A brief guide to locating publishing opportunities (for junior and temporary faculty and advanced grad students in the humanities)

One of the requirements of my job as a junior faculty member is to publish. Now, I work at a teaching university, so the requirements are similar to those at research universities, but the types of allowable publications that count toward tenure and promotion are more expansive. It occurred to me today that everyone might not know what I know. I was fortunate to attend a research university for my PhD with a cohort of research-focused people, which meant we talked about and shared information about how and where to publish. I attended conferences and networked with more established academics in order to learn what was needed. Our professors were also good about incorporating some of this information into classes and conversations, which meant that we were extremely well-prepared about what to expect publication-wise when we went on the academic job market.

However, not everyone had that intensive experience. And once you land the job, no one really talks about what is expected and HOW to locate the right kinds of publishing opportunities. My advice and list are based on the requirements (as I understand them) at my state teaching university.

First, bookmark and check this site frequently: University of Pennsylvania CFP

No matter what your humanities specialty, the UPenn CFP will have publishing and conference opportunities for you. Start here.

A word about conferences. They are not as important as publishing, but you will be expected to attend at least one or two per year (say, one regional and one national or international). Use the conference time to network and seek out publishing opportunities. I landed two book reviews for a well-known cultural journal by simply responding to an editor's call for review ideas at a national conference. I've also met many people in my field who have been incredibly valuable to me and my grad students. But don't let conferences dominate your scholarship.

Remember, publishing is still king, even at a teaching institution.

Second, become familiar with the top 25 or 50 journals in your field or fields. For instance, my primary field is Composition and Rhetoric, my specialty is Indigenous Rhetorics, and my interests extend to teaching (pedagogy) and creativity. This broadens the scholarly publishing potential, but there are still top journals in each of these fields or specialties - in fact, there is a hierarchy of journals. Top tier, middle tier, bottom tier. Some are traditional print journals (such as Rhetoric Review, where my first academic article appeared in 2011), and some are digital (such as Epiphany Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies, where my second academic article appeared in 2012). Both of these journals are peer-reviewed, which means the submission goes through a rigorous and blind process of judgment and revision before it is accepted or rejected. Whether the journals you seek are in print or online, the ones that will count the most are the peer-reviewed publications.

Third, there are many other types of publishing that will count, but that won't take a year or more to see results. As long as there is an editorial process - meaning, there is an editor or editorial team providing revision feedback before your work is published - these publishing opportunities are easier to write, less complicated to obtain, and have a fast publishing time frame. Get on Google and use your browsing capabilities to find blogs, web sites, and online publications for article, essay, creative, review, and opinion opportunities. Find out who the editor is and pitch that person an idea. If they seem open to book reviews, pick a book that hasn't been published yet and suggest a review. To find these unpublished books, go to Amazon and search for your field's most well-known term. For me, it was "indigenous rhetorics" or "Native American studies." For you, it might be "education" or "film theory." Search by publication date from the most recent and then scroll down until you see books that are about to be published within six months. Don't worry about not having a copy - if the editor gives you a thumbs up for the review, just contact the book's publisher for a press copy. The editor can often help with this.

By the way, those academic journals each took a year or more from submission to publication. The publishing I've done in the outlets identified in the last paragraph all took less than a year - often a matter of months - from idea pitch to publication.

Book chapters are also wonderful and if you have the right contacts, these are terrific and valuable additions to your CV. However, books are tricky because publishing is often much, much slower - projects get held up for all kinds of reasons. And the same goes for writing a book. Save the book-length manuscript for your bid for full professor. When you are a temporary instructor hoping to be rolled over into a tenure-track position or a junior faculty member, try for as many scholarly, peer-reviewed pieces as time allows (3-4 in your first five years), but then bulk up your publishing record with the smaller, faster pieces. It shows your commitment to your field and your scholarly activity.

Keep this in mind when it comes to book publishing: If your book (or the one with your contribution) isn't actually in print by the time you go up for tenure, it won't count. I just learned this fascinating fact - only the things in the "published" category will really be considered. Everything else takes a far back seat because anyone can load their CV with "revised and resubmitted" or "forthcoming" promises, but the tenure and promotion committees want to see tangible publications that are out there and available for perusal.

