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Class Struggle is the Name of the Game at Universities. It’s the Ethical Elephant in the Room <http://ethics.americananthro.org/class-struggle-is-the-name-of-the-game-at-universities-its-the-ethical-elephant-in-the-room/> Posted on June 28th, 2016 by Blog Administrator Brian McKenna Picture this. You have a Ph.D. in anthropology and are hired, as an adjunct, to teach an anthropology course on “colonialism, economic crisis, peasant struggles, nationalism, indigenous rights, independence movements, and struggles over development and underdevelopment.” That’s an actual job posting. The salary for the position is $3,413. A tenured faculty member may receive about $10,000 to teach the same course. Now answer this. How can you NOT talk about your own struggles when the subjects you are hired to teach on – oppression and struggle – apply to you? You are a flesh and blood native of Nacirema (“America” spelt backwards) standing before the students. You can provide insider testimony, as a key informant, about “the other.” And you are “the other.” You are a Ph.D. anthropologist who is actually working in the field. Many adjunct professors are afraid to speak about the elephant in the classroom. They are being monitored. They are under constant surveillance from customers (student smartphones and course evaluations), middle managers (teaching observations by Chairs), technicians (email monitoring by IT), executive officers (annual reviews read by Deans), and CEOs (Provosts and Presidents). They must be careful. They need that paycheck for food, housing, health care, even burial. At one university where I worked I was informed that, before I arrived, the department had to take up a collection for the funds to bury an adjunct professor after he died from a massive heart attack in his office. full: http://ethics.americananthro.org/class-struggle-is-the-name-of-the-game-at-universities-its-the-ethical-elephant-in-the-room/ -- Brian McKenna, Ph.D. Anthropologist Department of Behavioral Sciences CASL 4025 University of Michigan-Dearborn Dearborn, Michigan _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com