Academic Keywords

by Cary Nelson

Know what academic freedom is? Or what it's come to mean? What's affirmative about affirmative action these days? Think you're up on the problem of sexual harassment on campus? Or know how much the university depends on part-time faculty ?

Academic Keywords is a witty, informed, and sometimes merciless assessment of today's campus, an increasingly corporatized institution that may have bitten off more than its administration is ready to chew. Cary Nelson and Steve Watt use the format of a dictionary to present stories and reflections on some of the most pressing issues affecting higher education in America. From the haphazard treatment of graduate students to the use and abuse of faculty (as well as abuses commited by faculty), Nelson and Watt present a compelling and, at times, enraging report on the state of the campus.

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up off a library shelf, attracted to the subtitle and the possibility it would be a venomous anti-academia tract. Turns out it's not entirely anti-academia (plus only partly venomous), just a detailed and fascinating critique of the new university -- corporate, commercial, exploitative. Written mostly from a lefty-humanities perspective (not the wanky theorie version, more a fierce workers'-rights perspective), every "definition" explodes with fascinating anecdotes, indignation, and calls for action. The entry on "Cafeterias" was especially fascinating -- I had no idea the colleges once had full-time dietitians, and that food services weren't outsourced!

Even better was the entry on "Moonlighting", featuring a tenured professor who was allegedly working full-time at a men's clothing store, and the comical attempts of his department supervisor to spy him there.

More serious are the entries on the "Corporate University" (where departments become no more than product-testing labs), "Attrition Rates" (getting higher as class biases grow), "Sexual Harassment" (needs a major rethink), and "Tenure" (an odd history, that).

This book was written in 1999, and you can already see at some points that it's due for a rewrite: things are getting that bad. [n.b. One of the obviously radical authors, [author:Cary Nelson] is now President of the American Association of University Professors, maybe a good sign? Or a signal of professorial desperation?]

[Beth Windle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nelson and Watt certainly don't say anything that encourages a person to join Academia. I feel like this book would have been a bit more helpful were I already in grad school or already finished with grad school. It's more a call-to-arms for academics than it is a guide.