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Zoë Wicomb You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town (Short stories)

Written while displaced in England, the stories include her early years at the University of the Western Cape.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/328895.You_Can_t_Get_Lost_in_Cape_Town

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USA

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The New Books Network is a podcast network featuring over 15,000 interviews with scholars, experts, and authors. Subscribe for free.

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Some of the world’s most elite universities are failing to protect their students when it comes to sexual misconduct by staff or other students.

Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has spent two years examining how British universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, and Warwick deal with complaints of sexual harassment, sexist, drunken behaviour, and coercive control.

A series of podcasts and videos reveal why students say university complaints systems are stacked against them and how sexual misconduct by university staff and students has extensively affected the lives of women in academia.

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CONTENT WARNING

SUBSCRIBE TO THE AL JAZEERA INVESTIGATES PODCAST

Some of the world's most elite universities are failing to protect their students when it comes to sexual misconduct by staff or other students.

Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit has spent two years examining how British universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, and Warwick deal with complaints of sexual harassment, sexist, drunken behaviour, and coercive control.

A series of podcasts and videos reveal why students say university complaints systems are stacked against them and how sexual misconduct by university staff and students has extensively affected the lives of women in academia.

Multiple complaints against the same abuser are regularly not heard together so individual complaints are dismissed as he-said-she said. Complaints take months, even years to be heard.

Al Jazeera sent 164 freedom of information requests to every university across the UK, requesting data on the total sexual misconduct complaints made against both students and staff members between 2017 and 2020, how many of these complaints were fully investigated and how many led to an outcome for the complainant.

The personal stories featured in the podcasts and videos, combined with the trove of documents obtained through the freedom of information requests, reveal a hard to navigate system that to many students is bewildering and traumatic.

Podcasts

The World Renowned Oxford Don

He's a famous professor at Oxford, one of the world's most prestigious universities. But across three decades and three institutions, women have described him as a sexual predator.

The Oxford Historian

He's a leading academic at the University of Oxford. His expertise is in times gone by. Both students and other lecturers say his drunken and abusive behaviour is also a throw back and he's unfit to teach.

Crossing professional boundaries

Six women describe the behaviour of a lecturer who taught at Glasgow University. They say he broke the acceptable boundaries of a professional teaching relationship.

Why complaints fail

In the second part of the story, the women describe what happened when they complained about the lecturer and the outcome, which one woman says could have ended her academic career

'He had deliberately obscured who he was'

The PhD student at Glasgow University was charismatic and charming and part of his appeal was his tragic past. But his relationships with several women became violent and controlling. As our investigation dug deeper into his history in his home country, we uncovered his lies and the real story of his murdered wife..

'He lies to avoid accountability'

More incredible revelations about how a PhD student at Glasgow University lied about his dead wife and falsely accused innocent people of killing her. Question is, why has it taken almost four years for Glasgow University to investigate multiple complaints about him?

Videos

Harriet's Oxford Story

When an Oxford PhD student, Harriet, complained that she'd been sexually assaulted by a fellow student, she expected Balliol College to investigate.

However, Harriet then discovered Balliol is one of several colleges at Oxford University to have a clause in their policy which means they don't have to investigate her complaint. Harriet also claims the college put the emphasis on her behaviour, not the student she says assaulted her.

Millie's Warwick Story

When Millie started at Warwick University, she chose to live in a mixed flat. But a series of incidents with a flatmate led to Millie filing a complaint about him.

After a long investigation and a conduct committee meeting, Millie's complaint was dismissed because it came down to one person's word against another. Millie says her case shows some men still don't understand what consent to sex really means.

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SUBSCRIBE TO THE AL JAZEERA INVESTIGATES PODCAST Some of the world's most elite universities are failing to protect their students when it comes to sexual misconduct by staff or other students. Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit has spent two years examining how British universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, and Warwick deal with complaints of sexual harassment, sexist, drunken behaviour, and coercive control.

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Critical Storytelling: Experiences of Power Abuse in Academia

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Critical Storytelling: Experiences of Power Abuse in Academia

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What does power abuse look and feel like in the academic world in Europe? How does it affect university faculty, students, education and research? What can we do to counteract and prevent power abuse? These questions are addressed in this collection of autobiographical poems, essays and illustrations about academia. The contributors reflect on individual experiences as well as underlying institutional structures, providing original perspectives on bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, and other forms of power abuse in academic workplaces. They share their stories in order to break the culture of silence around power abuse in academia and point out pathways for constructive change.

See more here https://brill.com/view/title/63141?language=en

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Academia et al. Figuring our life in academia

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Academia et al. Figuring our life in academia

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(Podcast series, UK)

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An IOE Podcast series. Conversations about the challenges of being an early career academic in the modern world, with colleagues who've been there, and those who are just now figuring it all out.

Academia et al. is a brand new podcast series from the IOE Early Career Network.

Listen to a preview

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Subscribe to the IOE Podcast to hear episodes

Get all the latest episodes as soon as they're released on your favourite podcasting platform:

Episodes

Season 01 (premieres 10 January 2022)

Gideon Sappor on diversity and community in academia

Li Wei and Emma Jones on job security, and, is it too early to think about retirement?

Jake Anders and Andrea Gauthier on academic journeys and finding success

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An IOE Podcast series. Conversations about the challenges of being an early career academic in the modern world, with colleagues who've been there, and those who are just now figuring it all out. Academia et al. is a brand new podcast series from the IOE Early Career Network.

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Visual storyteller Kiki Mordi produced an award-winning documentary about sex for grades in Nigerian and Ghanaian universities. As part of a feminist collective there, Kiki continues to speak out against the violence women and queer people face.
• Watch the documentary ‘Sex for Grades’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-F0Gi0Lqs
• Check out Kiki’s latest project Document Women here: https://documentwomen.com
• Follow Kiki here: https://twitter.com/kikimordi?s=20

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Offline and Online

As a young girl, when Lusungu Kalanga saw inequalities in her community, she didn't have a language for it. Today, she creates safe spaces for girls in Malawi. We talk about how online activism rallied offline organizing in Malawi's #metoo movement.
* Listen to Lusungu's podcast Feministing While Malawian here: https://anchor.fm/feministingwhilemalawian
* Follow Lusungu: https://twitter.com/lusukalanga

Little Big Voice

Ugandan writer Rosebell Kagumire edits an African feminist blog. She discusses the importance of curating these voices and how allies with large platforms influence the current movement. This discussion looks at the media's role in trivializing sexual violence and the growth of support for survivors.

Taking On The Trolls

What's it like being a vocal African woman online? Entrepreneur Carol Ndosi discusses the importance of women's voices on the internet in Tanzania, and how her work led to the creation of support systems for women who are trolled on social media.

Check out Women at Web's work on Twitter using #WomenatWeb<
Check out the Carol and the Launch Pad's work here: https://thelaunchpad.or.tz/
Follow Carol Ndosi here: https://twitter.com/CarolNdosi
Here's Carol Ndosi's startup, Nyama Choma Festival: https://www.instagram.com/nyamachomafestival/

Where The Heart Is

How do you prove that the home you fled was unsafe, if you could never report the violence you faced there? Thomars Shamuyarira is a Zimbabwean migrant rights activist living in South Africa. He speaks on South Africa's restrictive asylum process and the experiences of LGBT people from elsewhere in Africa seeking asylum there.
You can follow the Fruit Basket on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Fruit Basket won a prestigious award, read about it here.

Stand Up

Student leader Ruth Yitbarek wants more Ethiopian women to understand their rights and speak up for themselves. She speaks about the Yellow Movement that continues to grow in Ethiopia's universities and how it challenges abusive societal norms.
Read about the Yellow Movement here: http://www.aau.edu.et/the-yellow-movement/
Follow Ruth here: https://twitter.com/ruth_yitbarek

Politics Too

By engaging with politics, citizens can demand justice and good governance from their governments and leaders. But women political activists face unique challenges. Fatima speaks about why she continues to push for space for citizens voices and women's recognition in governance.
Follow Fatima on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatima.mimbire
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fatima_f2m?lang=en

Follow and subscribe

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don't miss an episode.

