Auf dem ZtG Blog habe ich untenstehende Email von Del LaGrace Volcano entdeckt. Dem Lecturer im Bereich Photographie am britischen East Surrey College Simon Burgess drohen Disziplinarmaßnahmen und die Kündigung, weil er einer_m Student_in die Arbeit von Del LaGrace Volcano empfahl. Die Hochschulleitung bewertet die Arbeiten des bekannten amerikanischen Queer-Künstlers als pornographisch, wertlos und irrelevant. Gegen diesen homo- und transphoben Backlash muss interveniert werden, und in diesem Sinne fordert Del dazu auf, rechtzeitig zur Anhörung am 17. August Emails und Briefe zu schreiben:
Lecturer being fired for showing my work to students!
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
I am asking for a favour. A young man who used to attend my lectures as a photography student is being threatened with redundancy because he recommended my work to a student doing a project on gender and sexuality. Please send letters of support for Simon Burgess to Dr Eugenie Shinkle as soon as possible! Time IS of the essence here as it seems the institutional powers that be at East Surrey College have scheduled the hearing for a time when it will be hard for Simon to rally support.
If you value the work I and others like me have done over the past 25 years please stand up and say so! Simon needs your “expert” opinions if he is to keep his job! If you would be so kind as to Bcc: me that would be great!
Thank you so much!
Del LaGrace Volcano
From: UoW UoW
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 21:37:40 +0100
To: Shirley O’Loughlin
Subject: support for Simon Burgess
Simon Burgess, a lecturer at East Surrey College, is facing serious disciplinary action (and possible redundancy) for introducing students to the work of photographic artist Del LaGrace Volcano.
Management are claiming it is pornography, salacious, grotesque, worthless and not relevant to, or appropriate for 2nd year level 3 photography students preparing for higher study.
Apart from being censorious, backward, and homophobic, management’s stance displays a remarkable ignorance of contemporary debates and image-making strategies. This is a serious matter that has implications for all academics, teachers, and students, and we would be very grateful for an email expressing your support for Simon, and offering your expert opinion on the relevance of Del’s work to contemporary debates and practices, his status as an international transgender artist, etc.
All emails should be sent to Eugenie Shinkle (shinkle@wmin.ac.uk), and she will forward them on to the appropriate person (we’re not sure just yet whether they should be sent to Simon, to his UCU rep, or directly to management). We’re under a bit of time pressure as his hearing has been scheduled for August 17th – which I’ve only just found out, so apologies if this reaches you at an awkward time.
Dr. Eugenie Shinkle
Senior Lecturer in Photographic Theory and Criticism
School of Media, Arts and Design
University of Westminster
Watford Road, Northwick Park
Harrow, Middlesex
HA1 3TP
