What is your favorite satirical take on higher education? Maybe Jane Smiley’s MOO. Or Don DeLillo’s White Noise? Or it could be Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School. Let’s face it, there almost endless works of fiction poking fun at academic life. As the summer ends and we head into the fall semester, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate this rich tradition of parody of academic life, and look at what these works say about the big challenges facing higher education today. Because maybe one of the best ways to call broader attention to the serious issues we talk about each week on this podcast, is through a bit of humor. Today we’re going to talk to three different writing professors with something to say about satire. One is the author of an acclaimed academic satire. Another did an unusual work of satire on Twitter to call attention to the plight of adjuncts. And the third has a suggestion for the academic satire that he wishes someone out there would write.
Julie Schumacher's recommended works of campus satire:
Don DeLillo, White Noise
David Lodge, Campus Trilogy
Lan Samantha Chang, All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost
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