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Offline and Online As a young girl, when Lusungu Kalanga saw inequalities in her community, she didn't have a language for it. Today, she creates safe spaces for girls in Malawi. We talk about how online activism rallied offline organizing in Malawi's #metoo movement.

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Siphiwo Mahala Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi

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Siphiwo Mahala Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi

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(Biography, South Africa)
Image thanks to the author's Tweet

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Dr Oheneba Akyeampong Permission to Work: An Autobiography 

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"What was his life? He was born in Kumasi. Coming from a poor family, he struggles financially through elementary school, Teacher’s Training College, University of Ghana, joins the Agege train, goes to Sweden where he bags a PhD, comes back to Ghana, teaches for several years at the University of Cape Coast and goes on a one year Fulbright Scholarship. He was also a member of the National Accreditation Board. He spends his last working years teaching at a private university from where he retires to write his life’s story. In the telling, he touches on several issues that affect us not only as Ghanaians but also as human beings." (Kofi Amenyo in his Book review)

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Alice Aedy & Awa Farah (Documentary; Somali/ UK) Somalinimo

As students return to universities around the world, four British-Somali students talk about navigating one of Britain’s most elite institutions: Cambridge University. Their identity is rooted in Somalinimo (‘the essence of being Somali’) and in this love letter to Somali culture, blackness and Islam, they reflect on both belonging and marginalisation. The women discuss conflicts with their parents, the sense of solidarity they have built at Cambridge, and the legacy they are creating for the next generation of British-Somalis. They give new meaning to an old Somali proverb: ‘Clothing that is not yours cannot shelter you from the cold’ (Gaurdian description, 2020)

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Exciting news! My documentary about Somali women at Cambridge University is officially out and has been acquired by @guardian! Its been a long two years and has not been easy to complete during quarantine but soo worth every second!! 🙌🏾

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Exciting news! My documentary about Somali women at Cambridge University is officially out and has been acquired by @guardian! Its been a long two years and has not been easy to complete during quarantine but soo worth every second!! 🙌🏾 https://t.co/uap3WuqeL8

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Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.

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Exciting news! My documentary about Somali women at Cambridge University is officially out and has been acquired by @guardian! Its been a long two years and has not been easy to complete during quarantine but soo worth every second!! 🙌🏾 https://t.co/uap3WuqeL8

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Exciting news! My documentary about Somali women at Cambridge University is officially out and has been acquired by @guardian! Its been a long two years and has not been easy to complete during quarantine but soo worth every second!! 🙌🏾 https://t.co/uap3WuqeL8

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Exciting news! My documentary about Somali women at Cambridge University is officially out and has been acquired by @guardian! Its been a long two years and has not been easy to complete during quarantine but soo worth every second!! 🙌🏾

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(Documentary series, USA)

"tells the inspiring story of a group of men and women in the USA studying for college degrees while in prison for serious crimes"

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Amazing, shocking, inspiring and award-winning - the best in international documentaries.

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The Cry of the Renegade Politics and Poetry in Interwar Chile

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The Cry of the Renegade Politics and Poetry in Interwar Chile

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Raymond B. Craib (USA)

"A compellingly narrated history, with complex characters and richly painted settings, that situates university students as serious political and social actors in the interwar era."

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(Novel, USA)

A university town in mid-west America where the protagonist is black and gay.

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"[A] stunning debut . . . Taylor proves himself to be a keen observer of the psychology of not just trauma, but its repercussions. . . . There is a delicacy in the details of working in a lab full of microbes and pipettes that dances across the pages like the feet of a Cunningham dancer: pure, precise poetry." -Jeremy O. Harris, The New York Times Book Review

"Equal parts captivating, erotic, smart and vivid . . . [rendered] with tenderness and complexity, from the first gorgeous sentence of his book to its very last . . . Taylor is also tackling loneliness, desire and-more than anything-finding purpose, meaning and happiness in one's own life." -Time
"[ Real Life is] a sophisticated character study of someone squaring self-preservation with a duty to tolerate people who threaten it. The book teems with passages of transfixing description, and perhaps its greatest asset is the force of Wallace's isolation, which Taylor conveys with alien strangeness." -The New Yorker"A blistering coming of age story. . . [Taylor] is so deft at portraying the burdens that befall young queer people of color and the forces that often hamper true connection." -O: the Oprah Magazine

"Brandon Taylor emerges as a powerhouse . . . . In tender, intimate and distinctive writing, Taylor explores race, sexuality and desire with a cast of unforgettable characters." -Newsweek

"Both calm and quiet and furiously dramatic, internal and external, Real Life moves like, well, real life-but with a key difference. Real life itself can be super boring. But Real Life . . . is utterly captivating all the way through." -Isaac Fitzgerald, The Today Show "Shattering.""A novel of quiet, startling power." asks questions many of us shy from: Who is entitled to pain? How useful is an apology? Can sharing our feelings free us from them? . . . Amid the flurry of new novels drifting down like so many balloons, Real Life is the one weighted with confetti." -The Paris Review

"Taylor brings the precision of a scientist to his descriptions of Wallace's desires and defenses. . . . [capturing] the ennui of those caught between the lure and the loneliness of academic science, trapped in an existence that doesn't qualify as a 'real life.'" -Forbes

"Astounding." -LA Review of Books

"[Taylor] is as keen an observer as his subject is, and he writes with extraordinary precision: about the academy, and queerness, and race, and trauma, and ambivalent friendship, and desire. About all the things that, put together, make up something approaching real life." " Real Life poignantly illustrates the dissonance of not feeling accepted or understood at an institution that aggressively markets itself as immaculately progressive." -The Guardian

"As a stylist Taylor has, sentence by sentence, crafted an experience of bone-deep pleasure for the reader that stands not at odds with the melancholy of the tone of Wallace's story but in loving support of it. The penultimate chapter alone is a knockout, and its end would have been a magnificent closing for the book had the actual final sentence, a few pages later, not surpassed it.""The best portrayal of an introvert's inner and outer life in recent memory. With smooth prose and a deeply nuanced protagonist, Real Life is one of those timeless stories that also perfectly captures a generational moment." -LitHub

"Just as Sally Rooney's second novel perfectly captures the intimacies of a young relationship, Brandon Taylor's provocative debut tests the boundaries put in place by a queer, black graduate student." -Bookpage

"Taylor is a writer who really gets the indignities of inhabiting a human body, how the physical is so intimately tied to the emotional. . . . Wallace is a heady mix of judgmental and vulnerable, and it's hard not to root for him even if he decides to blow his life up." -Vulture

"Brandon Taylor's long-anticipated debut novel tackles timely issues while introducing a compelling protagonist who will stick with you long after the final page." -Paste

"One of those books that perfectly captures a generational moment while also feeling timeless." -Sarah Neilson, Them "Taylor's perceptive, challenging exploration of the many kinds of emotional costs will resonate with readers looking for complex characters and rich prose." -Publishers Weekly

"Breathlessly physical . . . steadily exciting and affecting . . . [a] charged experience." -Booklist (starred review)"There is writing so exceptional, so intricately crafted that it demands reverence. The intimate prose of Brandon Taylor's exquisite debut novel, Real Life, offers exactly that kind of writing. He writes so powerfully about so many things-the perils of graduate education, blackness in a predominantly white setting, loneliness, desire, trauma, need. Wallace, the man at the center of this novel, is written with nuance and tenderness and complexity. . . . Truly, this is stunning work from a writer who wields his craft in absolutely unforgettable ways." -Roxane Gay

"The affections and disaffections of grad school life are shot through with the searing experience of white racial presumption and blindness in Brandon Taylor's vivid and exacting Real Life." -Adam Haslett
"This book blew my head and heart off. For a debut novelist to disentangle and rebraid intimacy, terror, and joy this finely seems like a myth. But that, and so much more, is what Brandon Taylor has done in Real Life. The future of the novel is here and Brandon Taylor is that future's name."
-Kiese Laymon

" Real Life is a gorgeous work of art, and the introduction of a singular new voice. Through Wallace, the book explores the tension of a person trying to become himself while surrounded by people who can see him only as their own projection. Even as Brandon Taylor dives beneath the level of polite surface interaction and into the ache of what people conceal from one another, or reveal only as weaponry, his sharply rendered observations make it a true pleasure to spend time in this book's world."
-Danielle Evans

" Real Life is one of the finest fiction debuts I've read in the last decade-elegant and brutal, handled by an author whose attention to the heart is unlike any other's. A magnificent novel."
-Esmé Weijun Wang

"A few summer days, a group of friends, a difficult intimacy-with the simplest materials, Real Life reveals the knives we pocket in good intentions, our constant, communal sabotage of love. Brandon Taylor's genius lies in the elaboration of ever more revelatory gradations of feeling; in his extraordinary debut he invents new tools for navigating the human dark in which we know one another. He is a brilliant writer, and this is a beautiful book."
-Garth Greenwell

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Real Life by Brandon Taylor: 9780525538882 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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"[A] stunning debut . . . Taylor proves himself to be a keen observer of the psychology of not just trauma, but its repercussions. . . . There is a delicacy in the details of working in a lab full of microbes and pipettes that dances across the pages like the feet of a Cunningham dancer: pure, precise poetry."

