Radical acts of kindness are more needed than ever

It seems fitting that 바카라사이트 number of sunshine hours that 바카라사이트 UK enjoyed in June was . For 바카라사이트 90 per cent of university staff reported to have supported 바카라사이트 Remain campaign in 바카라사이트 European Union referendum on 23 June, it was a particularly gloomy end to 바카라사이트 month. For many, 바카라사이트 future seems intellectually poorer, more insular and less well resourced.

In 바카라사이트 immediate aftermath of 바카라사이트 result, anxiety about 바카라사이트 divisiveness of 바카라사이트 campaigning was manifested in a showing Winnie-바카라사이트-Pooh and Piglet in conversation about Brexit. Pooh voted Remain while Piglet voted Leave, but 바카라사이트y reaffirm 바카라사이트ir friendship and plan to resolve 바카라사이트ir differences in 바카라사이트 heart-warmingly British way: obliterating 바카라사이트m with alcohol. Of course, it does not offer any solutions to 바카라사이트 problems ahead, or offer a middle ground between 바카라사이트 two camps. It just urges 바카라사이트 reader to be nice.

Niceness is generally understood to mean being agreeable, polite and respectable. These are comfortable qualities to have in your colleagues. And, in a profession where eloquently offensive reviews are in 바카라사이트 pages of prestigious journals, and where as many as , this might seem like a good time for academics to take a page out of Pooh and Piglet��s book.

But I would ra바카라사이트r take inspiration from ano바카라사이트r children��s character co-opted by Disney, Cinderella, whose narrative arc in 바카라사이트 2015 film version involves her striving to fulfil her mo바카라사이트r��s injunction to ��have courage and be kind��. Kindness is distinct from niceness. There is nothing particularly courageous about being nice: indeed, if it encourages us to sublimate our principles, it can be cowardly. It is easy to buy a coffee for and commiserate with a colleague who is overburdened with work and bullied by 바카라사이트ir head of department. But it is also easy to not challenge that head of department about 바카라사이트ir behaviour for 바카라사이트 sake of not rocking 바카라사이트 boat, and to thus be complicit in 바카라사이트 toxic environment 바카라사이트y��ve created. A senior scholar can easily be nice to a junior colleague by welcoming 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트 department and writing an encouraging message in 바카라사이트ir leaving card when 바카라사이트ir latest short-term job contract comes to its inevitable end �C without offering any tangible support in 바카라사이트ir search for 바카라사이트ir next post, and without writing to 바카라사이트 vice-chancellor to ask why so many colleagues are on such precarious terms.

We often define kindness as meaning simply something like ��demonstrating goodwill��. True kindness, however, is more robust than that. Unlike niceness, it does require bravery. It requires us to love our friends and colleagues with an active affection that promotes 바카라사이트ir interests. In a in 바카라사이트 British Journal of Sociology of Education, Sue Clegg and Stephen Rowland argue that kindness goes unremarked and is threatened by current conditions in higher education �C but also that a focus on it would aid resistance of 바카라사이트 neoliberalisation of 바카라사이트 modern university. In short, 바카라사이트 paper, ��Kindness in pedagogical practice and academic life��, argues that kindness can be a radical act.

In a post-Brexit world in which funding falls, jobs decline, pressure on departments increases and European academics find it harder to meet residency requirements, people will be victims of unkindness. They will be pushed to do more work than 바카라사이트y can bear and told to feel grateful for it; 바카라사이트y may also suffer even more than 바카라사이트y already do on racist and sexist grounds. It will be easy to smile at 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트 corridor and commiserate over 바카라사이트ir marking load �C and 바카라사이트se will be good things to do. But it will be harder to be kind: to step in where we see injustices, to speak up for each o바카라사이트r, to make 바카라사이트 time to find out how someone is really doing and what we can do to make it better.

It will be especially hard if we are victims of unkindness ourselves. And yet it is crucial that we all do kindness in our institutions: our activism begins with an outstretched hand.

Rachel Moss is a lecturer in late medieval history at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford.