Whenever I hear someone talk about our "liberal arts foundation," I get a warm glow inside. That's me! The English Department is at the heart of our liberal arts foundation! We may not be the sparkly dress the starlet wears when she walks the red carpet, but we're the hidden stays that give the dress shape! And we may not be the marble facade that makes a building glitter in the sunlight, but we're the buried concrete on which it stands! Our work may be hidden, buried, walked all over, but without the foundation, the dress drags and the building sags.
But let's face it: when Joan Rivers stands on the red carpet and shoves a microphone in the starlet's face to ask who she's wearing, she's not asking about underwear. And when they're doling out the Pritzker prize and slapping the winning architect on the back, no one even thinks about the guy who poured the foundation.
I didn't get a PhD in English expecting to win an Oscar. Those of us who teach at the core of the liberal arts foundation have to accept the fact that we exist to be buried underground and walked all over. But every once in a while when someone with especially big feet stomps on me, I think I can be forgiven for wanting to rise up and say Ouch.
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