ZASKOKI were always in place. i was witness to the emergence of gender studies and various ethnic studies and majors BEYOND classic "Near-Eastern studies major", which usually meant a combination of a difficult language or two, anthropology, history, economics or/and literature.
you see ( you probably know it and i am being obvious) - "african-american studies" also long existed as a perfectly academic subdivision of several majors - again, economics, sociology, english, history, even statistics. people created "interdisciplinary" thesis committees. it worked JUST FINE.
separating gender studies and minority studies into different departments - completely de-academified them. ther could be like a "program" with no faculty but a coordinator/advisor to help potential students create their own course of study WITHIN the academic network. instead, full departments were fomented. this was a bIG MISTAKE, since these, i repeat myself were no longer academic, but political.
once this ZASKOK was effected, it is hard to pull back and cancel ti - too many people are invested into it with their careers and depend on it for salary and other perks. howeve,r eventually it will occur naturally, as students will vote with their feet - those departments will be depleted of students. it is already happening, BTW.
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Date: 2018-03-22 04:14 pm (UTC)you see ( you probably know it and i am being obvious) - "african-american studies" also long existed as a perfectly academic subdivision of several majors - again, economics, sociology, english, history, even statistics. people created "interdisciplinary" thesis committees. it worked JUST FINE.
separating gender studies and minority studies into different departments - completely de-academified them. ther could be like a "program" with no faculty but a coordinator/advisor to help potential students create their own course of study WITHIN the academic network. instead, full departments were fomented. this was a bIG MISTAKE, since these, i repeat myself were no longer academic, but political.
once this ZASKOK was effected, it is hard to pull back and cancel ti - too many people are invested into it with their careers and depend on it for salary and other perks. howeve,r eventually it will occur naturally, as students will vote with their feet - those departments will be depleted of students. it is already happening, BTW.