Check out the latest insanity from the classroom: a "teacher" suing her students for disputing her crazy-ass postmodernist bull in class. The students evidently were vocal in their disdain for Prof. Priya Venkatesan's fashionable nonsense--but, of course, she says it was racism. In an interview, Venkatesan explains "the fact of the matter is that I have the PhD in literature, I make the assessment if someone has talent for philosophy, literary theory, and literary criticism." Oh, okay. You talk, we nod in silent agreement, eh?
Even better is this:
[Venkatesan]: One time [Venkatesan's supervisor] was sitting in the class, and [a student] asked me, how many T’s are in Gattaca. This was the kind of question she was asking, “how many T’s are in Gattaca?,” and I was about to answer her and [the supervisor] pre-empted me, “two t’s.” I’ll leave you to interpret it.
[Interviewer]: No. No, I don’t understand that.
[Venkatesan]: I have to tell you: it means tenure track. [Two "t"s, you see?--TMS]
[Interviewer]: Oh, okay.
[Venkatesan]: Because I wasn’t tenured track.
[Interviewer, no doubt rolling his eyes]: Oh, okay, yes.
[Venktaesan]: They were trying to intimate that I wasn’t ready for tenure track.
[Interviewer]: Yes, okay, I didn’t realize that’s what that meant.
This story courtesy of NoodleFood, which adds, "Priya Venkatesan thinks that she's entitled to agreement from her students. As an interview with her makes clear, she's so completely immersed in postmodernism that she cannot even grasp the meaning of any criticism thereof. Sadly, from what I know of English Departments, she was likely encouraged in that attitude -- and shielded from any non-postmodernist views or anti-postmodernist criticism -- in graduate school."
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