The union leadership revealed that the administration’s goal for my faculty isn’t to get rid of us but to make us teach in English. They do want to get rid of the physics profs but us they are desperate to keep. Because we can teach in English outside of the discipline. Specifically, they need crowds of people to teach about globalization. Physicists are not as useful for that purpose as, for example, I am.
Now I understand why the Dean keeps giving this weird speech about how tying your identity to teaching within your discipline is a psychological hangup.
If these absolute losers had said what they really wanted from the start, I would have participated happily. I’m really into teaching outside of the discipline and in English. But they started doing underhanded shenanigans to get us into a place where I, for one, actually wanted to be. This is deeply stupid behavior. They are stupid people.
Also, the problem here is this industrial-level management. If the Dean managed to talk to me like a human being in all the years we’ve worked closely together, he’d know that he doesn’t have to extort me into teaching about globalization. I’d be his greatest fan if he heard me all the times I tried to talk to him about research and made me a normal, honest offer. I’m pretty certain I’ve actually mentioned to him how much I love teaching my only course in English.
It’s totally like a dude you like grabbing you and throwing you on the ground when you would have agreed willingly.
Clarissa's Blog 
“they need crowds of people to teach about globalization”
…. uhh…… why?
“I would have participated happily”
I really don’t think they want what you would teach… they probably want “imagine there’s no countries…. it isn’t hard to do….”
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Oh, yes, the stated goal is – and I quote – “to assist students in developing a cosmopolitan sensibility.” I will teach that course and assign Zygmunt Bauman. This will be fun.
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That would be glorious.
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Not would, will. I already made arrangements. These are large courses. I’ll have a group of 65 students who’ll retch whenever they hear the words globalization and cosmopolitanism. We’ll have a whole segment on how stupid the expression “a citizen of the world” is.
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(not enough space for the very large smile)
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Mine barely fits on my not very narrow face when I think about it. These bastards won’t know what hit them.
But then again, I’ve been teaching about the wonderfulness of the European conquest of the Americas for a decade and it’s going great.
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LOL ;-D
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