Call for contributions to a satirical book about Australian universities
Satirical writer for the Australian Universities' Review (AUR), Joseph Gora, is seeking contributions from university staff about their experiences of working in Australian universities.
'You can write anonymously or otherwise and any word length will do,' Joseph says. 'I’d like to hear about your perceptions of the daily grind, the funny and not so funny things that occur in universities.'
'What’s it like working in today’s university? Is it fun, or not, and why? What are some of the more quirky, strange, odd, bizarre things that you have experienced? What changes would you like to see? What hopes do you harbour?'
Please send your contribution to: josephgora@hotmail.com
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Comments
[ -4 ] When Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize, the great American satirist Tom Lehrer announced that satire was dead.
Like • Dislike •I fear that Australian universities may be approaching a state in which satire is close to a terminal condition.
I can still remember an Arts Faculty restructuring document some years back that recommended that Classics should reduce its emphasis on Homer. How do you satirize that?
[ -2 ] Actually it IS fun working in an Australian university, even one beginning with 'Mac ...' When I started in my first teaching job, my then Head of Dept told me, 'This discipline is finished, you know. You'd better retrain as a plumber before it's too late.'
Like • Dislike •But he was wrong! And now I've been around long enough to realize also that Vice-Chancellors and HR Directors are creatures of a day. Things will change. Say not the struggle nought availeth.
[ -5 ] Is it actually possible to satirise the modern university? I think Macquarie is doing such a great job of mocking itself at the moment that it's hard to imagine making up something more hysterical than, say, the Director HR's emails to students or his increasingly hysterical condemnations of the NTEU via all staff email.
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