Week 10 - Madison Yn

Madison Yn

ASA02 A02

Week 10

I really appreciate how this class was designed to introduce the injustices in academia first through Professor Valverde’s personal experience in becoming tenured then by examining specific issues further within academia, education, and the Asian American community and lastly concluding in a piece written again by Professor Valverde that encompasses many of the elements discussed throughout the quarter and demonstrating how they are all connected and significant to the process of fighting the tower. I once questioned if the academy was so unaccepting of women and especially women of color, why fight a losing battle? I assumed that if they didn’t want you, you shouldn’t want them. After learning about the importance of fighting the tower from the inside through the multiple readings over these past weeks and the most recent reading ““The Time to Fight is Now”1 : When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue”, I have come to the realization that those who have or are struggling to gain tenure or promotion or acceptance in the academy continue to fight the system because academia is their passion and their life’s purpose. To deny someone the a position they have spent years working to achieve due to discriminatory and unjust practices shouldn’t be taken lightly and passively accepted. These women in academia deserve “to teach, to create knowledge and wisdom, to be in a community of learners”, therefore I understand how they should not abandon their life’s work when their endeavors are elusive. Movements such as “Fight the Tower” are crucial to dismantling the systematic injustices women in academia are subjected to as they disseminate awareness of the oppressive system and allow others in similar positions to understand they experience is not an isolated case, but rather a prevalent pattern that has been kept covert to eliminate dissent and blowback. Just as Professor Valverde and her colleagues have combined efforts to fight the tower and raise awareness about the harmful aggressions and injustices women in academia, our SAPSA encourages us to think critically about a social issue that is meaningful to us which subsequently teaches us to use our research and critical thinking skills and apply it to social injustices we encounter in the future to engender positive change.

Why are women in academia subjected to structural injustices and systematic oppression in the academy? How far can merit take a person?

Valverde, K.L & Dariotis, W.M. (2017) The Time to Fight is Now': When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue. In Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Against Injustice in the Academy (pp. 1-46).

We Have a Voice [Photograph found in Jefferson County ]. (n.d.). In C. (Comp.). Retrieved November 26, 2017, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/colorado-students-protest-proposed-curriculum-changes