Another great place to publish is encyclopedias. Whatever your field, there is an encyclopedia or two. These have an editorial review process and require you to be at least a PhD candidate or a faculty member to contribute. These entries vary in length (usually run 500 - 3000 words), involve research, and can be cranked out rather quickly once you are used to the genre.

Something else to keep in mind: Everything you do before your tenure clock starts doesn't count. So, if you publish a scholarly, peer-reviewed article as a PhD candidate and that gets you the job, you must realize that it will not count toward your tenure and promotion bid. If that piece was published before you started your job, it doesn't count. If you have been a temporary instructor at your university for four years and are then rolled over into a tenure-track position in year five? Everything you've done in years one - four won't count toward tenure and promotion. The tenure and promotion committees only consider what you've published after the tenure clock has started.

Another strategy to consider for crafting a publication pathway:  Not only is it possible, but also perfectly acceptable, to contact a journal editor cold to pitch an idea. Academic journal editors may respond or they may not, but if you apply what professional writers do all the time - pitching ideas cold to relevant outlets - you may get the nod to try. No guarantee of publication because your work must still be vetted by two reviewers who will not know that you pitched the idea to gauge interest. However, this is a tactic I used all the time as a freelance journalist and I've recently started applying it to my academic publishing and it works! I saw a new journal in my field set to start publishing next year, so I emailed the editor with an abstract of an idea for a potential article. He liked it and said if I wrote it well, it would probably stand a good chance. That's all I needed and I'll be writing that piece over winter break. Why not make your process more efficient by vetting your idea with an editor up front, so that you know your piece will at least have a chance at being considered? Otherwise, you are just blindly submitting to publications that may be a bad fit - but it will take that editor 3 - 6 months to tell you this. Be more efficient and business-like in your approach to academic publishing and you may end up with more and better-focused opportunities.

So be fearless, don't hesitate, and don't let the existing rules block your progress. Find a hybrid position between following the conventional rules and making your own path so that your publishing record will cover all the bases, be varied and yet focused on your fields, and show your level of dedication and scholarly activity.

Now go publish! And please leave any comments, questions, or additional ideas. :)

Changing the master narrative: The problem with dressing children as "Indians" for Thanksgiving plays, selfies, and social media outlets

My Facebook feed has exploded today with images of charming little white kids dressed up in feathered headbands, fake braids, and colorful "Indian" clothing. I try, I really do try to change this master narrative by posting informative pieces from real Native peoples living and working today - from Indian Country Today Media Network, Beyond Buckskin, Native Appropriations, Last Real Indians...in the hope that some of this new information would puncture the master (and incorrect) narrative that we Americans continue to tell ourselves about the origins of Thanksgiving.

And it seems I haven't made a dent. This explosion of images and comments proclaiming how "cute" the kids are...proves that all of my efforts are in vain. No one is paying attention. No one gives a shit. No one wants to change the comfort of the master narrative. And why is that? Are we really so vapid as a people that we can't accept that dressing little white kids up as "Indians" isn't appropriate for Halloween or Thanksgiving or ANY time of year?! Is it really that difficult to suggest that perhaps your child or your child's school focus on the truth about this holiday or at least choose a less racist costume?

Sigh.

We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our youth, and to the actual real living Native peoples existing in this land today to change the master narrative, to speak truth about our past, and to stop dressing little white kids up as "Indians." It isn't that hard, I promise.

It starts by recognizing that dressing little white kids up as "Indians" is reinforcing a stereotype and a belief that Indigenous peoples are no longer with us and therefore, are available to us as a source of mockery to be represented any way we see fit. Ah, and there's the rub. Indigenous nations in North America number in the hundreds today - they are still here - and they see what you do. They are not honored. They are not amused. Some choose to ignore our racist behaviors because, quite frankly, they have enough to worry about with the health and wellness and success of their own communities. But for those who do look up, look around, and see how we think of them - as nothing more than a costume to be used on a fake holiday for the amusement of ourselves and our friends?

Take one moment out of your ever-thankful proceedings to stop for a hot second and consider what that might feel like if it was directed at you. Imagine that your life, your history, your identity, your ideals, your cultural practices were constantly belittled and demeaned in the public domain and no matter how loud you shouted that you deserve more respect than that, instead of being heard, you are ignored and laughed at and told to lighten up. How do you feel now?

