Thread by @thrasherxy

It is increasingly obvious that a good chunk of our last year at NYU is going to be taken up by this case—it’s in the air at Washington Square & on everyone’s mind as campus comes back to life. @KathaPollitt’s @thenation column has a few gems...thenation.com/article/power-…

@KathaPollitt @thenation First, this: That academics thought they were above leaking—people who make our livings reading documents and who usually hail the likes of Chelsea Manning!—speaks to a feeling of exceptionalism not unlike Hollywood & Harvey Weinstein & the US govt protecting violent secrets

@KathaPollitt @thenation But @KathaPollitt *really* nails things here: sexual harassment is the terrain—perhaps the only terrain practically speaking—which imperfectly becomes a tool to redress cruel power imbalances between advisors and advisees.

Disclosure: Despite nearly 20 years on and off at NYU myself (the past 4 as a PhD student), I don't know Avital Ronnell nor Nimrod Reitman. I also admittedly find Reitman a hard figure to feel sympathy for since he casually uses a racist statement in his documents w/o remorse.

But also, I'm in my final year and I already have a job, so I have more freedom than many to talk about this case. And the dynamic of power Ronnell had over Reitman is less about them and more about a repetitive structure of academia: that advisors CAN lord over their students.

.@CoreyRobin gets well here at the emotional demands put on Reitman. And even though Reitman's casual racism annoys me, advisers can (and should NOT) put such extreme emotional demands on their students. chronicle.com/article/The-Un…

Which brings me back to Weinstein...

Something about the Weinstein story which always annoyed me a little. I worked in film production in the 90s in NYC. I never heard about HW's sexual abuse. BUT, his worker abused was WELL known by colleagues (screaming, tantrums, emotional abuse, etc.)

HW's other abuses STILL aren't much discussed, because—I fear—much interest in #MeToo has less to do with sex as merely the site of a kind of power/labor abuse, but just w the American puritanical discomfort with sex.

And so, nonsexual forms of labor/power abuse go unnoticed.

AND yet, as @KathaPollitt notes, sexual harassment may be the most effective (only?) path to redress because, "unfortunately, it’s the best tool that graduate students have right now."

I am lucky to have great advisors, and perhaps the greatest lesson they've taught me which I'll carry to Northwestern is this:

ADVISORS ARE HERE FOR THEIR STUDENTS' NEEDS & LEARNING.

STUDENTS ARE NEVER HERE FOR ADVISORS' NEEDS—not for laundry or emotional needs.

Sure, as teachers, we learn from our students. We may hire them to do research, even.

But as teachers & advisors, the students are NOT in our educational care for US. We are here for them—to guide them & help them.

And doing so can't EVER be a threat, implicit or explicit.

And I think for many graduate students (and I am lucky not to be among them), getting the help from their advisor they need feels like a threat. They are held hostage in feeling that they won't get help if they don't fulfil unreasonable needs.

And this is all why it's important for graduate students (especially of color, women, queer & international) to unionize, to talk to each other, to support each other.

A 5, 6, 10 year PhD process is HIGHLY precarious, fellow students.

We must talk & help each other.

Some further readings on the case. BUT! The most important writings are yet to come, by graduate students (at NYU & elsewhere) who are doing the most cutting edge work & who are in the trenches on this

thenewinquiry.com/blog/kburd-cal…

bullybloggers.wordpress.com/2018/08/18/the…

newyorker.com/news/our-colum…