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I Didn't Have to Die on This Hill, But I Did
[AmGreatness] Call me Mr. Unicorn. I have degrees in political science, English, and classicsâand I have done extensive work both in ethnic studies and classics. In Los Angeles I found myself teaching at an uber-liberal California college that loved my multicultural work though it viewed my work in classics with suspicion. They suspected at first, then confirmed that my love of the classics might encourage an unstylish conservatism.On October 3, 2014, I brought students to a conference at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Because of that, some women and gays charged me with discrimination. The Title IX investigation felt absurd. The greatest irony surrounding the spectacle stemmed from what the event at the Reagan Library actually was. It was called "Bonds that Matter" and it was about the importance of family relationships across time. I had tasked my students to identify examples of family relationships in great literature and create exhibits for them. Between October 3, 2014, and August 1, 2016 (and then for another year beyond), I endured a Kafka-esque investigation too convoluted to summarize here. "Experts" were called in to make gross generalizations about the field of literature, deciding that "Bonds that Matter" held no merit. One anthropologist, for example, concluded that these family subjects were not persistent themes in antiquity or the Romantic Era. The anthropologist seemed somewhat clumsy in his discussion about the role of texts like Oedipus Rex or The House of the Seven Gables. Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-11-17 |
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