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Counter // Narratives of Higher Education

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Counter // Narratives of Higher Education

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Watch 5 short films with the participation of first generation academics from South Africa, Angola, Syria and Zimbabwe.

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This project is exploratory. It brings together artists and higher education practitioners, to create video artworks of the rich diversity of lived experiences of those from within universities. These artworks aim to contribute to counter-narratives of higher education.

​This project explores how arts-based counter-stories may contribute to creating conceptual change about what and whom is of value and meaning within higher education.

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This project is exploratory. It brings together artists and higher education practitioners, to create video artworks of the rich diversity of lived experiences of those from within universities. These artworks aim to contribute to counter-narratives of higher education. ​This project explores how arts-based counter-stories may contribute to creating conceptual change about what and whom is of value and meaning within higher education.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Purple Hibiscus
(Fiction; novel)

"The university becomes a microcosm of the country” - statement made on p. 224 by the character Obiora, whose mother is a senior lecturer at a Nigerian university.

"I found the overlapping spaces of social formation and critical citizenry in the novel compelling - in the fringes of journalism, academia, belief systems, and the home” - Dina Belluigi.

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UCU Witness
(Documentary, UK)

Initiated by University College Union Black Members’ Standing Committee, 'witness' chronicles the lived experiences of UCU black members in post-16 education in the UK.

See related report.

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Krupabai Satthianadhan Saguna: The First Autobiographical Novel in English by an Indian Woman
(Novel, India)

"Historically comparable across various colonies… retain[ing] a legacy in today's world” (Daniel S. Roberts, Queen's University Belfast)

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Forensic Architecture 'AYOTZINAPAUna cartografía de la violencia
(Interactive platform, Mexico )

A visualisation of independent enquiries into the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in 2014.

“We can’t say we found the students — we haven’t gotten that far, but we are able to show what that night was about.” Theo Resnikoff in a review

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Forensic Architecture desarrolló una plataforma de visualización e investigación de los datos extraídos de los informes forenses del GIEI referentes al caso Ayotzinapa.

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Dubravka Ugresić 'The Ministry of Pain'
(Novel, India)

the character "finds herself teaching the languages and literature of her "former Yugoslavia" at a university in Amsterdam" (from review)

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Xolisa Ngubelanga 'FlameBook'
Director Simphiwe Kaya
(Theatre Production)

"A detained student leader uses fire to connect the trial of FeesMustFall with that of his father during the state of emergency" Author cited in review

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@sarishagoodman 'How widespread is racism at British universities? A thread'
(Twitter thread)

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Eric Anthony Grollman 'Conditionally Accepted: a space for scholars on the margins of academia'
(Website; Blogs)

"Today, academia — like every social institution — is structured hierarchically, producing numerous professional and personal obstacles for academics from marginalized backgrounds.  Scholars who are women, of color, lesbian, trans*, bisexual, gay, queer, disabled, working-class or poor, immigrants, fat, religious and non-religious minorities, and/or single parents are faced daily with the difficult tension between academia’s narrow definition of success and their own politics, identities, needs, happiness, and health." (Website text)

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Many individuals are drawn to higher education, including academic careers, because of academia's potential for change. Countless prospective and current graduate students note that their desire to make a difference in their communities or society in general was their primary decision to attend graduate training. Unfortunately, many colleges and universities in the US have practiced outright discrimination and exclusion throughout history, particularly against women, people of color, and disabled people/people with disabilities.

Today, academia - like every social institution - is structured hierarchically, producing numerous professional and personal obstacles for academics from marginalized backgrounds. Scholars who are women, of color, lesbian, trans*, bisexual, gay, queer, disabled, working-class or poor, immigrants, fat, religious and non-religious minorities, and/or single parents are faced daily with the difficult tension between academia's narrow definition of success and their own politics, identities, needs, happiness, and health.

Conditionally Accepted was created by Dr. Eric Anthony Grollman (editor until 2017) as a freestanding blog in July 2013 as an online space for scholars on the margins of academe. It has steadily grown since, becoming a career advice column for Inside Higher Ed in January 2016. In our column, we provide news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

Conditionally Accepted is run by an editor in order to maintain regular, relevant material on the site, and to ensure that it remains a safe, inclusive space. Regular contributors and guest bloggers add to the site's blog, helping to offer a diversity of perspectives and experiences.

I am an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. My research interests included race and organizations, critical race theory, and how formal organizational processes reproduce social inequalities. I am mixed race (Black and white) but not tragic. And I am just as - if not more - objective than your average white scholar. In addition to my scholarly work and blogging, I have written about race for publications including Newsweek, Gawker, and Boston Review, and Seven Scribes. I occasionally tweet at @victorerikray.

Dr. Eric Anthony Grollman, Founder, Former Editor, and Regular Contributor

I speak as a Black queer non-binary intellectual activist. I am currently a tenure-track professor in sociology at University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. An "activist gone academic," I pursued a PhD in sociology at Indiana University to become a better activist. To my surprise, graduate training is designed to " beat the activist" out of grad students. Thus, I was traumatized in the process of earning my PhD. These experiences led me to create Conditionally Accepted after I graduated in 2013 to make visible the scholars, perspectives, experiences, advice, and resources that were not available to me. I regularly blog, interweaving my personal experiences with my research (i.e., prejudice and discrimination) and current events, to reflect on the practices and policies that keep many scholars on the margins of academia. You can follow me on Twitter at @grollman.

Dr. Jeana Jorgensen, Regular Contributor

I write and teach from the life experiences of a culturally Jewish, agnostic, able-bodied, sex-positive, intersectional feminist and as a bisexual cis woman. My Ph.D. is in folklore with a focus on gender studies. While I initially set out to study traditional folklore topics such as fairy tales, personal narratives, and body art, recently I find myself more drawn to the topics of sex education and sexual minority activism. You can find my writing at MySexProfessor and on my personal blog. I am an adjunct instructor at a Midwestern small liberal arts college, and I also teach and perform dance professionally.

I blog about my experiences adjuncting, in an effort to demonstrate the difficulty of extricating the personal from the political. I write about the stories we tell about bodies and sexualities in university settings and beyond. I tweet at @foxyfolklorist.

Jackson Wright Shultz, MALS, Regular Contributor

I am a transgender, first-generation academic from a working class background who is re-learning to be unapologetically queer. My writing often uses intersectional feminist and womanist lenses, and usually focuses on issues of gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, race, (dis)ability, and the academy. I am an oral historian by trade and the author of Trans/Portraits: Voices from Transgender Communities. I have served in both faculty and administrative roles in higher education and have held positions in student accessibility services, campus sexual assault response and prevention, and composition and rhetoric instruction. My research interests include student development theory, pedagogy, teaching and learning antiracism, sex education, sexual and intimate partner violence, masculinities, transgender studies, and queer theory.

You can find my academic work on www.jacksonshultz.com, and you can follow my activist work on Twitter @WriteRadically and at the Trans Education, Activism, Community & Health (TEACH) Alliance.