Feast away. Be thankful that your white privilege is strong and powerful enough to permit your need to dress your children as a fantasy idea of real living peoples. But dump the "Indian" attire. Your kids are not cute dressed in racist and inappropriate costumes, no matter what your friends and family say. If those people think it's cute, then they also need the same smack-down lesson. Just stop.

You should be teaching your children better than that. And for that more appropriate teaching, here is a list of children's books to get you started. Now is a great time to stop contributing to the problem of racist stereotypes of Native peoples and start changing the master narrative:

Beyond the So-Called First Thanksgiving: 5 Children's Books that Set the Record Straight

The damaging effects of the “indoctrination” accusation

Someone I love dearly told me recently that I indoctrinate students when I teach Native American rhetorics. That, in fact, every time I talk about it, post about it, publicly proclaim about it, that I am indoctrinating people.

Let’s take a look at this word, “indoctrination.”

I’m going to take a page from the college student handbook and include a dictionary definition here:

Indoctrinate: “to teach (someone) to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group and to not consider other ideas, opinions, and beliefs” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indoctrinate)

So, my profession has been conveniently boiled down to this negative assumption; an accusation oft thrown around by conservatives and anti-education folks. I am fascinated to know that I teach my students to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of Native Americans without any consideration of others’ ideas, opinions, and beliefs. (And ignoring the fact that, as a group, “Native Americans” are a varied bunch with many diverse opinions on a wide variety of subjects.) Of course, that’s not at all what I do, but let’s just go with that for now.

Where exactly does this accusation come from? A simple Google search for “college professors indoctrinate students” had 974,000 results, some of which are linked here:

Student indoctrination. http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/4714344-74/academic-professor-students#axzz2l6PJr23b

One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America’s Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy. http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/books/one-party-classroom-how-radical-professors-america%E2%80%99s-top-colleges-indoctrinate-students-and-undermin

How California's Colleges Indoctrinate Students
A new report on the UC system documents the plague of politicized classrooms. The problem is national in scope. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303816504577312361540817878

School Has Started And So Has Student Indoctrination. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/091913-671786-using-classroom-to-indoctrinate-students-grounds-for-dismissal.htm

College Professor Tells Students Republicans Are Stupid, White Old Racists- Indoctrination. (And this author takes the official dictionary definition a step further. Her definition of indoctrination: “To imbue with a partisan or ideological point of view.”) http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/04/college-professor-tells-students-republicans-are-stupid-white-old-racists-indoctrination-2618916.html

Clearly, this accusation of indoctrinating students is coming from the political Right. My personal opinion as to why this is the case has to do with the Right’s persistent refusal to accept that students are capable of making up their own minds and thinking for themselves when it comes to fraught political or social issues, such as gay marriage, abortion, and in my case, Native American sovereignty, history, cultures, contemporary issues. Okay then.

So, we know this accusation exists in the national conversation. We also know that this assumption exists in the personal spectrum when people who believe that we indoctrinate become personally involved with us as friends, colleagues, partners. Let’s take a look at the damaging effects of this accusation.

First, being accused of indoctrinating students undermines my professionalism, my goals as a professor, and dismisses the import of what I actually do in a classroom. Like most simplifications, it renders a complex and sometimes difficult task down to a very negative and easy process. It also makes huge assumptions about the gullibility and malleability of college-aged students. How quaint to think that my room full of 18 – 21 year olds are so easily swayed to my perspective, my point of view, my opinion; that they, in fact, have no opinions or perspectives of their own. Hence, this accusation not only undermines my professionalism, it also assumes that people in college are empty vessels waiting to be told what to think. And in my professional experience, that assumption is quite far from reality.

Second, accusations of indoctrination evidence a deep disrespect for my profession and for me personally. This accusation, in one simplistic swoop, tells me that the subject I care about deeply enough to invest money, time, and energy into learning about in order to teach students the wide variety of issues inherent in that subject, does not matter, is not worth my time or my students’ time, and is certainly the wrong thing to be teaching.

