I support @uchicagoenglish's decision to prioritize Ph.D. applicants interested in Black studies for this year's admissions cycle. Reading their department's statements made me think & gave me pause. 1/

https://english.uchicago.edu 

My own department @lehighenglish has long had a graduate program with a Focus on Literature and Social Justice. Our mission statement is here:

https://english.cas.lehigh.edu/content/lsj-mission-statement

Our approach has largely been optimistic: in effect, studying literature can lead us to a more just society. 2/

But the approach taken by Chicago is more explicit in highlighting the historically exclusive nature of English studies: "English as a discipline has a long history of providing aesthetic rationalizations for colonization, exploitation, extraction, and anti-Blackness." 3/

And we need to be honest that works of literature, including much of the Canon, are fraught with exclusions, racial violence, othering. Authors are human, and products of their times: there's no particular reason to believe they have an inherently progressive agenda. 4/

It seems like literary studies at the present moment has to acknowledge that -- and perhaps push for a radical rethinking of what our discipline has been and should be going forward.

And perhaps: it's time for my own department to revisit its own LSJ Mission Statement.

/End