Dr. J. E. Sumerau, Regular Contributor

I write from the life experiences of a most of the time male-appearing bisexual, genderqueer, skeptic Queer Intersectional Feminist. My teaching, research and activism focus on the intersections of sexualities, gender, religion, and health in the interpersonal and her-his-our-storical experiences of sexual, gender, and religious minorities. I am an assistant professor of sociology at mid-sized southern university. (See my work at jsumerau.com.) I write about the personal and emotional aspects of teaching and scholarship at Write Where It Hurts, and relationships between music and social life at Symbolic Interaction Music Blog.

I my experiences navigating binary religious, sexual, and gender assumptions and systems of thought and organization, in an effort to demonstrate the ways such patterns erase and marginalize sexual, gender, and religious fluidity and variation in our world. I hope to foster dialogue and debate that allows us to move beyond "yes or no," "right or wrong," and "good or bad" frameworks to embrace the complexity of our shared and disparate experiences in the pursuit of a more equitable world for all. Follow me on Twitter at blog about @jsumerau.

Dr. Manya Whitaker, Regular Contributor

I blog as a southern, Black, middle class, US-born woman. I am an assistant professor of education at an elite private liberal arts college. Upon entering academe, I deviated from my psychological roots and delved into the realm of education because it was then I saw the outcomes of an inequitable K-12 schooling system. Most of my students are from white upper-income families, enjoying the resultant privileges. In my classes, I offer a counter-narrative to present the perspectives of diverse peoples and experiences by juxtaposing issues of equality with issues of equity. I research what it takes to be an effective teacher to culturally and linguistically diverse students.

On my personal blog, theotherclass, I write about my own experiences as a woman of color in a space that wasn't built for me. While my blog is indeed for me, I also write to give voice to the silenced who may not be in a position to speak for themselves. I share knowledge in my educational consultant business and through my participation in an online educational advice platform. Check out my academic work at manyawhitakerphd.com and follow me on Twitter @IvyLeagueLady.

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Many individuals are drawn to higher education, including academic careers, because of academia's potential for change. Countless prospective and current graduate students note that their desire to make a difference in their communities or society in general was their primary decision to attend graduate training. Unfortunately, many colleges and universities in the US have practiced...

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Elif Shafak Three Daughters of Eve
(Novel, fiction, UK/Turkey)

The centre of the story rests on Peri’s relationship with the teacher at Oxford who pushes his students into deeper and deeper inquiries into the nature of God. Shafak seems to intend this as a vital erotic and intellectual awakening, but Azur comes across as arrogant and even deluded about his own brilliance, so Peri’s wholehearted adoration for him fails to convince. (review)

Sent in by a reader intruiged by Shafak's TED talk on diverse thought

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Tariku Shimels The Campus Boy
(Fiction, Ethiopia)
"the life-paths of a third world boy. It starts to show from his campus life, on to achieving his future dreams and struggle with daily evils"

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Donella & Kelly 'Starting School at the University that enslaved her ancestors'
(Article on site 'Code Switch Race & Identity Remixed)

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Jonathan Jansen. As by Fire
(Non-fiction, RSA)

"an unconstrained account of the 2015 - 2016 crisis which erupted at universities across South Africa" (from review)

"a conversation about the work universities must do" (from review)

"an irresponsible thesis" (another review)

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Jansen The end of the SOuth African University

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Ngadlu Padninthi Kamangka - We Walk Together
This mural was shown as part of the presentation by Laura Grenfell (The University of Adelaide, Australia) in her presentation 'Embedding diversity and diverse epistemology in the Teaching Space: Aboriginal students and Australian Universities, at the HETL conference in Scotland (23-27 June 2017).

Artists:  Narisha Cash & Allan Sumner, 2016
Location:  North Terrace, Nexus 10 courtyard
Image:   Iain Bond

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Megha Mohan The straight A student who dropped out of university
(BBC Blog, UK)

The photograph below relates to this story - thanks to the keynote address of Professor Craig Mahoney  (Principal and Vice-Chancellor of University of the West of Scotland, @PrincipalUWS) at the HETL 2017 conference.

See also the HEPI publication on UK students' expectations vs reality.

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Alice Dreger Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science
(Non-fiction; USA)

" one American’s eye-opening story of life in the trenches of scientific controversyan unforgettable vision of the importance of rigorous truth seeking in today’s America, where both the free press and free scholarly inquiry struggle under dire economic and political threats." (Excerpt from review)

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Red Banana Productions How can scientific institutions shake their sexist legacies?
(Documentary, UK)

"how the Royal Society can continue to make strides toward overcoming its history of implicit and explicit gender bias" (Excerpt from website)

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Anon. I hate University
(Forum, international)

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Anon. SOMETHING TO CRY ABOUT?
(Article, Unknown location)

"If you don’t want to compromise your approach to suit the dominant value system of higher education, do so in the knowledge that sometimes the value of doing your own work in your own way far exceeds any reward or acknowledgement you may gain by being compliant" (excerpt, p. 61).

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David Lodge The British Museum is Falling Down
(Comic novel; UK)

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Bill Condon Kinsey
(Film; US)

"drives home the importance of academic freedom, and demonstrates how rational academic inquiry can have a huge impact on the larger society" (excerpt from review)

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Noah Baumbach The Squid and the whale
(film; US)

"a family drama centered on a couple of PhDs raising a family" (excerpt from review)

"It has the authentic feeling of real-life messiness, humiliation and shame, though supercharged with fictional black comedy" (excerpt from review)

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Malcolm Bradbury The history man
(Novel; UK)

"the small world of the university is a stage for the dramatisation and examination of larger issues" (excerpt of review)

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A list of 'Akkies' (academic novels) provided by readers of The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Chandra Prasad On Borrowed Wings
(Novel; US)

Enrolling at Yale as Charles, Adele assumes his identity -- and gender -- as a way to leave behind her mother's expectations and the limitations of her provincial Connecticut town.

"... exposes the ingrained sexism of higher education" (excerpt of review)

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Mat Johnson Pym

"[uses the protagonists journey] to posit the history of race in the United States as a national disaster that overdetermines contemporary social dynamics" (Excerpt from academic paper)

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Philip Roth The Human Stain
(Novel, US)

"It is a book that shows how the public Zeitgeist can shape, even destroy, an individual's life, a book that takes all of Roth's favorite themes of identity and rebellion and generational strife and refracts them not through the narrow prism of the self but through a wide-angle lens that exposes the fissures and discontinuities of 20th-century life" (Excerpt from review).

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Kudera Fight for your long day
(Novel, US)

"In American pop culture, the handsome college professor is easy to spot. He’s endearingly neurotic, his unfinished novel usually stuffs an expensive mahogany desk, and female students sigh in his wake. And even if it’s not explicitly explained to us, the handsome college professor always has one other thing: tenure. But the further one moves down the academic totem pole, professors start to look very different. On the very bottom, lies a less dashing, less financially secure, and altogether less noticed figure: The adjunct professor." (excerpt from website)

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Richard Russo The straight man
(Novel; US)

"Russo told me in when I interviewed him in 2007: "Whenever you have a 'southern' or a 'northern' or an 'eastern' or a 'western' before an institution's name, you know it will be wildly underfunded"
(excerpt from review).

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Emilty Toth Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia

"... I think you can sum up the book as "conform, charm everyone, lie, be a hypocrite, do not react to harassment and discrimination, until you get tenure, because tenure is the most important thing there is" (excerpt from review).

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Vera Brittian Testament of Youth
(Memoire, UK)

"Her stuffily middle-class family could not have been more conventional. Her parents never questioned that their son should go to a university if so inclined, but saw their little daughter's wish to do the same as absurd" (Excerpt from review of the novel).

"... thrillingly astute portrait of a young Oxford undergraduate whose ideals are beaten into shape – bitterly forged, you might say – by the heartbreak and gruelling trauma of the First World War" (review excerpt of the film).

