Category: Academia

On Graduation

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 21, 2019

I grew weary of all the anti-intellectualism around education, so prevalent even among some leftists who are calling for an end to academia. Here’s a really short version of a “graduation speech” of sorts.

The girl at the desk, 1934 by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939, Russia) | Oil Painting | WahooArt.com

Academia Queer Politics, Culture, and History

On Judith Butler and the MLA

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date September 5, 2018

Nothing that Judith Butler represents is so fragile that it cannot survive without her.

Image result for school of athens, 1509/1510

Academia Film, Art, Television, and Media Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Asia Argento and Avital Ronell Or, Humans Are the Worst People

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 22, 2018

Naming power isn’t really enough if the primary aim is to simply shift power around, and #MeToo’s supporters and “leaders” haven’t really done all that much to change that conversation.

Academia Film, Art, Television, and Media On Books and Publishing

A World of Shame: Time, Belonging, and Social Media

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date June 12, 2018

Excerpt: This is a murder mystery without a murder. Think of it like a Brian De Palma movie from the 1970s: a streetwalker is found dead in an alleyway, and the detective assigned to the case is about to write it up as another transaction gone awry until he begins to see the clues that unravel a sprawling political conspiracy.
The body is incidental.

Academia Capitalism, Class, Inequality Labour

Exalted Slogans: The Curse of Radical Academic Discourse

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 1, 2018

Was there perhaps an indigenous tribe somewhere that had called upon Ciccariello-Maher to come save it, tweet by tweet, from persecution? None came forward to express gratitude for his bravery on their behalf.

Academia Capitalism, Class, Inequality On Books and Publishing Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

When Academics Attack: My Piece Critiquing Academia Is Blocked by Lefties Complaining about Censorship

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date June 14, 2017

Today, academics are only dangerous to those on the left, like me, who dare question its fragile sense of self-worth and “danger.”

Academia

“The Dangerous Acaedemic Is An Extinct Species” in Current Affairs

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date June 7, 2017

He hadn’t really stirred up a hornet’s nest; after all, people who poke actual bees occasionally get bee stings.

Academia Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

From Queer To Gay: The Rise and Fall of Milo

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date February 28, 2017

Excerpt: What brought Milo down was not his queerness, which had always been flamboyantly on display and fetishised by the Right and the Left, but that he became, with the few short seconds of a video clip, irrevocably gay.

Academia Capitalism, Class, Inequality Queer Politics, Culture, and History

My New QED Piece on Queer Theory and the Neoliberal University: We Were There, We Are Here, Where Are We?

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 10, 2016

We are here, we were there. We were never going shopping.

Academia Film, Art, Television, and Media

The Dude’s Response to the Steven Salaita Case

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 22, 2015

“Duuuuuuuudes, what were you thinking?”