respectful academic workplaces are best achieved through bullying and harassment, right?

there's an interesting event taking place at yorku in a few weeks:

Respectful Academic Workplace public lecture
(Open to the entire university community)
Thursday March 18, 2010
12:30pm – 2:00pm
Stong College, Stong Masters Dining Room (Rm. 101)

presented by the centre for human rights, professor kenneth westhues will lecture on respectful academic workplaces.

kenneth westhues studies conflict in academic workplaces, "with the goal of producing knowledge that is empirically sound and of practical value for resolving conflict fairly and constructively...his research on the distinct phenomenon of "mobbing" produces knowledge that is essential to the building of a respectful workplace at the university."

it sounds pretty good, but the best part about this event was who we received the invite FROM.

this event was sent out on a listserv by linda briskin, of york university. we hope that professor briskin herself is planning on attending the lecture, considering she is currently at the center of a harassment grievance launched by one of her former TAs which means she is responsible for creating the opposite of a respectful academic workplace.

ah academia.. so full of hypocrisy.

you can stream an interview with that TA here:

http://trainradio.blogspot.com/2010/02/conversation-with-york-teaching.html