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Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisited
(Novel, UK) 1945

"Brideshead Revisited is set in the 1920s, and universities have naturally become much more diverse places since then. Charles and Sebastian differ in class and religion, but in a modern university students can expect to meet people who differ from them in a much greater variety of ways; this diversity of people, united by a shared desire to learn, is one of the best things about the university system" (except from website).

Adapted as a television series in 1981. Review 30 yearsby New York Times.
Adapted as a feature film (2008)

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Chris Parr 14 universities that made it in the world of pop music
(Music; videos)

"Academia and popular music might not seem the most obvious bedfellows, but as this list proves, some of the most prestigious higher education systems in the world have influenced some very well known (and some not so well known) singers and songwriters." (excerpt from website).

Find videos at Times Higher Education #HElyrics playlist.

Contribute via #HElyrics

The image below is of The Pixies.

"U Mass, is an expletive-ridden 3-minute song thought to be about college apathy, and making reference to the University of Massachusetts...

The lyric:
Oh kiss my ass oh let it rock, of the April birds and the May bee
Oh baby University of Massachusetts, please
And here’s the last five
It’s educational, it’s educational
It’s educational, it’s educational
It’s educational (Excerpt from website)

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Karim Hirji (ed) Cheche. Reminiscences of a Radical Magazine
(Memoires, Tanzania)

"In his description Hirji captures the spirit and enthusiasm of these activist students and provides a rich picture of UDSM’s vibrant intellectual atmosphere in the late 1960s and early 1970s" (excerpt of review by Amy Jamison).

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Luhanga The courage for change: RE-ENGINEERING THE UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM
(Memoire, Tanzania)

"It is the stories that Luhanga weaves amongst these facts of his hasty appointment, student protests, a “kidnapping”, economic hardships, and conflicts between the Hill (UDSM) and the Tanzanian government that are of interest. Of course, Luhanga’s account comes from the political perspective of the highest level of university administration, contrasting sharply with Hirji et al.’s narrative from radical students’ perspectives. Both are necessary, however, to gain a fuller picture of the rich history of the University of Dar es Salaam" (excerpt of review by Amy Jamison).

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Jane Tompkins Me and my shadow
Memoire/ academic text; US)

"There are two voices inside me answering... One is the voice of a critic who wants to correct a mistake in the essay's view of epistemology. The other is the voice of a person who wants to write about her feelings. (I have wanted to do this for a long time but have felt too embarrassed.)" (excerpt).

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Sharon O’Dair What About Me?
(Blog, US)

In a critique of memoires by academics , this blog-as-memoire includes reflections on the origin and nature of this non-dispassionate genre.

"they think producing memoirs is progressive, empowering, subversive" (excerpt).
"composing the memoir is another move in the professional game" (excerpt).

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Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands
(Memoire, UK)

"Sometimes I feel myself to have been the last colonial" (Hall).

"He writes of his determination not to be outwardly troubled by a perception of him as “exotic” and “other”, and not to be slighted by the inquiry “and when are you going home?” from tutors thinking ahead to the end of his college life" (Excerpt from review by Colin Grant).

See here for a discussion about this text on Thu 22nd June, 18:30 & more.

See here for a video of his memorial in 2014.

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Z  Nicolazzo  Trans* in College
(autob; USA)

"... this book goes far past the expected story of trans* suffering to powerfully center trans* resilience and voice" (Sumun L. Pendakur, Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity , Harvey Mudd College).

See here for an excerpt of unedited manuscript.

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Cristian Heredia The Struggles and Victories of Latinas in Higher Education
(photographic project, US)

An environmental portrait series that documents the struggle and victories of one such group of Latina women. By exploring their experiences, we get a glimpse of how they reconcile life with academic success in institutions that may not necessarily represent them. Ultimately, this series aims to serve as a mirror for them. And hopefully, holds up a mirror for those who have yet to see themselves in these institutions (website info).

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For the first time in the United States, during the 2008-09 academic year, women earned a majority of the doctorates awarded. Yet people of color are still underrepresented in institutions of higher learning. Given this information, what does it mean to be a Latina in graduate school?

"The Struggles and Victories of Latinas in Higher Education" is an environmental portrait series that documents the struggle and victories of one such group of Latina women. By exploring their experiences, we get a glimpse of how they reconcile life with academic success in institutions that may not necessarily represent them. Ultimately, this series aims to serve as a mirror for them. And hopefully, holds up a mirror for those who have yet to see themselves in these institutions.

Denise Gonzalez

Hometown: San Diego, CA

Degrees: B.S. in Biology from UCLA, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from UC Davis; Ph.D. from UC Davis
"I think the most difficult thing for me has been the writing process. I do not consider myself a good writer and since it has been a while since I have written about research, starting my dissertation has been such a challenge. It's also been difficult to write because I have not had much guidance on the writing process, in contrast to my lab work where I always feel open to asking for help and guidance with experiments." "Some of my favorite experiences include finding a group of supportive and like-minded graduate students that I can call my friends. We are all from different disciplines but that does not stop us from understanding and supporting each other. Another one of my favorite experiences is figuring out a work-life balance. At times it is difficult, but once you figure out the routine that makes you happy you continually strive to get back to that routine. I also loved my experience in veterinary school. The faculty was always supportive of the students inside the classroom and in clinical rotations. Clinical year was tough, but at the same time very much enjoyable."
Lisandra Ochoa

Hometown: Stockton, CA

Degrees: B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis, B.A. in Chicano/a Studies from UC Davis,; M.S. in Public Health from UC Davis
"[A favorite experience in academia is] finding other students like myself, who have had to overcome many of the adversaries that come with being an underserved minority, and still manage to succeed in academia. They became my family away from home."
Raquel Rojas

Hometown: Terra Bella, CA

Degrees: B.A. in Art Studio and Political Science from UC Davis; currently working on a Masters in Fine Arts at Cal State Los Angeles
"I find that the lack of people of color in academia is challenging. In addition to that, there are a not enough women of color in academia in the arts. I find that when I have an issue or a concept in my work that is about feminist thought, my professors seem to glaze over it and speak only to the aesthetic value in a way that dismisses the ideology behind my work." "I love being able to question and challenge my professors. In my thesis paper, I am pointing out this lack of women of color in the subject matter of contemporary art. I am proposing that the material needs to be reviewed for the benefit of the students that the program is serving."
Lisceth Cruz

Hometown: I consider many places my hometown as they have impacted who I have become. Now, as I am a mother, "home" is wherever my children are.

Degrees: A.A. from Santa Rosa Junior College, B.A. in International Relations and Chicana/o Studies from UC Davis; M.A. in Mexican American Studies from San Jose State University; Ph.D. in Educational Policy and School Organization from UC Davis
"For me, the hardest part of academia has been the constant fight to debunk stereotypes. I feel the burden of constantly being the only female of color at the table. However, I recognize the importance of my presence and the importance of representing people of color."
Leonela Carriedo

Hometown: California native, moved to Nashville, TN, but home is where the heart is

Degrees: B.S. in Biology from Middle Tennessee State University; Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UC Davis
"I found the transition into being a graduate student a bit difficult for a number of reasons. It was my first time leaving my family, I knew no one in the Davis area, and I was taking on courses I had little background in. Also, I was not prepared for the amount of independence I would be given as a graduate student. These things made me feel isolated and at times depressed. But many other people new to graduate school are in the same boat, so friendships are bound to happen." "My favorite experiences as a Ph.D. student has been involving undergraduates in research. There has been times when I felt that I could not push my dissertation forward, and I knew I needed some help. I brought a couple of students onto my projects and not only did they help tremendously with my work, they uplifted me and made me want to be the best role model for them and help them along with their career aspirations. Also, I went to Beijing, China for an international conference and met a lot of great scientists and got to see a part of the world that I likely would have not had the chance to see during graduate school."
Rocío Mendoza

