Number of weeks until classes end: 2
Number of assignments / essays to be handed in: 4
Number of exams to be tested on: 1
Number of thesis proposals to be defended by May: 1
(How Whiteness is constructed in Canada with reference to an identifiable group, Italian-Canadians.)
Number of seminars to be presented: 3
On Monday, I'll be presenting (and probably suffering through) a seminar on Baha'i epistemology. I'll simply say that the two prior times where I've attempted to incorporate Baha'i concepts into my academic work, it has resulted in *horror stories*. The first involving the word "naive" on a returned essay detailing a Baha'i environmental ethic. The second involving the suggestion that "perhaps, academia is not for you" (and being told this in person no less) regarding my essay on the Faith's principles of education.
Quite charming. (: (:
If only my life could consist of watching television. . .
5 comments:
With your permission I would like to excerpt from this post and link.
When I was an undergraduate, I remember some times when I was naive about how the Faith would be greeted in academic studies. But there were other situations where professors exhibited both positive and negative approaches. I made the mistake one day of carrying the Kitab-i-Iqan into a psychology class on Piaget, since I had a deepening right after. The professor asked me what the obok was. When I told him, he said: "Do not bring anything like that into my classroom again." So much for enlightening young minds and teaching them to think. In another class on the origins of war, my professor was so enthusiastic about my paper on Baha'u'llah's concept of collective security and future world order that she had me present the paper to the entire class. One never knows the response one will have. Professors are human too and they do indeed have their prejudices.
I wouldn't chalk up their responses to "prejducies," although that may be the case in some situations. I think many Bahai solutions are considered naive because...well, they sorta are.
Imagine a seminar on international political economy, and imagine submiting a paper on unity being the solution to systemic inequlities in global financial instiutions. It has no meat to it.
I'd be really interested in seeing your work on Bahai epistemology. I tried to run a blog on philosophy and the Bahai Faith, but the task was too overwhelming and time consuming.
It wallows in its moribund glory right now - www.concourseonlow.blogspot.com
CoL
stay strong dear one! it's funny how different profs react in different ways to the Faith in the context of student writing...my husband is in a similar situation, & his profs seem to really like it when talks about the Faith's ideas in his writing about education. thank goodness..perhaps it has to do with how jaded & stuffy your profs really are :O) either way school is for suckas :O)
Thank you for the recent comments. However, I do feel compelled to state / clarify that it hasn't been nearly as dreadful as my post might have conveyed.
I've interacted with many lovely professors who have both inquired and welcomed Baha'i perspectives on a variety of issues. I've just been unlucky with "formal" offerings (i.e. essays). (:
Shirin, you are so right! "school is for suckas" (; (;
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