I don't have much to add immediately to the timely debate that is taking
shape here, except to say that the fears Otfried expresses, and others
echo, are natural, and that the situation does seem to me serious enough to
warrant real study (rather than personal opinions), even if it is not (yet)
as apocalyptic as some perceive it to be. I want to add, however, that Pat
Sloane does a real disservice to us all when she trivializes the concerns
of younger scholars (and not only "younger" scholars as a minimally
attentive reading of Otfried's letter would reveal) about changing and
difficult professional circumstances. To call someone's heartfelt, and too
often well justified, assertion a "shameless and ridiculous lie," based
only on one's own personal experience (rather than on the kind of
substantial, profession wide information that Otfried and others call for,
and rightly so), seems to me less than constructive. It will tend, I
think, only to confirm the sense of many scholars who do not enjoy the
comforts and securities of tenure or the equivalent, that those who have
gone before them don't give a damn, or at least don't understand what they
are up against. Sincerely, Albert Ascoli
Albert Russell Ascoli
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Italian Studies
Dwinelle Hall 6325
University of California
Berkeley CA 94720-2620
phone: 510-643-2640
fax: 510-642-9884
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