More on unions, strikes, and international waves of industrial action
I was remiss in my last post in not mentioning that there is also an ongoing strike of adjunct faculty at the New School, an institution where 87% of the faculty are part-time adjuncts rather than full-time permanent staff. It’s ironic that I forgot about the New School, because I have often likened it to my current institution, Goldsmiths. I suspect for Goldsmiths, that would be a positive comparison. The UKHE landscape is considerably less institutionally diverse than the US university landscape. Most institutions are either akin to flagship state schools with a full complement of professional schools, or urban comprehensives, albeit it with PhD programs. (There is also a pressure for institutions to appear similar to each other. This is to everyone’s detriment, since UK institutions aren’t able to lean as much into what they each uniquely offer because there is a powerful sense that Russell Group universities are automatically best whether or not the teaching they offer matches how an applicant learns best.) Goldsmiths, however, is deeply invested in seeing itself as a different kind of place, a more radical or progressive institution. If you are familiar with the New School, you’ll see the parallel. But for me, this is not a positive comparison because both institutions seem to be following into the trap of marketing themselves as progressive, while being decades behind ostensibly more conservative institutions in actual practices.
Related things to read
Shannon Mattern’s long but lovely and essential essay on leaving the New School after 18 years
Mattern also points us to this overview of the New School’s history, written by Julia Foulkes. This is an institution with a longer history of adjunct exploitation than most.
Back over here in the UK, one of the most pressing issues afflicting universities, especially non-Russell Group institutions, are the waves of major redundancies rolling through UK universities. My department went through one of these last year, and it was hideously brutal. I’m still recovering. Now it’s Birkbeck, a university that has prioritized adult education through evening classes, that is facing major redundancies. Along with a planned restructure, the sheer severity of the cuts means that the affected departments would likely struggle to function.
My holiday movie rundown, part 1
I’m trying to embrace the holidays more this year than I usually do. On years when I’m by myself for Christmas, as I am this year, I always cook a meal, but that’s been about it. And since moving to the UK, Thanksgiving is tricky to celebrate—that’s an enormous amount of labor-intensive food to prepare on a workday, and turkey, the traditional meat for a British Christmas meal, can be hard to get in late November. But I managed a streamlined but nonetheless distinctly holiday menu, which I sat down to promptly at 5 PM and started up the Christmas movies on Netflix, something else I usually avoid.
Christmas With You barely bothers with a plot but is mostly delightful and inoffensive enough, although warning, deceased mothers are a recurring theme. But if you were wondering how Freddie Prinze, Jr. has aged, this is the one for you. (Plus, this role’s important to him, since he finally gets to play a Latino character.)
The Noel Diary also fit the bill for me, though the subject matter is heavier and it ends abruptly. Your mileage will likely vary depending on whether Justin Hartley is for you the guy who started out on Passions (as he is for me) or Chrishell Stause’s ex (as he also is for me).