Ethnography.com – Page 11 – ~ a group blog on a variety of topics related to anthropology, sociology, and ordinary people ~

We’ve Always Done It This Way

Posted on February 1, 2016February 2, 2016 by Julie Garza-Withers

I wrote the post below during my last semester as an adjunct instructor at a rural community college. I resurrect it here because Warren Waren over at Racism Review just published “Institutional Racism: Comparing Oscar Nominations with Higher Education Faculty.” It’s a must-read, especially for anti-racist White academics serving on hiring committees, as faculty and EEO representatives at PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions). Inspired by the recent hashtag campaigns #OscarsSoWhite and #OscarsStillSoWhite, Waren draws deft comparison between the Oscars academy (94% white) and academe (“15% of the enrolled student population at America’s colleges, but only 5.5% of all full-time faculty are black.”).

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How do you Frame a Mental Blur?

Posted on January 12, 2016January 11, 2016 by Tony Waters

I am in the midst of new stimuli. Last week, my wife and I moved from from Chico, California, USA, to a new job in Chiangmai, Thailand. I had my first class on Sunday in Business Statistics, and I had some vague idea of writing up the experience for ethnography.com. But I’m at a loss of where to start. My observations are a blur—meaning that in ethnographic terms, there is not yet a frame.…

Me & Tony Talk About the Corporatization of Higher Ed on Facebook

Posted on December 26, 2015January 31, 2016 by Julie Garza-Withers

I like the “On this day” app on facebook. I don’t teach anymore but I’m reminded of things I taught or read and what I thought about them, it’s good to reflect now that I’m an official “post-ac” (that’s a former academic, mostly adjuncts, who got fed up with the b.s. and left academia for greener pastures).

In today’s facebook feed I was reminded of an article I read in 2010, “What do we mean by leadership in an academic institution?”…

A Message to the Incoming President of Chico State: The Faculty are Unhappy.

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Tony Waters

What does it look like when academics are sacrificed to other priorities at the university? This is the main reason Chico State faculty have issued a “No Confidence vote about the President of Chico State, Paul Zingg. Let me take my own Department of Sociology at Chico State as an example. We have lost eight tenure track faculty positions since 2011. These have been replaced with three new tenure track positions so far, and perhaps one more next year.…

Chico State: We Have No Confidence

Posted on December 14, 2015December 15, 2015 by Marianne Paiva

For, if anything, if a university is not a community where truth-telling is paramount, it loses its soul and forfeits its purpose. — Paul Zingg, Response to Resolution of No Confidence, December 9, 2015

On Thursday December 10th, the Academic Senate at Chico State discussed a Resolution of No Confidence in university President Paul Zingg, Interim Provost Susan Elrod, and Vice President for Business and Finance Lorraine (Lori) Hoffman. After nearly three and a half hours of pre-written statements, comments from faculty, staff, and students, and discourse between the Senators, the Senate voted 24-8 in favor of an amended Resolution of No Confidence in the ability of the three top CSUC administrators to manage personnel and budget matters effectively.…

Temporary Lecturers Step From the Shadows at Chico State

Posted on December 9, 2015December 9, 2015 by Marianne Paiva

Last week, Tony Waters commented to me that something has changed in me this year.

“You’re acting like an Assistant Professor,” he said to me late last week. “You’re not slinking through the shadows like all the other lecturers any more. After ten years you are starting to participat in faculty governance, and everyone was glad to come over to your house to meet the job candidate last week. It works!…

Chico State and Shared Governance: Lecturers Lean In

Posted on December 7, 2015December 8, 2015 by Marianne Paiva

Festering discontent at Chico State seems to have reached a point of boiling over in recent weeks following the abrupt resignations of two provosts since 2012, the loss of dozens of faculty across the campus in recent years, and a 2015 Campus Climate Survey which revealed significant dissatisfaction among the faculty and staff. The underlying issues revolve around the concept of “shared governance,” a term which the administration at Chico State and the California State University Chancellor’s office claim to value, but many faculty and staff say isn’t happening.…

Conversations with Cristopher: The Color of Skin

Posted on December 2, 2015February 8, 2016 by Marianne Paiva

One of the neighbor kids came to play at our house last week, playing and painting and hanging out with my 7 year old daughter, Evelyn, and almost 5 year old son, Cristopher. Kevin, the 5 year old neighbor, was painting with the kids, creating a landscape with people in it. Evelyn was teaching the younger kids how to mix primary colors to make new paint colors.

“Evelyn, I need ‘skin’ color; can you make ‘skin’ color for me?”…

Student Housing and Ethnic Segregation at Chico State

Posted on November 5, 2015November 5, 2015 by Tony Waters

This is a rather odd post for a blog which typically addresses national and international issues. This blog is about my own university, Chico State, in California, which has worked very hard to qualify for federal money to be a “Hispanic Serving Institution.” This is a good thing, as California is rapidly changing ethnic composition as California has always done in the last 200 years. The idea is that Chico State will get extra money if it can attract and serve at least 25% full time “Hispanic” students (in California this typically means students who have a family history in Mexico, or Central America who are typically referred to as Chicano or Latino).…

Vigilantism in a Tanzanian Village, 1997

Posted on November 3, 2015November 2, 2015 by Tony Waters

Vigilantism in a Tanzanian Village, 1997

from

When Killing is a Crime, by Tony Waters

Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997

By Essau Magugudi in Kigoma

NOVEMBER 27, 1997, is deeply etched in the memories of Shunga villagers. It was on this day that they took law into their own hands and hacked to death three bandits who they suspected of carrying out acts of robbery in villages surrounding refugee settlements of Mutabira and Muyovozi.

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Caddish Behavior as Described by Max Weber: Ethics, Romantic Love, and the Versailles Treaty Negotiations of 1919

Posted on October 29, 2015October 22, 2016 by Tony Waters

In this extract from Max Weber’s classic essay “Politics as Vocation.” Max Weber is about to let loose regarding the insistence of the victorious Allies of World War I that Germany accept fault for starting the war in 1914, and feel “guilty” for doing so. He doesn’t like this, and compares it to the ethics of a romantic cad.

You will rarely find a man, who no longer loves a woman and therefore turns to another, will not feel the need to justify himself by arguing: “She was not worth my love, or she disappointed me”—or what other reasons there may be.

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“Teach Like You Do in America,” While Still Doing it the Tanzanian Way!

Posted on October 28, 2015October 27, 2015 by Tony Waters

The first time I was told to “teach like you do in America” was in 2003-2004 in Tanzania where I was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sociology Department at the University of Dar Es Salaam (see Waters 2007). UDSM is a large sprawling African university, spread across “The Hill” near the Indian Ocean coast. UDSM prides itself for schooling presidents from Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, and South Sudan and its many graduates who played critical roles in first the decolonization of Africa, and now the political leadership of many countries.…