tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15602189.post8713536129585324542..comments2023-09-21T16:17:51.838+05:30Comments on Law and Other Things: Musings on contemporary academic cultureAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09348738084817273397noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15602189.post-15281722034816314232009-06-25T09:37:56.335+05:302009-06-25T09:37:56.335+05:30dear pratiksha-
i *much* like this post for actu...dear pratiksha-<br /><br /> i *much* like this post for actually opening up questions of social class, intellectual capital, and the social reproduction of entitlement. <br /><br />[in that context, i must say that one of the more refreshing things about the LASSNET conference in delhi was how little it appeared to reproduce those earlier paradigms of social interaction and engagement]<br /><br />you seem to attribute/correlate this current crisis of academic culture to passage of the RTI in your post but offer little directly by way of how that is the<br />case. i am perfectly willing to believe that the RTI--like the newfound visibility of caste atrocity, or any other manner of social violence that becomes materially palpable through various forms of mediation, legal or otherwise--has drawn attention to certain forms of social and intellectual common-sense. <br /><br />however, the RTI's consequences appear to be more significant for things such as proving a history of, say caste and gender discrimination in hiring, or perhaps evidence of academic bias and/or curtailment of academic freedom. [pace the previous post]<br /><br />how a set of long-established social practices (in which almost all of us is complicit in some form or another, if for nothing through the entailments of history) is impacted or might be constructively re-aligned via RTI is less clear to me (perhaps because i am less familiar with its uses in everyday contexts of academic sociality)<br /><br /><br />i think a longer-term sociology of the indian academy and an ethnography of its everyday life (which you very evocatively outline in your post) are<br />together necessary for linking structural blindness with the intimacy of its experience<br /><br /> thanks for suggesting RTI as a wedge into conversations that might not otherwise be possible. <br /><br /> though i wonder if indeed this is possible, for new forms of visibility also produce accompanying (and perhaps more profound) because unexpected forms of secrecy and lack of accountability. <br /><br />[i think the 'other baxi' has suggested law as a insurrectionary tool in his more hopeful moments?!]Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12550897850254375355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15602189.post-4351213338013612762009-06-21T10:32:12.426+05:302009-06-21T10:32:12.426+05:30Thank you, Pratiksha, for this extremely insightfu...Thank you, Pratiksha, for this extremely insightful, incisive and, for me, as a victim of all that you talk about, moving post. As someone who began to apply for permanent jobs in 2007 and have been successively humiliated, denied jobs, not even shortlisted or called for interviews for jobs I was/am clearly the most qualified candidate, faced incredible homophobia, kept out by illiterate, prejudiced and corrupt VCs, insecure and ignorant Directors and Heads of Department, offered positions which then never materialised in research centres ( I really could go on), every word of your post was searingly true. Thank you for caring and giving voice to what I have faced and what several less privileged academics than myself must face everyday (on the basis of caste, class, gender, region, sexual orientation) and I hope this opens a public dialogue on the issue.<br /><br />Ashley Tellisfuckthatshithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13641993688535277715noreply@blogger.com