This week’s reading “Academic Symbiosis: A Manifesto on Tenure and Promotion in Asian American Studies,” by Wei Ming Dariotis, introduces a possible solution to end the oppression of Asian Americans in academia. This method, called academic symbiosis, “means seeing ourselves as part of a collective learning and teaching community rather than as individual academics competing against one another for limited resources and rare recognition” (Dariotis 387). In this article, the author is trying to inspire Asian Americans to try a different strategy: to build a stronger relationship within the community and help each other rise to the top. For too long, Asian American scholars have had to go against each other in academia. We were each other’s biggest fears and enemies, and this mindset was only working to feed the inequality within the academic workforce. Competition is not necessarily bad, however, I believe that Dariotis was trying to explain how we were competing against the wrong people and creating an environment where we were suppressing our own kind. Near the end of the article, she notes: “academic symbiosis is the antithesis of academic competition, hierarchy, and parasitism. [...] It is about proactive ‘survivance,’ rather than simply recognizing shared victimhood”, and this quote made me realize that besides simply strengthening the community relationship, Dariotis also wanted Asian Americans to take action and support each other while working side-by-side (Dariotis 391).
Question
From where did the author find inspiration to create this strategy of
academic symbiosis?
References
Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020).
Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Australian Institute of Business [Illustration of Effective Teamwork]. Retrieved from https://www.aib.edu.au/blog/teamwork/top-tips-effective-teamwork/
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