Hometown: La Puente, CA

Degrees: B.A. in Sociology from Cal State Fullerton; M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from University of Washington; Ph.D. (in progress) in Education from Claremont Graduate University
"As a first-generation graduate student, I feel like I am stumbling into my academic career or is reluctance? I have developed a moral discomfort with academia, a system that is capitalistic, that asks for so much in terms of productivity, time and energy, and will keep taking as long as you keep giving and gives little in return. These feelings both drive me towards and away from the work." "Paradoxically, academia has also been a place where I have met so many amazing community of dear mentors, friends and colleagues, who are like family now. We celebrate, commiserate, and remind ourselves of why we entered this work in the first place; of what truly matters-the work we do with and for our communities to disrupt systems and make changes in the lives and educational experiences of people of color. Learning a language to articulate and 'name our pain,' as bell hooks writes, has been healing. Working on college applications with Latinx immigrant parents and their high school students, and talking about life issues throughout the process, has been healing. Working with undergraduates and helping them and myself understand false notions of meritocracy -'I need to get the best GPAs, get into the best grad schools,' etc.- has been healing. Being able to connect with people in authentic ways, within these structures, has been healing. These are some of my favorite experiences in higher ed that fill me with hope for the work that lies ahead."
Anel Jaramillo

Hometown: Dallas, TX

Degrees: B.S. in Biology from University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D. in Neurobiology from University of North Carolina
"Favorite experience is discovering something. There's no better feeling than having your work answer a scientific question that no one else has an answer to. Aside from that mentoring, it's really rewarding to pass on that curiosity to other students and showing them that their work can have a huge impact in the field."
Lizette Rodríguez

Hometown: Woodlake, CA

Degrees: B.S. in Nutrition Science from UC Davis; M.S. in Nutritional Biology from UC Davis
"The most difficult thing was believing I was capable of performing. Sometimes our insecurities get the best of us. First it was my insecurity with science, after I overcame that, it was my insecurity with writing. In retrospect, these were just challenges and opportunities preparing me for my next steps."
Nidia Trejo

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Degrees: B.A. in Design from UC Davis, B.S. in Textile Science from UC Davis; M.S. in Fiber Science from Cornell
"I really enjoyed going to my general chemistry instructor's office hours at UC Davis as a freshman. Dr. Enderle helped me make chemistry my strength as I transitioned into science coursework. He was very patient about reviewing concepts and going through examples step-by-step. Also, I loved participating in the McNair Scholars Program at UC Davis to prepare and learn about graduate school."
Elizabeth Gonzalez

Hometown: Somewhere between Oaxaca, Mexico and San Marcos, CA

Degrees: B.A. from UCLA, M.S. in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz; Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UC Santa Cruz
"Imposter syndrome is real for people who are underrepresented. Once you start to internalize that you don't belong or that you're wrong, that's colonialism. Having to fight that is exhausting."
Cristian Heredia is a California-based social documentary photographer. He earned an Electrical Engineering Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. His projects aim to visually explore culture.

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The Struggles and Victories of Latinas in Higher Education

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For the first time in the United States, during the 2008-09 academic year, women earned a majority of the doctorates awarded. Yet people of color are still underrepresented in institutions of higher learning. Given this information, what does it mean to be a Latina in graduate school?

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NoViolet Bulawayo We need new names
(novel; Zimbabwe)

"... it is a narrative that any African can relate to" (Mutsa Chinyamakobvu, Statistician, South Africa).

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Randall Jarrell Pictures from an Institution
(US; fiction)

" Beneath the unassuming surface of a progressive women’s college lurks a world of intellectual pride and pomposity..." (Chicago Uni Press blurb)

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Randall Jarrell Pictures from an Institution

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David Lodge Small world
(fiction; novel UK)

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Metalepsis in Black from African Noise Foundation

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Metalepsis in Black from African Noise Foundation

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(Documentary; RSA)

Aryan Kaganof's movie about  a conference on "#MustFall: Understanding the Moment” held at the university of Free State (UFS), South Africa. The event was collaboratively organised and sponsored by Rhodes, UFS and the University of Pretoria (UP).

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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Barney Pityana, Elelwani Ramugondo, Angelo Fick, Trevor Shaku, Majaletje Mathume, Sylvia Graham, Sandy Africa, Julia Fish, Steven Friedman, Leonard Praeg, Lis Lange, Dionne Van Reenen, André Keet, Willy Nelson, Chelsey Wilken, Aidan Brown, J.C. Van Der Merwe, Brian Sibanda, Jodi Williams, Phiwo Qoza, Thierry Luescher, Siyathokoza Mtolo, Llewellyn Leeu-Gamka MacMaster, Tartius Ningiza, Sikhululukile Luwaca, and Karin van Maerle.

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Jade Hoyer’s “study” Reflects on Educational Privilege
(art exhibition, US)

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ERIN GANNON '19

A&E EDITOR

The musings of an angst-filled high schooler are etched into a wooden desk which sits in a uniform row facing a mostly empty blackboard and an American flag-but not in a high school classroom. Rather, they are deliberately arranged in the Widener Gallery in Trinity's Austin Arts Center as a part of Associate Professor of Studio Arts Jade Hoyer's exhibit "study".
Hoyer, who joins Trinity's faculty for the year as an Ann Plato Fellow, is completing a one-year post-graduate fellowship. In her capacity at Trinity, she is teaching Studio Arts courses and pursuing her own research and work. Her exhibit "study", which opened on Oct. 13, is on display in the Widener Gallery through Dec. 9.
Hoyer grew up in Michigan and attended Carleton College for her undergraduate studies, where she majored in Studio Arts and minored in Environmental Studies. After working in college access and higher-education administrative roles in Minnesota for six years, Hoyer pursued her Masters of Fine Arts in printmaking at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The inspiration for "study" came most notably from her time working for College Possible, a non-profit AmeriCorps organization that aims to assist low-income students in the college admissions process. Hoyer worked at a high school in North Minneapolis, Minn. "It ended up being a sort of formative experience for me," Hoyer said. "As a biracial person, when people would discuss the notions of privilege I would almost tune out automatically. But I hadn't fully comprehended the extent of the privilege that I had had within my educational experience-I went to a suburban high school and then Carleton-until I was working at this high school."
The exhibit takes the form of installation art, which means all of the pieces of the exhibit are shown in a gallery and work together to cumulatively have an overall impact. Though Hoyer's inspiration for "study" came from her time working with high schoolers, the project did not begin to take shape until her time at UT Knoxville. "I kind of knew that I wanted to make something related to a classroom setting," she said. "The studio building where our graduate studios were was an old classroom building that still had this one classroom that I walked by on a near daily basis. I think it was a combination of having this really formative intellectual and emotional experience of working in this high school, and then the constant visual of walking past this empty classroom space as well.
Hoyer collected the materials for the project from surplus services at UT Knoxville. "A lot of it was a giant scavenging project," she said. "When I look back on it, it connects with my interest in Environmental Studies. It was appealing for me to be able to repurpose a lot of these supplies."
The exhibit is comprised of different images, "each illustrating some aspect of privilege in secondary education." High up on the wall adjacent to the entrance of the exhibit in large print is the text ""STUDENT NAME HERE" is ranked "X" in their class of", which is followed by the struck through number 273. The number leads a cardstock chain descending in numeric order all the way to the number 156. Hoyer explained that this image was based on recommendation letters she wrote for the high school students she worked with. "The high school I worked at had a really low graduation rate and an even lower rate of students going on to pursue college," she said. "Every time I wrote a letter of recommendation for these students I would have to check their class rank out of the constantly dwindling high school class. Every day it was a smaller number."
On the wall adjacent to the class rank display is a large flower-like sculpture made of used scantron sheets. "It's a schematic based on the Doris Marshall Institute at the University of Toronto, which is promotes education about social change," Hoyer explained. "They do a schematic called the 'power flower', and the idea is that each petal represents some aspect of social identity. The idea behind the flower is that you look at intersectionality and how all of these things contribute to how you benefit or don't benefit within society." Hoyer used scantrons to be reflective of identity beyond a binary.
Directly in front of the entrance to the exhibit are two sets of ceiling tiles, one hanging from the gallery's ceiling and one arranged opposite on the floor. Stuck in each set of tiles are several blue and yellow pencils in the shape of a star. The star on the upper set is made of primarily blue pencils, and the lower of primarily yellow pencils, illustrating the racial achievement gap. "It's an illustration of the Minneapolis District high school graduation rate," Hoyer said. "The upper ceiling tile indicates students who are graduating, while the lower ceiling tile indicates students who have failed to graduate. The color of the pencils is also indicative of the students' races. Students of color are represented in yellow, and white students in blue."
The centerpiece of the exhibit are nine desks situated in rows of three, facing a teacher's desk and a blackboard, much like the archetypal high school classroom. The surface of each desk is carved with elaborate drawings and phrases each meant to represent unique personas and experiences of students. Lining the walls that surround the desks are prints taken from the desks, repeated in changing color schemes, representing the different experiences that can happen using the same resources.
The desks face an American flag and a green chalkboard that is entirely blank except for small white text in the center saying "a collective apology for failing to provide you with the education experience you should have". The supposed front of the classroom is based on an NPR story about the desegregation efforts and the nature of the school district in Ferguson, Missouri. The text was part of an apology issued by an education official at a commencement ceremony.
Hoyer's "study" is an immersive, data-driven and emotive experience that sheds light on the privilege and lack thereof in secondary education. The exhibits colors contrast with the dark issues it exposes, while still emphasizing their impact. Trinity hosts "study" for the fall semester and students are encouraged to make the most of the unique exhibit while it is still in Hartford. Though Professor Hoyer will remain a member of Trinity's faculty through the academic year, "study" will be moving back to Tennessee in January for another showing.

