Alma mater in American style For almost a year and a half, Russian education has been in a state of stress: all these distances and distances do not contribute to reducing tension. And talking about “we learned that you can learn from home” is demoralizing. Against this background, the mini-series Daniel Gray Longino “Cathedra” from Netflix, in addition to the obvious, several additional super-relevant meanings appear.
In the center of the plot of the series with a conventionally scholastic name is the first female professor of Asian origin Kim Ji-yun (Sandra Oh), who headed the Department of English Literature at Pembroke University. At first, everything seems to be within the framework of newfangled trends and a new ethics: a conservative university requires a modern shake-up. But it turned out that as soon as the historical personnel decision was made, the new head was charged with an impossible task: to dismiss the three oldest professors who have a special (actually inviolable) status of “tenure” – a lifetime teaching contract. Problems add and best friend and colleague Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), who gets into a ridiculous, but it does not become simple situation. And here it becomes obvious that neither a sensational appointment, even for tolerant states, nor a new ethic that protects everyone and everything, saves an ordinary American woman from problems with a child and a parent, the need to solve several problems at the same time and the ability to negotiate with the most intractable.
“Department” is only at first glance about an American university in the BLM era: in fact, this series is about a whole range of problems and challenges that today face higher education – from the changes associated with the pandemic to the depreciation of the university as an educational system in principle. It was at that moment when the Korean Kim Ji-yun, whose father does not speak English well, became the head of the department of English literature, this status suddenly lost a fair share of its brilliance and attractiveness: as it turned out, now the head’s task is not to form the educational and scientific line of the department, but to persuade the offended not to be offended, the angry not to be proud, and David Duchovna – not to agree to teach, even if he has a master’s thesis 40 years ago.
Is there any creative space in this fuss to sow the “reasonable, good, eternal”? Actually, this question "Department" does not give an answer, but the fact that the main character refuses to lead in favor of a quieter life and teaching - her direct work, is very indicative. Because education is a world where success is not measured by status or position, where your highest accomplishment is being able to walk into a classroom every day, talk to students and be heard. Therefore, in the university reality, McKay, to which students are struggling, is much more successful than Renz, who has the very coveted “tenure”.
And despite the fact that many of the things shown in the series, in our domestic universities are not, many of the problems are surprisingly clear and close. This agrees with many viewers who somehow come into contact with the world of university education. And the Department shows that universities bind humanity into a kind of unity, which, perhaps, is not felt hourly, but no less strongly. Maybe that’s what makes the show a teacher manifesto (or has already). And today, when university education is on the verge of major changes, the Department shows that the university is synonymous with freedom, it is the privilege for which humanity has fought too long to give it up so easily.
Moreover, future generations cannot be fooled by devaluing humanities education. And it is not even in all these values and categories told to us at lectures on Renaissance literature. The point is, first of all, the great pleasure you get from studying at the philological school, it is this pleasure that negates all the talk that you will not find a job later (spoiler: you will find), etc. In this sense, a very clear symbol in the semantic field of “Departments” is that Ji-young teaches literature, and this fact, despite the apparently satirical mood of the series, connects “Department” with a whole body of American works about the university world – from “Stoneer” by John Williams to “Society of Dead Poets” by Peter Weir.