Meggie Macdonald

Recent excavations undertaken by the American Institute for Roman Culture (AIRC) in a suburb outside Rome have yielded yet more fascinating results.  In 2007, a massive bath complex was discovered that included both conventional mosaics and the remains of glass mosaic pieces inside the vaulted, domed building.  There is also evidence of the extensive villa of Quintus Servilius Pudens, a wealthy associate of the Emperor Hadrian (r 117-138).  Excavations continue on this site that dates from the second century AD/CE.

The AIRC is an organisation of archaeologists, scholars and researchers who work in association with local and government authorities to ensure the study and preservation of Ancient Rome continues.  More information on their work can be found at their website:  www.romanculture.org

After reading a blog post by a close friend, I find myself thinking intensely about what was said in a way that I normally don’t when it comes to blog posts.  They’re usually good to read, but not really something I think about for days and days on end.  However, this post, about the restrictive nature of interdisciplinary study of any subject is something that, I think, very much needed to be said in no uncertain terms.

It can be found at the URL:  http://vaultingvellum.blogspot.com/2009/01/rant-on-disciplinary-boundaries.html

I was alway partial to my first-year undergraduate courses in Classics and History simply because they were interdisciplinary.  The fact that we had to learn about everything in context and include reference points from primary sources, secondary sources, different languages, archaeological sites, literature, religion, politics and so on was vastly more appealing than studying each of those topics on their own.  The style of academia where these topics are treated as though they must be separated into incubators to survive is not what I want to end up teaching. 

Many people have asked me what I would like to teach at university, and my response is always first-year classes, without hesitation.  Everyone is surprised that I don’t want to specialize in something loftier such as graduate courses, but I don’t feel such work is lofty at all.  Graduate students are rarely impressed with anything but the sound of their own voices, and their ability to network vast amounts of information into a cohesive paper or presentation.  Undergraduate students are still fascinated by the subject and want to learn everything there is to know about it.  I want to feed that kind of enthusiasm.

Having said that, I believe that the author of this post is very right to state that academics who study at the interdisciplinary level find it much harder to establish themselves in an academic post such as teaching because they must decide what department they work in and stick to it.  Not all universities are like this.  I truly believe, as a result of the use of a more thematic approach to study, that the move away from the 19th century structure is happening.  But I don’t think we’re quite there yet.

This is perhaps why ‘amateur history’ is so much more appealing to some of us.  These writers have not been shaped by the decisions of previous scholarship and instead learn everything there is to know about a subject, formulate their own ideas, and get them published.  I remember a fellow student during my graduate studies saying:  “If I’m ever able to write history, that’s the kind of history I want to write.” 

My thoughts exactly.

As a former graduate student of York University, I have been following news updates on the CUPE strike with some regularity.  For those who have not been watching, contract faculty and graduate students working as TAs and RAs walked off the job November 6th 2008, demanding more pay and job security.  Represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 3903, two deals offered by the university in the hopes of ending the 10-week-long strike have failed to pass a popular vote.  A third is currently on the table and now the university’s back is up against the wall.

A petition signed by 282 faculty members has been delivered to CUPE, voicing their opinion that this deal should be accepted to send students and staff back to work.  Because of the length of the strike and the extent of press coverage and public outrage, York’s reputation as a centre for higher learning is now at stake.

I sympathize with the contract faculty, who are struggling for a place at the university and are trying to support themselves and their families during this global economic crisis.  Job security is incredibly important and, so far, they don’t have it.

However, I have little sympathy with the graduate students demanding pay raises for TA and RA positions that they were guaranteed upon admission.  Being a hopeful future academic who has failed on three occasions to secure enough funding to begin my doctoral studies, the guarantee of funding by most institutions in North America is not to be taken lightly.  This is not to say that grad students should accept with gushing gratitude whatever they’re offered, but rather that considerations within the context of current events is key.

I wholeheartedly sympathize with the 50,000 panicked students who are on the verge (if not already past it) of losing the academic year.  Time to completion is everything, and students without any hope of a definite graduation date are pitiful beings indeed.  International students, whose funding is so precariously tied to course length, must be beside themselves by now, unable to do anything but hope that the worst is not yet to come.  Graduate students trying to hand in projects, particularly a final thesis, that will allow them to graduate in a given year are also in the hurry-up-and-wait category.

I also agree with parents demanding accountability and, in many cases, reparations for services they have paid for but not received.  As much as tuition is subsidized in Canada, $6000 each year (and sometimes more) to pay for courses alone is a significant investment.  When Iceland threatened that they would be unable to guarantee repayment of investments made in the country when the financial crisis hit full stride, there was nearly an international incident.

CUPE may argue that the press has turned public opinion against them and the plight of their union members, but it is clear that public opinion was turning against them long before any member of the press shoved a microphone in someone’s face.

This strike needs to end.  Students need to be able to go back to school.  Parents should be getting what they have paid a lot of money for.  Everyone looking to hold on to some job security should be working:  working to ensure they are in a good position – professional and politically – to preserve their jobs.  And CUPE needs to stop acting like it’s the turn of the twentieth century.  It’s 2009.  Wake up and start working.