Third, the accusation of indoctrination puts professors on the defensive. It certainly put me on the defensive. I take what I do very seriously – and personally because of all the time, money, and energy I’ve expended to get here. Putting people who have worked so hard and care so much about a subject on the defensive is an effective strategy because it shifts the focus away from the real problem: that students need to be exposed to a multitude of opinions and information in order to form their own opinions about the world.

And here’s my final word on this for now: If students come away from college with different opinions than yours? That doesn’t mean they have been indoctrinated. It means they were presented with a broad spectrum of information and opinion that you may have never seen, and they decided for themselves what to think. The process of college is scary to some people because it does influence how people think about subjects and realities in the world. But I am tired of being on the defensive – it is exhausting. I know what I do in my classroom and most people have no idea. I invite any of my readers to come to my classrooms and observe for a day. Just a day should be enough to demonstrate how misguided this indoctrination accusation really is.

This is Power

When someone spreads vicious rumors about you that have no basis in fact, when someone acts purely for spite, or to disrupt, or “because they care,” your response should be…


Silence.


Do not protest. Do not defend. Do not retaliate. Tell your friends, your confidantes, your lover. But keep your public voice quiet.

          But it’s not true! My reputation is…

Your reputation is just fine. Because the rumors aren’t true. And everyone who knows you, everyone who matters, knows they aren’t true. You have integrity, character, and class. Do not let the shouting voices of disapproval drown out your progress, your work, your worth.

          But…they lied. They need to know….

They need to know that you are Teflon and unpredictable. Imagine what they will think when you say nothing. When you just go about your business doing good works, raising your child, enjoying your life, unscathed. They will wonder if you will say something. When you will say something. What you might say. And to whom. Let them wonder. Let them have the headaches and the stress and the stomach knots. They’ve earned it.

          But I’ve spent the past two days angrier than I’ve ever been…and crying. I’ve cried so much…

So now it’s out of your system. Good. Now let it go. For the sake of your sanity, stress level, health, and self-esteem, let it go. Do not let your enemies win by showing them they have disrupted your enjoyment of life.

          She hates me.

Yes. She hates you. She will always hate you because you cannot change the things that she hates. She hates your very existence. There will always be people who dislike you, who will talk about you negatively behind your back, who will wish you ill will and try to break you. Do not give them the satisfaction.

          Take the high road?

The hard road, yes. Hold your head up and go about your business and your life. Live, work, love, and keep doing what you do. The people around you see. They see that your enemies are cruel and uncaring. Troublemakers. They see that you remain silent, remain in a good mood, remain productive, and they start to see your critics differently. No longer trustworthy, those gossips continue to lose credibility with every forward step you take.

          I was hurt.

Yes. Blind attacks can be the most painful. But they must also be endured. Only engage with people and situations that are transparent and in your field of vision. Those proverbial slings and arrows sting and grind away at your spirit, but these are surface wounds. Only you can let them go any deeper. You are in control, even if you don’t feel it.

          How can I be in control if I feel like everything is falling apart. People will think less of me…

…if you engage in a protestation defense, yes. They will think better of you if you take the hits and just keep going. Accept that there will always be people who will dislike you, talk about you, want to disrupt your life. Your reaction will determine your course. If you choose the high road, the hard road, and just keeping walking the path, unwilling to let these small minds distract you, this is Power.

For my friends. Much love.

Backstory

Our identities are inextricably tied to the stories our families tell about who we are, where we came from, when we arrived in this land, and details about personalities, work ethic, and cultural heritage. From an early age, we hear stories about Gram Bickey and Uncle Joe and Aunt Alice, about the ice cream store that our grandparents owned, about working poor growing up, and about the rise to middle class economic success. We are told we are just like Aunt Laura or Grandma Helen or Dad, and we look like Cousin Chris or Cousin Barbara or Cousin Sara. We see our noses when we look at Mom and our chins when we look at Dad and our earlobes when we look at large family Christmas portraits. 

Stop.

Go back.

Think about those stories. Now imagine that you aren’t anything like your family in personality or physical characteristics. There are no matches. No physical resemblance. No personality similarities. No “I get that from you” moments. Imagine that when you were young, sometimes those differences created tension and unease.

“Why can’t you just listen?” (Or obediently do what we are telling you to do.)

“Why do you always have to learn the hard way?”

“Why can’t you just write happy things?”

