[csaa-forum] Conformist and lacking critical force

[Melissa Gregg]

Just a note to say that the quote we included was an intentionally 
provocative one, a stimulus for debate, so it's great to hear Simon's 
position on it.

However the point of our writing to the forum was to create a 
conversation about what cultural studies is like from the perspective 
of early career researchers in particular, so to move the debate in 
some of the directions he's suggested seems to me to risk losing sight 
of those questions. I am concerned to think that on an occasion when we 
have asked to talk specifically about the changing working conditions 
for younger academics that this might become an exercise in debating 
the fate of an earlier project, down to individual figures (and I 
certainly count all of the names mentioned as not only academically 
active but important guides for critical intellectual endeavour).

It is difficult to speak of the present and the future when we are 
constantly forced to mime in the shadows cast by senior colleagues. So 
it's good that Simon has changed the subject line in his response - I'm 
hoping we can discuss these issues, all of which seem quite important, 
with some specificity.

Cheers
Melissa


Dr. Melissa Gregg
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
and
Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies
School of English, Media Studies and Art History
University of Queensland 4072
CRICOS provider number: 00025B