Cornel West: ‘My Ridiculous Situation at Harvard’
The activist and scholar on tenure, respect, and the racial politics of
higher ed.
By Maximillian Alvarez
Cornel West: ‘My Ridiculous Situation at Harvard’
The activist and scholar on tenure, respect, and the racial politics
of higher ed.
THE REVIEW
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By Maximillian Alvarez
<https://www-chronicle-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/author/maximillian-alvarez>
FEBRUARY 22, 2021
As a graduate student, I wanted to be like Cornel West. Sucker that I
am, I dreamed that beautiful dream of living a life of the mind like he
did, like he does. Not a mind that luxuriates, walled-off, in the ivory
tower; rather, a mind that lives out loud. Strangely enough, it was only
after being discarded by the academic job market that I actually_got to
work
<https://therealnews.com/max-alvarez-the-tight-rope-on-the-real-news>_with
West, to savor how out loud his mind really lives. (I’ve gotten to work
with West for the duration of the limited collaborative partnership
between/The Real News Network/, where I now work, and/The Tight Rope/,
the weekly podcast West produces with Tricia Rose.)
Last week we learned that Harvard will not offer West tenure. And I,
like much of the academic and nonacademic world, have spent the past few
days wondering how this could possibly be so._According to West
<https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/18/metro/cornel-west-threatens-leave-harvard-again/>_,
the administration did offer a prestigious endowed chairship and a
10-year contract, which includes a pay raise. But the administration has
drawn a line in the sand, and that line is tenure. This is_not the first
time
<https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/stable/25073176?seq=1>_West
has sparred with the Harvard administration, and it is certainly not the
first time Harvard has refused to give venerable Black scholars and
scholars of color the respect and protections they deserve in the form
of tenure. I spoke with West about what’s behind Harvard’s denial of
tenure, what it says about the state of higher education, and what
Harvard can (and needs to) do to change course.
*I’m the first person on either side of my family to get a Ph.D. We
didn’t know much about the world of academia or what to expect from it.
But my family, my friends, my coworkers — they all know you, and they’re
just as shocked by this news as I am. What do you think this situation
reveals to people outside of higher education about how that world
actually operates?*
Cornel West: ‘George Floyd’s public lynching pulled the cover off who we
really are’. As the US philosopher and civil rights activist looks ahead
to the presidential election, he discusses Joe Biden, Black Lives Matter
and why Barack Obama was more Kenny
PHILIP KEITH, GUARDIAN, EYEVINE, REDUX
West: “Colleges and universities are reluctant to wrestle with certain
taboo issues in a serious way.”
My ridiculous situation at Harvard is a symptom of a much larger crisis
in higher education. First, Black scholars and too many others are too
often disrespected, devalued, or dismissed. Second, the fundamental aims
of the quest for truth, beauty, and goodness are too often trumped for
the pursuit of donor money, public image, and consumer reputation. I
have been blessed to live a life immersed in the best of the magnificent
West family, Shiloh Baptist Church, and the Black Radical Tradition — as
well as the best of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Union Theological
Seminary. My vocation consists of a profound commitment to the life of
the mind for the empowerment of my fellow human beings and citizens,
especially young people. Unfortunately, this particular calling (wedded
to a fallible search for/veritas/) is now too often eclipsed by an
obsession with brand and market promotion. This preoccupation with brand
too often produces superficial talk about diversity without a genuine
commitment to respecting the contributions of Black scholars and others.
Furthermore, colleges and universities are reluctant to wrestle with
certain taboo issues in a serious way. In my case, my controversial and
outspoken views about and critiques of empire, capitalism, white
supremacy, male supremacy, and homophobia are tolerated, but any serious
engagement around the issues of the Israeli occupation are rendered
highly suspect and reduced to anti-Jewish hatred or prejudice.
Therefore, so many scholars, including Black ones, are simply scared and
afraid to raise their voices about these delicate and difficult issues.
*Last Friday, on Twitter,_you said
<https://twitter.com/CornelWest/status/1362666067537973251>_, “After
being tenured at Yale, Harvard, Princeton & Union Theological Seminary,
the recent Harvard denial of a tenure process strikes me as a political
decision I reject.” Could you say more about that?*
The very fact that I have to think about a tenure process at this point
in my calling is a sign of the intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of
Harvard. I was first tenured 37 years ago at Yale University and have
served as University Professor — the highest faculty position — at
Harvard and Princeton. Therefore, the only grounds I can conceive of
Harvard’s refusal to pursue a tenure process for me are age and
politics. Like everyone, I grow old. However, the recent invitation
extended to me to give the prestigious Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh,
Scotland, leads me to conclude that some people believe I have something
significant yet to say. In regards to politics, I do not believe that my
intense and joyful support of my dear brother Bernie Sanders for
president is a cause of any concern on behalf of the powers that be at
Harvard. So, I surmise it must be my deep Christian witness based on the
idea that an ugly Israeli occupation of precious Palestinians is as
wrong as any ugly Palestinian occupation of precious Jews. I would bear
any burden or pay any cost in order to stay in contact with the precious
humanity of any oppressed people.