Imagine being made to feel small for your rambunctiousness, for your stubbornness, for your headstrongness, for your independent determination to figure things out for yourself. Like something is wrong with you for being who you are. 

Never imagining that one single interaction could change all of those feelings and reverse all of the hurt. Always wondering what it would feel like to know that you belonged. To lift the sense of being an outlier in your own family.

I feel like I need to make a qualifying statement about how much I love my family before I progress, but as Anne Lamott so succinctly stated, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

This quote lives on my office door and I frequently make my students read it as I remind them of this vital fact. To write truthfully and creatively about yourself is to tread on potentially dangerous territory because someone’s feelings might get hurt. But we own our stories. And although I do love my family, I also have deep seated feelings and a long memory. And this is MY truth.

Fast forward.

This past Sunday, at 10 a.m. in North Park outside of Pittsburgh, PA, on a gray and overcast rainy day, I met my birth mother face to face for the first time.

Embedded in that first fierce and strong hug was a lifetime of longing.

“Since I last held you, I’ve wanted this,” she said into my hair, her tears wetting my neck. “I love you.”

Tears sprang to my eyes, surprising me with the force of emotion behind them. “I love you, too.”

She pulled back and caressed my face, laughing and crying. “You’re so pretty. So pretty.”

I looked into her eyes and saw mine. “You have blue eyes,” I said, smiling and allowing myself to feel the weight of the moment as my tears flowed. “I have your eyes.”

She smiled, looking me full in the eyes with absolute acceptance. We hugged for a long time and it felt good. In that hug and in the next seven hours, I started to understand more about who I am, where I come from, why I am the way that I am, why I look the way I do.

We have the same eyes. The same smile. The same nose. The same non-lobe earlobes.

We have the same stubborn determination. The same penchant to think and weigh decisions carefully before committing to a course of action. The same preference for not wearing jewelry, for booths over tables, for gardening, for animals, for taking chances, for loving deeply.

For the first part of the visit, we sat knee to knee, holding hands, sharing stories and laughter and insights. Nerves melted away into a warm comfort of understanding.  I started to feel like I could really breathe. Or finally exhale.

She lifted her hand to caress my cheek. “You have my skin!”

“That explains why I look so much younger than my age. And seeing how beautiful you look gives me hope.”

She showed me family photos of my half-sister and half-brother, aunt, uncle, grandparents. I took photos of her photos and studied the faces. I saw my chin, my nose, my facial shape. I heard about these people and their stories and characteristics and felt something I’ve never experienced before that I think many people take for granted – acceptance that my personality, physical looks, and emotional characteristics stem from a long line of people with similar personality traits, physical appearance, and psychological characteristics. In my specific case, I come from a determined, opinionated, and headstrong German people.

That was a surprise. The German heritage.

My family is Irish and my parents were told by the adoption agency that I was Scottish and Irish and that my birth father was French Canadian.

That wasn’t quite true.

Turns out my birth father was possibly of French descent, but was an American marine. He also denied my paternity, which is why his name doesn’t appear on my original birth certificate. And my birth mother’s family is mostly German with a bit of English and Scottish.

No wonder I like bratwurst and beer. :)

Interlude.

I’m still processing the German, not Irish distinction. Being an American, it’s not as if my family’s former nationality plays a large role in my identity, but in many ways it does. My family is proudly Irish and they bring it up frequently enough to notice. Perhaps this was a relief of sorts that the girl they had adopted shared this nationality. But now that isn’t true and my parents brushed it off and are taking it well. 

Families give us our first sense of identity through the stories they tell us as we grow up. Those stories are repeated at family dinners and picnics and vacations to the point of becoming legendary tales that are retold to re-establish that communal sense of belonging. 

What happens when the story changes?

At the end of our daylong meeting, we discussed the Facebook discovery. I found her on Facebook. I had her name and it took me three hours of Internet searching. She recounted how much she has wanted to meet me, but that it had to be my decision. She never wanted to give me up, but did so because it was the right decision for me. She always hoped I would contact her. She has always loved me.

I can’t begin to express how much healing has begun now that I know. The mystery is solved. My story is changing and I will be better for it.

A new story begins.

