Thursday 2 April 2009

Names are important

Those of you who know me professionally will be aware that I teach English Literature and Media Studies (and various other things on the side). So I'm in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences.

Except that I'm not. Now I'm in the School of Law, Social Sciences and Communications. Does this make me feel valued, loved and secure? It bloody doesn't. Does it make me feel that the Executive is a) incompetent and b) contemptuous of a large proportion of the school's activities? It bloody does.

What really angers me (and my colleagues here on the PGCE are using the phrase 'red mist' about me) is that Law, Social Sciences and Communications doesn't cover: English Lit, History, Politics, War Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, European Studies, Cultural Studies, Languages, Women's Studies, American Studies and only reductively, obliquely covers Linguistics, English Language, PR, Media Studies, Cultural Studies. Not only does this list cover more than half our degree courses, it covers way more than half of our students. Grrrr.

2 comments:

Benjamin Judge said...

The School of what? Why don't they just call it the 'School of Everything Else' right now and cut out the middle man?

The Plashing Vole said...

I thought about SLAGS (School of Law and General Studies) or SLAW (School of Law and Whatever).