STUPLIMITY

It is now a year since my last update (“Endgame”) on the tragic/comic events that interrupted my teaching at Wayne State University and my life in general. At the time, I ceased filling in the back story (see the series of posts indexed below) to report new outrages: an article, since removed, in the Communist Party journal People’s World to begin with. This hit piece, linked to two students at Wayne State and one former faculty, was taken down immediately after a strongly worded letter from my lawyer. That was possible because the online venue was identifiable; there was a named party to appeal to. Since then, the Foundation for Individual Rights of Expression (FIRE) has taken up advocacy on the lack of Due Process in my case, sending a letter of concern to WSU President Kimberly Espy in December 2024 and posting a succinctly worded account of my case (here), which remains “open.” Following their lead, I wrote the President and Provost, citing the many public issues in the case, including the campaign of harassment I experienced and which is clarified by a recent WSU policy on “bullying” (here).

I am continuing this campaign with an appeal for the removal an anonymous website, otherwise known as the “blog,” which was planned and executed in late April 2019 after the students launched their media campaign in defense, in fact, of one student’s late paper (though most would not have known that). The original Tweet led, in wildfire fashion, to denunciations from all sides, though it was written two months before it was released; the students had carefully planned their attack. This was followed by a petition circulated on Twitter; a letter from eighteen professors, who knew little about the case itself; a demonstration in front of the Dean of Students office, protesting the discipline of one student; a call for a public investigation, without Due Process or time limits; an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education; an  investigation; the publishing of the Dean’s letter and second article in the Chronicle, five union grievances and one arbitration; suspension from teaching and removal from my office; an incoherent series of subsequent administrative actions, including partial reinstatement but no closure; and general canceling of my person and work.

This is series of events I am trying to end. It is absurd; now in its sixth year, it is also untimely. In the immediacy of the event, it was no less that a complete catastrophe, a tragedy of such proportions most people would not survive—they would simply give up and go home, or somewhere else if there was no home. Year after year I kept at it—in the face of administrative incompetence, the general dynamics of gossip and exclusion, and the cowardice of most concerned once the true lack of substance was revealed. It was like a house of cards collapsing in slow-motion reverse, except that the sequence kept repeating with less and less motivating it—pure formalism, a loop. This is similar to the “blog” itself—a collection of 32 random testimonies caught up in a wave of venality and fear, each adding their own tiny motive to the call for mob action. I have decided to take action to bring the “blog” down—difficult if not impossible as there is no named person responsible for it (it is a generic “public service” WordPress site with no traceable url). To do this I have written to several key participants with this message: TAKE IT DOWN NOW! The open letter is copied below.

The following are the named and unnamed authors of the 32 statements on the “blog.” I will be writing on each one individually, and publicizing my objections to their content and participation. The “blog,” like Derrida’s rebuttal to “speech act” theory, just keeps iterating; maintained with no end in sight, it is caught up by algorithms to be recirculated yet again. The only thing to do, it seems, is to create narrative that cancels the injury it continues to put forward. My narrative, which I will elaborate in as many ways as I can, is that this document is a farce; it is time for anyone on it to remove their content. My appeal to the reader is simply this: if you know any of the named participants, please weigh on them to remove their material; if you know who the “blog” owners are, tell them to TAKE IT DOWN NOW!

Literary (12)

Joshua Clover (poet, scholar; deceased)
Lynn Crawford (fiction writer)
Michael Cross (poet)
Craig Dworkin (poet, scholar)
Lisa Jarnot (poet, biographer)
Jennifer Nelson (poet)
Marjorie Perloff (scholar; deceased)
Jessica Smith (poet)
Brian Kim Stefans (unsigned; poet)
Brian Whitener (poet, scholar)
Unidentified (scholar)
Unidentified (scholar)

Academic (7)

Danielle Aubert (former faculty)
Jonathan Flatley (former faculty)
Nick Fleisher (former faculty)
Richard Grusin (former chair)
Bryan McCann (former faculty)
Tracy Neumann (former faculty)
Donnie J. Sackey (former faculty)

Students (10)

Georgina Adlam (former student)
Marie Buck (former student)
Tara Forbes (former student)
Isaac Pickell (current student)
Kelly Polasek (former student)
Ted Prassinos (former student)
Molli Spalter (current student)
C.T. (former undergraduate)
Clay Walker (former student)
Holly Wielechowski (former student)

Institutions (3)

Collective statement (linked)
Chair, English (copied)
Wayne State GEOC (copied)

What is immediately striking about this breakdown is that none of the literary signatories were at Wayne State, and thus were venting unrelated issues or even looking for “payback”; all the faculty signatories either were not at Wayne State at the time or have now left (guess which one was then in my department); and only two of the students are still active, the rest having completed the program or withdrawn. None of the “institutions” named submitted their statements directly. Two conclusions may be drawn: the “blog” is entirely out of date; and it is likely two students are the only ones with a current interest in its continuing.

OPEN LETTER TO BWRECORDS2019

May 16, 2025

Open letter to bwrecords2019 (bwrecords2019@gmail.com):

I am writing you directly as the persons responsible for maintaining the anonymous “blog” that was organized in 2019. I have discussed this with many colleagues at Wayne State and poets in the Bay Area and New York communities. All are agreed that it is time “to take it down now” and remove the site and its content as out of date and serving no legitimate purpose.

Could you respond to this request as soon as feasible? I would be very grateful as well to know your identities, singular or collective. The anonymity of the “blog,” of course, was intended to shield those who wrote on it from consequences for their many false and hurtful statements. Hiding behind this anonymous format to say anything you like diminishes your credibility.

Beyond that, the “blog” is a major instance of a social media “mobbing” campaign. I have written in detail on the phenomenon of “academic mobbing”; see here. In mobbing, people pile on to exclude someone from what they imagine to be their community. The cruelty of their actions and statements goes far beyond what they would do individually.

They believe they are the sole judges, juries, and executioners for violations of no explicit standard, merely a contagious moral panic. This panic is inflamed by gossip and rumor, lies and half-truths. Each contribution to the “blog” adds its lies and half-truths to a preexisting prejudice to gang up in the name of “collective” justice on the one being called out.

There was not a thought for due process, just cause, institutional processes, or the testimony of anyone who would refute this relentless disparagement. The “blog” gave free space for grudges, vendettas, revenge for imagined wrongs, trivia, and disinformation. It did not permit positive accounts from any of the many colleagues, students, or poets who have worked with me.

May I ask you to consult your conscience and remove this material from the public domain, where it continues to harm not only me but my students, my university, and the poetry communities that I have helped build and participated in for five decades?

Thank you for considering this request, Barrett Watten
barrett.watten@gmail.com

LINKS

Page 01, “Breaking My Own Story”
Page 02, “What Is Mobbing?”
Page 03, “The Aye of Poetry”
Page 04, “My Literary Controversies”
Page 05, “Questions of Unreason”
Page 06, “Defend Louisville!”
Page 07, “Difficult Speech @ Louisville”
Page 08, “Nonsite Speech”
Page 09, “Archive News”
Page 10, “Public Documents”
Page 11, “Endgame Notes”