DESCRIPTION
I, as a woman of color, am seeking for the opportunity to teach under the umbrella of the Humanities, broadly speaking. I am a promiscuous individual so preferably non-tenure track solicitors will be considered first. The idea of “for life” commitment is bad for my emotional health without having the chance to see what else is out there.
I seek a #community of humans who foster humility, encourage patience, don’t impose their insecurities onto their students, and who are not interested in performing pleasantries all the time even when micro and macro aggressions are in full effect.
I teach through an intersectional lens for real. If I am addressing anti-blackness, for instance, white supremacy will be brought up left, centre, and right without the fear of censorship. I teach without the rubrics of measuring who is best or worse in my class. I need to do my work in a space where I don’t have to be pushing students to compete against one another but moving forward in their path collectively.
I welcome applications from schools committed to #justice in practical terms and not just theory. If you have invested resources to include black people, indigenous peoples, and people of color (particularly #women) as protagonists rather than passive observers, then I want to hang out with you. I also welcome applications from schools whose administration is committed to addressing, in their official documents, that the ancestral land they’re sitting on is stolen and occupied.
If you send students to the Global South in exchange programs without considering why students from the Global South are not coming to the North, then you don’t need to inquiry about soliciting my #knowledge. I take reciprocity to heart. This is not just a term to be thrown around in the name of solidarity.
I require honesty and transparency in this process. I will not utilize your documents to get ideas for future projects or to include them in my own classes. I seek applications showing strong commitments to eradicating tokenism. I want to teach in a place where I am not going to be treated as if I was Frida Khalo in campus. If you have taken steps to work on a diversity plan for your institution, I need to see evidence. Stats and all. I need to be in a place that will enrich and tickle my mind and not send me regularly to a therapist.
I have training in literary and cultural studies because I grew up in Macondo. My analysis are critical and based on lived experiences across four continents in gender, women’s issues, race, class, ethnicity, diaspora, exile, borders, refugee rights, colonialism, the infamous post-colonialism, and #decolonizing actions (not just studies).
In order to ensure that I consider your application fully, interested parties are invited to submit a letter detailing your plans to challenge inequalities, a summary of how people in your department are actively looking for ways to disrupt racist ways of learning, a statement of working philosophy, and a list of people in the community who can testify that you are not just extracting their pain for your own research plans. All materials should be sent to decolonizingisnotametaphor@gmail.com.
Please apply by El Día de los Muertos.
Applications that forward me data and actual numbers reflecting how Affirmative Action is legitimately used for hiring will be given more consideration. I will consider institutions who are more interested in giving positions to indigenous peoples, blacks, and people of color. And if your Human Resources officers are still holding on to language like “ilegal alien” then please don’t apply.
***
Clelia O. Rodríguez is an educator, born and raised in El Salvador. She graduated from York University with a Specialized Honours BA in Hispanic Literature. She earned her MA and PhD from the University of Toronto. Professor Rodríguez has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language, literature and culture at the University of Toronto, Washington College, the University of Ghana, the University of Michigan, and Western University, most recently. She was a Human Rights Professor in the United States, Nepal, Jordan, and Chile as part of the International Honors Program (IHP) for the School of International Training (SIT) where she taught Comparative Issues in Human Rights and Fieldwork Ethics and Comparative Research Methods. She is committed to critical pedagogical approaches in learning utilizing an intersectional framework grounded in decolonizing methodologies. She has published in RaceBaitR, Postcolonial Studies, Revista Iberoamericana, Women & Environments. Her forthcoming book Decolonizing Academia: Poverty, Oppression and Pain will be published by Fernwood Publishing in December, 2018.
