{"id":104,"date":"2019-02-28T10:27:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T21:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/inplural\/?p=104"},"modified":"2019-02-28T10:37:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T21:37:43","slug":"easy-words-an-open-letter-to-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/inplural\/easy-words-an-open-letter-to-critic\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy Words: An Open Letter to Critic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Critic – Te Arohi – Student Magazine,<\/p>\n

\"\"

Title image from the Critic article [25th Feb 2019]<\/p><\/div>Working life as an academic precariate doesn\u2019t always give us much to laugh about these days \u2013 but thank you for including ANTH papers in your overview of the easiest degree possible at \u2018Varsity! The lecturers and tutors in the Social Anth programme were (for once) glued to your pages, hastily scanning to see if they scored an \u2018easy\u2019 for the fruits of their intellectual labour.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I think we were more perturbed about the handful of our papers that you decided were too \u2018difficult\u2019 to include.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Critic’s dabbles in degree planning… featuring ANTH325 (Death, Grief, and Ritual) and ANTH327 (Anthropology of Money)<\/p><\/div>\n

But it makes me think a little more about why we study what we do, at Uni. Why would we want a degree that was \u2018easy\u2019?\u00a0 Critic\u2019s analysis of a dream degree holds some internal contradictions about achievement, it seems to me…<\/p>\n

The article is a \u2018how to\u2019 guide for the minimum effort possible to achieve a qualification. This is erroneously calculated of course: all 18 points at the University of Otago are designed to be around 10 \u2013 15 hours of both contact and non-contact time per week. Papers pass through a rigorous review to ensure this \u2013 ask the OUSA education officer, who sits on these Divisional Academic Committee Meetings!<\/p>\n

Social anthropology papers include large amounts of background reading, ethically approved fieldwork and independent study and analysis, alongside contact hours \u2013 skipping over these elements of learning are not the pathway to an A+ but perhaps a C.<\/p>\n

But let me return to what it is that we value in our degrees. Is it the piece of paper and a string of Cs? Or is it the experience, the self awareness and critical insights that a capacity for life long learning instills in us? Critic<\/em> has one answer, but a lot of my own students have another:<\/p>\n

\u201cYour course [in social anthropology]\u00a0 <\/em>has profoundly\u00a0 influenced\u00a0 my\u00a0 path\u00a0 over the\u00a0 last 7 years: I’m currently a student midwife at Ryerson University, Canada, and think back often to the critical and curious lens that your teaching afforded me… In\u00a0 my\u00a0 work, political\u00a0 life, and student\u00a0 life, I work to ground\u00a0 myself\u00a0 in the engaged\u00a0 critical\u00a0 practices\u00a0 I was lucky enough to learn from\u00a0 professors\u00a0 like\u00a0 yourself…I\u00a0 really\u00a0 credit\u00a0 your\u00a0 course as an important part of why I do the work that I do!
\n– Unsolicited email, Alumna, 2009<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Another paper offering diverse case studies and critical thinking\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, dear Critic, it is thanks in fact to these very (critical thinking) skills, that our students have been so quick to place your article into its wider socio-political context \u2013 an ideological shift towards devaluing the humanities.<\/p>\n

In Facebook comments and hallway conversations, many made a clear and disgruntled connection between this article and a bigger trend of \u201carts bashing\u201d, and jumped to defend their degrees accordingly. One recent BA (social anth) graduate shared:<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied damn hard to get my Anth major [\u2026] they\u2019re so much harder cause it\u2019s not just straight up facts but looking into things and understanding lots of different ways to see something.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another BA(Hons) social anth graduate says:<\/p>\n

\u201cclearly no one at critic has actually taken any Anth papers! Easy is not the word I’d use… Diverse and broad based perhaps… I mean where else do you get to cover papers in one subject on medicine, death, reproduction, economics, religion, evil and supernatural forces, globalism and philosophical movements.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet another affirms that the experience hinges on if you \u201ctake the time to really make an effort\u201d. Perhaps ‘easy’ is an approach, rather than a characteristic of any one paper or degree.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Graduation 2018: Prof Ruth Fitzgerald standing with BA (Hons) Social Anthropology graduate Jennifer Bell. Jennifer was offered a job at the Ministry of Justice, before she had even finished the year.<\/p><\/div>\n

So let me encourage and admire all of our past and present students who have worked hard to engage meaningfully with their studies, and who have achieved distinctions like local and international scholarships, and awards for their dissertations and conference presentations. Not to mention all of those marvellous transcripts full of B\u2019s and A\u2019s, achieved through hard work, integrity of purpose, and dedication to the ideals of good scholarship.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s easy to see the difference.<\/p>\n

Yours Sincerely<\/p>\n

Prof. Ruth Fitzgerald<\/p>\n

Social Anthropology Programme,\u00a0<\/em>School of Social Sciences<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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