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Anonymous 3
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It was Professor Oldboy’s turn to organize the Spring School that year
But we all have bad days sometimes
Like Pedro, who, on day one, chose not to use slides
and spoke with a heavy accent
Oldboy didn’t have to lecture him
on the academic courtesy of talking like a Western European
We all have bad days sometimes
Like Natalie who, on day two, took Oldboy’s questions in stride
—she’d answered them when he’d nodded off
yet somehow she was made to feel stupid
We all have bad days sometimes
Professor Oldboy should have known
that the museums close early off-season,
or might, on day three, have believed Sasha, who told him so,
or he might at least have remembered her name
We all have bad days sometimes
Professor Oldboy might even, on day four, have listened
to comments I offered in the evaluation session
We all have bad days sometimes
Like the people who didn’t dare to speak up
when he started shouting
his “feedback on my feedback”
And my supervisor, he might have acknowledged
the issue
when I later recounted these events
but after all, as he put it
We all have bad days sometimes
Like—all those other days—
Professor Niceguy, who calls me a nymph
after I introduce his talk
Or Eric, who persists in a third question
though I tell him we’re moving on
Or Jack, who tells me he wonders
how I look in a dress
Or Andrew, who gives me the floor
because ladies go first
We all have bad days sometimes,
or is it just me?

Publisher’s Note

The author’s identity is anonymized for this chapter. Brill is aware of the real identity of the author. The inclusion of anonymized chapters has been permitted by Brill in view of risks to the general security of the author.

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Chapter 1 The Same Old Story?
Chapter 2 The Polyphony of Academia
Chapter 3 What My CV Doesn’t Tell You
Chapter 4 Notes from the Margins of Academic Life
Chapter 5 A Decisive Meeting in Department X
Chapter 6 Phantom Libraries
Chapter 7 On the Occasion of My Retirement
Chapter 8 How to Be a Professor in the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 9 Bad Days
Chapter 10 On Diversity Workshops
Chapter 11 Still a World to Win
Chapter 12 Fragments of Missed Opportunities
Chapter 13 Flexing Muscles
Chapter 14 Lessons I Learned at University
Chapter 15 Benevolence or Bitterness
Chapter 16 Observations from a Non-Academic on Academic Life
Chapter 17 Harassment and Abuse of Power from a Global Perspective
Chapter 18 What My Younger Self Would Have Said, Had She Spoken up, and How My Present Self Would Have Replied
Chapter 19 The Ghosts of Academia
Chapter 20 The Unbearable Shame of Crying at Work
Chapter 21 Panic Button
Chapter 23 Diving Deeper
Epilogue The Privilege of Writing One’s Story and Reading Those of Others
Epilogue Gathering Voices for a Better Academic Workplace

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