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Jade Hoyer's "study" Reflects on Educational Privilege

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ERIN GANNON '19 A&E EDITOR The musings of an angst-filled high schooler are etched into a wooden desk which sits in a uniform row facing a mostly empty blackboard and an American flag-but not in a high school classroom.

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Dambudzo Marechera  The House of Hunger
(fiction; short stories; Zimbabwe)

"I thought it was a very stark and vivid account of skeletons that black people seem to have normalized as part of their cultural experiences. It left me very unsettled and wondering about how everyone else manages their lives without such a platform to release their frustrations. A riveting read, not for the faint at heart" (Mutsa Chinyamakobvu, Statistician, South Africa).

"The university is a backdrop against which questions are asked about education and ideology and alienation" (Stacy Hardy, Rhodes Univ, South Africa).

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah
(novel; fiction; set in US and Nigeria)

"which is interesting because there are academics as part of the broad character pool, and it also looks at how black students experience a white curriculum in USA." (Corinne Knowles, Rhodes Univ, South Africa)

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Lewis Nkosi Mating Birds
(Memoire, RSA)

"Nkosi, a DUT alumnus, was awarded a posthumous honorary doctorate in 2012. In 2016 the DUT writing centre writing competition is themed on his life and work' (Andrea Alcock, DUT, South Africa).

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Jane Smiley Moo
(fiction, novel USA)

"...this novel offers a wonderfully satirical and cogent critique of higher education institutions in general and is relevant to any context.  In fact, being set in the mid-west and being so pertinent to the SA situation renders it all the more effective, in my view." (Sam Naidu, English)

See more on this from Prof Dan Wylie's blog

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Mariama Bã  So Long a Letter
(fiction; novel; Senegal)

"a teacher’s point of view" (Stacy Hardy, Rhodes Uni, South Africa).

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K Sello Duiker The Quiet Violence of Dreams
(fiction; novel; RSA)

"the university is more a backdrop against which questions are asked about education and ideology and alienation" (Stacy Hardy, Rhodes Uni, South Africa)

See exhibition on this text at the Stevenson, Cape Town, Johannesburg

21 July - 27 August 2016

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Niq Mhlongo Dog Eat Dog
(fiction; novel; South Africa)

"The book narrated to me the feeling and the excitement  of the  27th April 1994 very well . At that time I was not in the age to vote, was young and ignorant then to notice what it meant for the first time voters young and old  to vote for the first time, the hopes , the dreams , the promises of what democracy will bring." (Nomfundo Siqwede, Rhodes Univ South Africa)

"The chapters of this book operate as a series of vignettes of the life of a very young opportunistic guy who gets swept about by the undercurrents around him. I remembered what it was so feel excitement, but also to be so unaware of how things work in adulthood and in HE" (Dina Belluigi, Queen's Univ Northern Ireland).

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Russell Leo Bruns, Candyland.
(Photographic stills and videos related directly to Rhodes University, South Africa)

" South African society is not exclusively run by racist individuals, but by those oblivious to the skewed nature of the system they operate in. In this manner, Candyland asks us an important question: does ignorance abrogate culpability?"  (Sally Ann Stenning, British Journal of Photography, 2016)

"... informed by the online dialogue of the Rhodes University Facebook network" (excerpt from the artist's thesis).

View The STATUS-series (1;2;3;4)

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Robert Berold  Meanwhile Don’t Push and Squeeze – a year of life in China
(memoir; RSA)

"Early on in the book, Berold writes of his students – he was employed as a “foreign expert” at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou to teach English to undergraduates – that “they all seem to have this positive outlook on life ... they are proud of being Chinese and look forward to a career and family ... I find myself asking where the shadow stuff is, the angst and scepticism I expect in young people.” In subsequent pages, however, we discover the profound strain experienced in all strata of Chinese society." (excerpt of review)

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Zadie Smith On beauty
(novel, fiction)

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AS Byatt Possession: A Romance
(UK; fiction)

" Byatt figured out a way to get the addictive, dizzying spell of research across in this exceptionally romantic book. It follows a graduate student and a feminist professor who discover that two obscure poets, their mutual obsessions, once actually met – and had a secret affair" (Guardian review).

Possession (film adaptation, US)

"I imagine this film is precisely the kind of dry, pretentious exercise that most people have in mind when I tell them that I’m interested in films about higher education.... Unfortunately the rich material in Byatt’s novel just did not seem to transfer" (excerpt from review).

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Kingsley Amis Lucky Jim
(UK; fiction)

" The story of Jim Dixon, who is dubious about having fallen into his work as a professor of medievalism, already has been the subject of worldwide acclaim...Dixon hates his superior and despises the kind of weekend socializing required in small academic settings..." (Gaurdian review)

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Donna Tartt The Secret History
(US; fiction)

"... follows a sextet of student friends attending a small Vermont liberal arts college. The group is tight-knight, pretentious and obsessed with ancient Greeks. But one friend soon begins to turn on the others..." (Guardian description).

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Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot
(US; Fiction)

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Mtutuzeli Matshoba Call me not a man
(Short stories; RSA)

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Andrew Rossi Ivory Tower
(Documentary, US, 2014)

" A documentary that questions the cost -- and value -- of higher education in the United States. (website info)

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Louis Prinsloo By Die Leplek van die Leeus

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History of Dark Matter Retold: Panel Discussion

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History of Dark Matter Retold: Panel Discussion

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Beulah Ezeugo on INVISIBLE and Adeyemi Michael's short film
(Blog post; short film, Ireland)

"The achievements of black women are all around us and are present throughout history, yet they are rarely ever seen or acknowledged, much like the nature of the elusive dark matter” Laura-Joy Pieters

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INVISIBLE, our current exhibition, is based on last summer's DARK MATTER season at Science Gallery London. During that exhibition, the gallery's Young Leaders worked with director Adeyemi Michael to develop a short film which you can watch at the end of this blogpost - History of Dark Matter Retold. On 14 May, Science Gallery Dublin mediator Beulah Ezeugo hosted a live discussion about the film with the director and Young Leader and chemistry graduate, Laura-Joy Pieters. Below, Beulah shares her own thoughts on the film and all things INVISIBLE.
There are lots of metaphors you can spin from our current exhibition's title alone - a popular one being that "invisible" is how the exhibition will remain, since no one will see it due to the lockdown restrictions - for now, at least. The intended meaning, however, was to focus on the unseen - whether in terms of forces like dark matter and other cosmic energies, or in reference to those works by many marginalised individuals in the science (and art!) world have been rendered invisible.

INVISIBLE deals in both fact and speculation, much like its sister exhibition DARK MATTER did in London last summer. It presents an exploration of astrophysics but, like most Science Gallery exhibitions, it also holds space for individuals to examine how they move about the world and come up with their own conclusions.

