A job candidate for my department informed the hiring committee that she is dedicated to “decolonizing the classroom.” When the stunned faculty members asked what on Earth she meant by it, the candidate said that she asks students to turn off their phones while in class and concentrate on “the whole self and body well-being.”
I hate hiring.
After reading this comment, I strongly need a breathing exercise. Probably of the kind that includes half a pack of Camels.
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Many of the Zoom and lockdown generation have problems with self-regulation. Those in charge of designing education have begun to notice, and the breathing exercises are meant to ameliorate the problem.
The land acknowledgement is preening. “We conquered and colonized your homeland. And no, we can’t give it back, even if we wanted to. Which we don’t. Nothing you can do about it either. But I pretend to feel bad about it.”
It is too bad no candidate will ever reply to “what to you mean by de-colonising academia” with “removing Fichte et al. root and branch”.
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“What do you mean by that?”
Dealing with these people is straightforward enough: if these people want to play by Alice in Wonderland rules with words meaning different things than what is accepted by convention, then they should accept being interrogated over the real (deliberately invoking Zizek).
And so what is “decolonising” about wielding arbitrary and authoritarian power over students in the way that smacks of the “colonisation” they purport to oppose?
What is particularly “mindful” about forced “mindfulness” in the manner of a group struggle session over communications devices?
When the would-be tyrant shows its true character to everyone in the interview setting, laugh at this person and say you’ve seen through the pretence of “word salad”, that you are not only not impressed but also you are disgusted.
Then explain precisely how disgusting this person is to everyone in the interview.
It’s an attack on the amygdala, which is hard to defend against, and it’s fair because they were using one on you by means of an attack on fair natured behaviour and reasonableness.
Then politely explain how there is not a place for such people.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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