*Like countless other graduate students, I had lofty dreams of becoming
a scholar like you. Then, like countless other graduate students, I
started to learn how unattainable that dream is for so many in academia
today. The vast majority of us either end up working as underpaid,
underprotected, “contingent” faculty (and the_majority of
non-tenure-track faculty
<https://genderpolicyreport.umn.edu/how-contingent-faculty-contracts-contribute-to-sexual-violence-on-campus/>_in
the U.S., it should be noted, are women), or we’re shuttled out of
academia entirely, like I was. By denying you tenure, what message is
Harvard sending to all the junior academics out there?*
As a jazz man in the life of the mind, I would hope that others would
never view me as a model to imitate, but rather as a fallible example of
inspiration in order to find one’s own voice and witness with
creativity, compassion, and fortitude. The key is this: Any racial,
gender, or queer identity as a thinker should be rooted first and
foremost in moral integrity and genuine solidarity with other struggling
and suffering human beings and creatures. And even successful Black
professors must not become too comfortable and complacent. As I revise
the words of the great Stephen Sondheim in Act 2 of/Into the Woods/,
wishes may come true but they are never free. There is always a painful
cost of one’s calling and difficult burdens to bear of one’s vocation.
But the fruits of one’s calling and vocation are love, joy, and touching
the hearts, minds, and souls of our precious students.
*You’re one of the pre-eminent thinkers and commenters on the topic of
neoliberalism: where the ideology of neoliberalism came from, how it
wormed its way into and reshaped our minds and our cultural, political,
and economic institutions ... including universities. As the paradigm
for higher education, especially in the U.S., do you see neoliberalism
at work in the decision-making process regarding who still gets tenure
and who doesn’t?*
The wholesale commodification and bureaucratization of higher education
makes it difficult to put the focus where it belongs. Harvard’s own
William James rightly highlighted the role of higher education as a
critical counterweight to the pervasive greed, conformity, and
callousness in American life. Harvard — like many other places — has too
often succumbed to hubris and hypocrisy, arrogance and pettiness.
Combating racist treatment is a crucial litmus test; robust and
respectful free dialogue on taboo issues is another. In the past three
years at Harvard, five major Black scholars have left and two brilliant
scholars critical of the U.S. empire and Israeli occupation — a Black
Dominican woman and a Jewish Israeli woman — have been denied tenure. I
see a pattern here.
*Harvard seems intent on pitting your public work against your academic
work, as if one is more valuable or “legitimate” than the other. After
this latest battle with Harvard, do you think it’s fair to say that the
university will simply not make space for scholars or scholarship that
are truly public?*
I want to make it clear that big money and prestigious professorships
(without tenure or through the back door) at Harvard can never replace
genuine respect. So, a free Black man like me has no place at Harvard,
and Harvard does not deserve those few free spirits still there. Yet
Harvard can change if it chooses to do so!
Thanks to my dear brother, Jeremy Berry — the visionary creator of/The
Tight Rope <https://therealnews.com/the-tight-rope>/podcast — Professor
Tricia Rose and I have_weekly opportunities
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz2_DAnym_HKIlyhPZr2RyA>_to intervene
into public life in the form of serious and substantive discussions
about crucial issues of our day. There are always some spaces and
pockets within any commodified and bureaucratized site for our
commitment to the life of the mind and changing the world, but they seem
to be shrinking at the present moment, and the lethal combination of
disrespect of Black scholars and others and curtailing robust inquiry
about taboo issues must be confronted and transformed. In my own case, I
have so often been blessed to have a perennial home at the great Union
Theological Seminary in New York City. Like my guardian angel, John
Coltrane, I just want to be a force for truth, beauty, and goodness
wherever I am before the worms get my body!
/We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Pleaseemail
the editors <mailto:[email protected]>orsubmit a letter
<mailto:[email protected]>for publication./
SCHOLARSHIP AND RESEARCH
<https://www-chronicle-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/tag/scholarship-and-research>FACULTY
LIFE
<https://www-chronicle-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/tag/faculty-life>OPINION
<https://www-chronicle-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/tag/opinion>
<https://www-chronicle-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/author/maximillian-alvarez>
Maximillian Alvarez
<https://www-chronicle-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/author/maximillian-alvarez>
Maximillian Alvarez is editor in chief of/The Real News Network/and a
former associate editor of/The//Chronicle Review./
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