Saved for posterity, the worst professional e-mail I have ever received, from a post-doc fellow in the Department of History at Dartmouth. Four months ago I agreed to participate in a 2-day symposium on “rural issues” at Dartmouth, and a condition of participation would be writing an article for a left leaning publication. I asked the organizer, the author of this email, if the publication planned to offer all writers compensation for their work before committing (Dartmouth was offering an honorarium for participation in the symposium). I was told yes, all authors would receive compensation. Yesterday I learned that the organizers consider getting paid $0 for publication rights getting “paid.” This is what it looks like when someone thinks you are asking for more than you’re worth decides to play a semantic game with you. It costs nothing to say, “Some people will be paid, others not, check with so-and-so for more information about the policy and let me know if you’re comfortable with the plan.” People who like talking about working class people but don’t like dealing with them need to leave me the hell alone.