The routineness of genetic testing

"Sail away, sail away, sail away," Enya croons softly from the overhead speakers. Giada De Laurentiis makes some kind of chocolate cookie dough with chocolate chunks on the little flatscreen TV. A magazine page crinkles and swooshes into place as the woman behind me turns the page. It all seems so routine.

"Genetic testing," my doctor announced definitively at my last gynecology appointment. I had just learned about my family medical history from my birth mother, and had related it to my doctor: Aunt died of ovarian cancer, Grandmother died of breast cancer, Grandfather died of colon cancer. Now that we know I have this dangerous trifecta in my immediate family, genetic testing is the Sherlock Holmes of cancer testing.

For women with my history, genetic testing can open a door to potential preventative solutions, including (in my case) surgical removal of my one remaining ovary because evidently, "Ovarian cancer shows up in stage three," my doctor admonished, looking at me with that "take this seriously" look that I think doctors must perfect in residence. Fortunately, I do take this seriously. Or I thought I did. I just haven't felt any nerves or qualms about it yet because I am fully in favor of knowledge being powerful and an ounce of prevention and all that.

Now, surrounded by such common sights and sounds as I wait, distracting myself with Facebook and emails, I feel a swirl begin in my stomach. True, it may be that my jeans are now too tight because I gained back the ten pounds I lost over the summer (What? It's been a stressful semester. Again. Just in the last four weeks I've been insulted, threatened, and scolded. Seriously.). But no. The jeans aren't that tight.

Have I just been too distracted by my work, my wonderful relationship, my enjoyment of my garden and food and fishing, to really fully comprehend what this testing means?

If I test truly positive or "uncertain" for the breast and ovarian cancer gene, that means major surgery. Necessary, but major. And the last time I had surgery, it took me three days to recover from the anesthesia it made me so sick.

If I test truly positive, this means multiple mammograms and MRIs twice a year just to watch more closely until the inevitable shows up. People with family history of cancer have a 50/50 chance, according to my doctor and the research she presented to me.

For 43 years, I was blissfully unaware. Willing to go with the flow and just deal with whatever arose. And now, that has changed. Now, I will know. I want to know. And if the results aren't clear, then the decision becomes fuzzy and uncertain. Act? Or wait? Waiting could be a death sentence. Or not.

These are weighty thoughts and the swirl in my stomach hasn't stopped. No matter what the test results are, my life will change. Maybe that's why every skin cell now feels alert and prickly hot. My throat starts to throb with my heartbeat as it speeds up. My saliva tastes tinny. This feels momentous. Like I should take it more seriously than maybe I have.

"Amanda? The doctor can see you now."

Professor-shaming: A chilling new precedent

For those of you who haven't seen this, here is an open letter that a student wrote and posted to her Facebook account in order to publicly shame her professor. This letter is now making the rounds of Facebook through sharing. Please read it over and then continue.
******************************
"Open letter to my professor.

Today marked one of the most upsetting academic experiences of my college career. I WAS enrolled in an anthropology and China course at Amherst College. The professor, who is not emotionally intelligent nor does she pick up on social cues well, "talked" about the One Child Policy.

Dear Professor: First of all, please do not talk to us like we are children. Second of all, please do not tell an entire class while laughing and cracking jokes that "people in China flush girls down the river and abandon them because no one wants a girl." Where do I even begin, Professor? Should I tell you that there are such things as "social pressures and government policies" that force women/families to make critical decisions that they don't necessarily want to make? Have you ever read your colleague's book "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son"? Did you consider not laughing and making fun of this sensitive topic? Did you also know that I was one of those "unwanted females who every parent aborted" whom you so kindly speak of? Yes, you did know. How did you know? Because I told you on the first day of class while we all introduced ourselves and you asked us (the students) why we were taking the course. Oh, maybe you didn't hear me because you weren't paying attention? Why weren't you paying attention? Ah, you must have been staring admiringly into the eyes of your favorite Amherst student. Why did you continue to ignore my raised hand for at least 2 minutes, which a long time in classroom time? Judging from your actions, you must've wanted to ignore/silence me because you proceeded to call on the next Amherst student who raised his hand while totally disregarding my blood-drained arm that was still fighting to stay raised the entire time. Lastly, Professor, if you are going to pull this kind of sh#@ in front of a Chinese adoptee, you should know who that Chinese adoptee is. And if you're going to mess with a MoHo (Mount Holyoke student), you should know that she isn't running back to her dorm room to cry about it, she's going somewhere else - it's called the Dean's office.