It was during the DARK MATTER exhibition in Science Gallery London that History of Dark Matter Retold was conceptualised. Scientist and actress Laura-Joy Pieters collaborated with director Adeyemi Michael to produce a film that portrayed Laura's birth and heritage. When speaking about what she wished to communicate with the film, Laura expressed that "The achievements of black women are all around us and are present throughout history, yet they are rarely ever seen or acknowledged, much like the nature of the elusive dark matter".

One of the best things about the film is that it conveys how science can overlap with fantasy, and how fantasy is often the best narrator of real-life experiences. It uses science fiction to engage in a retelling of the discovery of dark matter, using the birth of a black woman, a group who know well what it feels like to balance ubiquity and invisibility in unison. American sci-fi author Octavia Butler spoke about black women in science fiction, a genre that was originally considered to be for boys, and how in retellings of weird and wonderful realities, a lot of authors' imaginations didn't stretch as far as to include female protagonists - and until we started writing our own stories it was unimaginable that black women could be protagonists too.

Science fiction has long been a guiding light when it comes to both learning about our current reality as well as imagining alternative and better realities - so the temporary closing of the gallery isn't a tragedy when we consider that the best artistic and scientific resources can also be encountered through films, books, and conversations.

And though the physical space of the gallery is closed, Science Gallery Dublin is still providing a digital platform to engage in these conversations.

The exhibition aims to raise questions about the production of knowledge, particularly who is awarded recognition and who is neglected within the worlds of science and art. The pandemic we are collectively living through has done a good job of holding the flaws of our society up to the light, and allows us to do some reimagining by making us consider what change looks like. What does it look like when the care and honour that we are capable of rendering and giving reverence to in fiction seeps into our institutions? One conclusion to be drawn is that we need to rapidly adapt to what is imaginable.
INVISIBLE originated at Science Gallery London, King's College London in 2019, titled DARK MATTER.

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History of Dark Matter Retold: Panel Discussion - Science Gallery Dublin

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INVISIBLE, our current exhibition, is based on last summer's DARK MATTER season at Science Gallery London. During that exhibition, the gallery's Young Leaders worked with director Adeyemi Michael to develop a short film which you can watch at the end of this blogpost - History of Dark Matter Retold.

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Mignonne Breier Letters to My Son
(fiction; novel)

"Aside from being a mother, Mignonne is also a researcher in the field of Higher Education. She works and has worked in various roles and institutions in SA. In writing these beautiful, moving and at time heart-breakingly sad and honest letters to Matthew, we also get a glimpse of  shifts in her view of her professional self." (Lynn Quinn, Rhodes Univ South Africa)

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Malaika wa Azania Memoirs of a Born Free

"“Malaika is a courageous and  honest writer. Her book provided an insightful view of a world with which I am not personally familiar.' (Karen Ellery, Rhodes Univ South Africa)

"Malaika is one of our students, and her story will be useful for understanding the experiences of some of our students in order to shift how we teach.' (Corinne Knowles, Rhodes Univ South Africa)

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Randy Pausch The last lecture
(Autobiography; USA)
Video on Oprah

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Ellen Kuzwayo Call Me Woman
(autobiography; RSA)

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Jonathan Jansen We need to talk
(collection of articles; RSA)

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Sebastian Faulks Engleby
(fiction; novel; UK)

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Niq Mhlongo After Tears
(fiction; novel; South Africa)

"…I found myself longing more for an in-depth focus on the nuanced personalities of the characters to  inspire curiosity and hope; and shed light and validation on the different dimensions that can make up the lived experiences of black people..." (Mutsa Chinyamakobvu, Statistician, South Africa)

"I haven’t read a book that is so relevant to the daily living of my community in a very long time" (Nomfundo Siqwede, Rhodes Univ South Africa)

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Carolyn Heilbrun The Last Gift of Time. Life Beyond Sixty.
(fiction; novel; USA)

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Malala Yousafzai I am Malala
(memoire novel and film)
Film by David Guggenheim He Names Me Malala
Implications for education at this link

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Jake Nathane Welcome to the Zoo
(Workshopped play: Grahamstown; 2016)
Click for related article (1;2)
The university campus to which this play responds was the scene of many anti-rape protests in 2015/6.

"fighting against ineffectual responses to rape and rape culture" (excerpt from review)

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The full performance of 'Welcome to the Zoo', a theater production directed by Jake Nathane. In light of the ongoing protest, Welcome To The Zoo was brought back for awareness and solidarity. TRIGGER WARNING: There are scenes containing violence of a sexual nature and strong language.

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Reflection on this archive
(June 2016)

"Most (good) literature has a "Doppelter Boden" (double layer). The narrative therefore is not only one of self-experience, but that which can be projected onto and against a civil society. As opposed to journalism, which is supposed to report about a forensic reality, literature holds the opportunity to smuggle different narratives and messages across. A "Doppelter Boden" is an intrinsically spatial phenomenon, as—in order for the message to be transported and deployed—one needs to construct the very space in which a parallel reality can unfold." (Markus Miessen 2016: 15-16, in this doc)

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Donald A Bligh What's the use of lectures?
(book; UK)

"I found it helpful for me because it isn't overloaded with CHERTL talk!' (Samson Khene, Rhodes Univ South Africa)

Dedication at the beginning of the book: "To those deprived of education through poverty or race"

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Kirby Dick The Hunting Ground (2015)
(documentary; USA)

"... is a documentary film about the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and what its creators say is a failure of college administrations to deal with it adequately." (website info)

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Chris Boeskool When You're Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression
(blog, ?)

“a great piece for use for one of the common arguments/comments I often hear” (Karol Vieker, Equality and Diversity Manager, Sweden)

"The first rule of White Club is you do not talk about White Club…" (Caption to image below)

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Don Monopoly of Dreams
(documentary; UK?)

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This documentary, Monopoly of Dreams, is about the fact that people choose to study something that they are not interested in instead of pursuing their dreams. For collaborations and business inquiries, please contact via Channel Pages: http://ChannelPages.com/PSNy2kUK

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John Merrow Declining By Degrees: Higher Education At Risk (2005)
(documentary film; USA)
"Debunking commonly held notions about the rite of passage known as the college experience" (website info)

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Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk

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In this revealing documentary, veteran correspondent John Merrow takes you behind the ivy-covered walls of our colleges and universities to see if they are delivering on their promise.

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Jo Coetzee  AT+RHODES+WE+WEAR overalls (2015)
(video art; RSA)

"The university currently known as Rhodes is a historically white institution in South Africa. This means that there are certain policies and cultural traditions which reflect this and that the imagined student of the institution is still a bourgeoisie white student. One such tradition which sticks out for me is that students wear personalised purple overalls in order to drink and party.... " Excerpt from interview with the artist found here.

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Tim Minchin UWA Address (2013)
(uTube link)

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Comedian-musician Tim Minchin addresses graduates at the University of Western Australia where he was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree. Minchin is a graduate of UWA. Note: the video has been slightly edited from the full-length version for brevity.

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Public Enemy It takes a nation to hold us back
(music/ video; USA)

"American perspective but fits with the current "woke" culture on campus" (Earl Prinsloo, Rhodes Univ South Africa, @earlprinsloo).

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Here's my first upload of any music here on YouTube! This is an upload of the classic rap album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy. The album is loved by critics and was ranked the 48th greatest album ever made by Rolling Stone (the highest ranked rap album on that list.)

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Justin Simien Dear White People
(film; satire; USA)

"... focuses on escalating racial tensions at a prestigious Ivy League college from the perspective of several African American students" (website info)

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A student at the University of Stellenbosch, broke down while confronting a dean on campus over the proposed fees increase for 2016
(uTube).

See more by following this link.

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Student's emotional #FeesMustFall plea goes viral

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Stellenbosch University, 22 October 2015 - Bathanda Xhali, a student at the University of Stellenbosch, broke down while confronting a dean on campus over the proposed fees increase for 2016.

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An emotional student came out as "non-binary" transgender to President Obama at a town hall in London.

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An emotional student came out as "non-binary" transgender to President Obama at a town hall in London.