The Review: Abject Academic Satires; Law and Religion; Science Studies

On satirizing the wasteland of academe. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( [logo] [Read this newsletter on the web](. How susceptible, these days, is higher education to the pen of the satirist? In [an overview of]( campus novels from Mary McCarthy's The Groves of Academe (1952) to Julie Schumacher's Dear Committee Members (2014), Andrew Kay suggests that the genre may no longer work. "Academic satire," he writes, "is in a greatly imperiled state" — a victim not just of the decline of English departments (long the source and subject of much of the genre) and of a newly sanctimonious suspicion of comic mockery but, above all, of the economic vulnerability of the industry: "The gutting of public universities by right-wing politicians, the brute transformation of colleges into exploitative institutions that run on adjunct and graduate-student labor — these changes have resulted in a landscape so desolate it hardly seems worth mocking." Kay's essay is from 2018. The three years since have not reversed the desolation he describes. But, as Kristina Quynn explains in an article originally published in [Genre]( and [adapted for]( academic satirists have found a form for this wasteland in the "Adjunctroman" — novels of professional abjection in which "feces, vomit, blood, amputated limbs, corpses ... are some of the motifs by which the new campus fictions announce their difference from the old." Into this exhausted terrain comes Christine Smallwood's [The Life of the Mind]( an Adjunctroman about a failing academic teaching a class on eschatology. In this week's Review, [Charlie Tyson writes about]( novel, and in the process discloses his own nightmares of "bourgeois indignity" and proletarianization. For Smallwood, Tyson says, "We are all going extinct. But academic literary critics … are going extinct a little faster." From abjection to apocalypse: I'll read it in the summer. Paid for and Created by Auth0 [How Blackboard is Unifying Identity for Millions of Users]( Learn how Auth0’s support allowed Blackboard to create a universal identity solution while maintaining the company’s rigorous security standards and reducing user friction. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( Subscribe to The Chronicle The Chronicle’s award-winning journalism challenges conventional wisdom, holds academic leaders accountable, and empowers you to do your job better — and it’s your support that makes our work possible. [Subscribe Today]( The Latest THE REVIEW [The Apocalyptic New Campus Novel]( By Charlie Tyson [image] In Christine Smallwood’s story of scholarly precarity, what the academy wastes above all is human potential. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( THE REVIEW [The Making of Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’]( By Timothy Brennan [image] How an unlikely best seller spawned academic feuds, global fame, entire subfields, and its author’s ambivalence. THE REVIEW [The Pandemic’s Sexist Consequences]( By Rose Casey [image] Academe’s stark gender disparities are exacerbated by Covid-19. THE REVIEW [Harvard Does Not Care About Teaching — or Teachers]( By Ben Roth [image] The richest university in the world treats some of its most essential employees as disposable. THE REVIEW [Legal Theorists Have Much to Learn From Other Fields]( By Adam Shapiro [image] Not only those trained in the law are competent to speak about society. The Religion of Law The ideological transformation of the Supreme Court, which now boasts a conservative majority, will be the most lasting consequence of the Trump presidency. Changes at the court are occasions for intensified public interest in abstract problems of jurisprudential theory, which in this case means a bevy of articles on "originalism" (like almost the entire conservative judiciary, Trump's three appointments consider themselves originalists). Back in October, Oliver Traldi [lamented what he saw as uninformed or caricatural descriptions]( of originalism by academic pundits without legal training. More recently Adam Shapiro, while agreeing with much of Traldi's critique, [argued that originalism]( be understood without the help of scholars of religion, who can elucidate its similarities to biblical fundamentalism. That essay occasioned [sharp rebukes from Paul Gowder and from Noah Feldman]( both scholars of constitutional law. (And see also Feldman's New York Review of Books essay, "[The Battle over Scalia's Legacy]( Read that exchange, and then read Shapiro's [response to his critics]( which analogizes the dispute to earlier disputes between scientists and the field of science studies. Recommended - "Said was famously not one for acolytes and disciples, and it is good that Brennan is willing to read Said against Said." At The New York Times, [Ayten Tartici reviews]( Timothy Brennan's new biography of Edward Said. And if you missed it last week, [read Brennan on Said]( in The Chronicle Review. - "The problem with being a generational icon is that generations keep coming." At Jstor Daily, [Michael Barany on the important mathematician]( Nicolas Bourbaki, who did not exist. - "To understand the contrarian’s role, we should look to their positioning within the larger attention economy." At Persuasion, Geoff Shullenberger draws on Durkheim and, implicitly, Girard to [analyze the function of "contrarianism"]( in the mediascape. (And don't miss Shullenberger's Chronicle Review article, "[Social Justice, Austerity, and the Humanities Death Spiral.]( - “'A deep-end girl,' he called himself, not one 'minnying along the sidewalk of life.'” At The New York Times, Parul Sehgal is [characteristically excellent]( on a new biography of the painter Francis Bacon. I'm always hoping to hear from you — write to opinion@chronicle.com. Yours, Len Gutkin Paid for and Created by Rice University [Pivoting Through the Pandemic]( Learn how Rice University is developing new capabilities on how to deliver education and collaborating with students and faculty to better serve their community — physically and virtually. Faculty Diversity What Colleges Need to Do Now The growing racial-justice movement has led colleges to rethink diversity on many fronts, including in their faculty ranks. This collection from The Chronicle includes articles, advice, and essays on how colleges can diversify their faculties and help minority scholars thrive. [Order your copy today.]( Job Opportunities [Search the Chronicle's jobs database]( to view the latest jobs in higher education. What did you think of today’s newsletter? [Strongly disliked]( // [It was OK]( // [Loved it](. [logo]( This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. 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