 Signed, An Unwanted Female

 P.S. I am not one to shame people in public, but sometimes, an unwanted girl's gotta do what an unwanted girl's gotta do, right?
*****************************

Some of you may be saying "bravo!" and "go, girl!"

Some of you may be saying, "holy shit was THAT inappropriate." 

Wherever your response is in that range, let's examine this public piece of writing for what it really is: public shaming of a professor for the sole purpose of retaliation, vengeance, and humiliation.

On every college campus in America there exist two grievance committees - one for students to submit grievances about faculty or staff and one for faculty and staff to submit grievances about each other and the system. There also exists on most, if not all, campuses a version of a Social Equity office that handles complaints about harassment, intimidation, and other discriminatory behavior. There are also department chairs and then deans, who often field such complaints before making any recommendations to the complainants about next steps. Finally, on most campuses, the procedure for making a grievance or complaint is private and held as a confidential process so as not to unduly embarrass any party, or create the potential for retaliation or change of status (ie, being kicked out of school, or being fired) particularly when all of the evidence has not been gathered or examined and all parties have not had their 'day in court' with the necessary committee or office.

In other words, there is a process in place to handle potentially problematic situations that were readily available to this student, whose feelings were hurt. Let's consider the facts that she offers us:

1. There is an Anthropology and China course at Amherst College
2. A professor teaches it
3. The student is angry about how she was treated
4. The student is a Chinese adoptee
5. An Amherst professor wrote a book on the subject titled Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son

The rest of this student's very angry missive is pure opinion. Might this professor truly be out to offend this particular student? Yes, it's possible. Might the class have introduced themselves on the first day and the professor doesn't actually remember this one girl's background? Yes, it's possible.

Is it possible that this professor talked in a joking manner about something very serious, possibly crossing the line into "inappropriate"? Yes, it's possible. Is it also possible that the professor was laughing out of disbelief, rather than support of such a policy? Also possible. 

Is it possible that this student is a "constant contributor" to discussions and the professor was trying to call on other students? Yes. Is it also possible that the professor just didn't see this girl's hand in the sea of hands? Yes. Is it also possible that the professor has favorites and unfairly treats certain students better than others? Absolutely possible.

Are there misogynistic, bigoted, racist professors who bring those attitudes into their teachings and classroom environments? Of course. Do intolerant, needy, and spiteful young people get offended at the slightest whiff of something they disagree with or don't like? Absolutely possible. Are these two groups of people the majority on college campuses? Absolutely not. But this letter adds to the constant drumbeat of disgust and hatred that students and the general public feel toward professors already - this merely adds fuel to an already existing bonfire. Who benefits from this?

Clearly, the student who wrote this "open letter" got what she wanted. So many of the comments on her post  (and the shares of her post - at least that I've seen) are of the encouraging, congratulatory, and laudatory type that it makes my skin crawl.

No doubt, right now, on Amherst's campus, administrators are meeting to discuss what to do about this. They will likely call the professor, whose identity is easily discovered by a simple Google search, into a conference room to ask about this incident. Hopefully, the professor will be give a fair chance to respond. And if the prof is found wanting, then changes should be made - perhaps additional training in tolerance or pedagogy - but this person does not, I repeat, DOES NOT deserve to be fired on the strength of one wounded girl's opinion. 

Furthermore, this student will likely also be called to account for her rash and unnecessary public shaming of her professor. My hope is that she also receives some consequence - even a warning that this sort of retaliatory discourse is unacceptable and inappropriate for an Amherst student. 

The grievance processes and committees exist for exactly this sort of situation. In this case, that is where the student should have turned. She was wrong to turn to Facebook because this sets a dangerous and chilling precedent.

Is this the model that we want our students, our children, our peers to follow when they feel aggrieved? It is one thing to speak up, which should be applauded. It is quite another thing to speak up rashly and out of anger in the wrong forum. We should be setting a better example for young people and helping them to understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate mediums for personal grievances, especially when someone's identity and job might be on the line.