhanded comments about literary studies or FYC, insinuating that the type of research we do isn't "real" research.
As a student in her class, it was extremely disheartening to essentially be told that what I'm planning on doing with my life isn't real academics.
So yeah, just be respectful!
We'll be reading an article soon that talks about disciplinary differences in writing, and I think they exist in conference behavior and how people interact/challenge each other, too. Something to think about!
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