THE CEIMSA DOSSIER

UNIVERSITE STEHDHAL-GRENOBLE 3

(2007)

 DOCUMENT #79

Descrimination against Professor Feeley at Stendhal University, Summer 2007.



                                                                                        M. Francis Feeley
                                                                                        UFR d'anglais
                                                                                        Universit Stendhal

                                                                                                à

                                                                                        Mme. Françoise Papa
                                                                                        SNESup
                                                                                        Universit Stendhal


                                                                                        Grenoble, le 2 juillet 2007



Sujet: Deux revendiations par professeur Feeley à l'UFR d'Anglais, été 2007.

Chère Françoise,
 
Je te remercie pour le compte rendu de l'AG de la semaine dernière.
 
Après réfléchir, je suis de ton avis à propos la politique de la marginalisation que je souffre aujourd’hui dans l’UFR d’anglais, et je te demande en tant qu'adhérent du SNESup et défenseur comme moi des règles démocratiques dans notre université, de bien vouloir consigner dans les archives du SNESup cette accusation formelle d'abus d'autorité. Toute suggestion que tu pourrais faire pour donner plus de poids à mes protestations contre cette injustice dans notre UFR d'anglais serait la bienvenue.
 
Plusieurs faits durant ces derniers jours m'ont inquiété. Il semblerait que le Président Chézaud intensifie sa politique visant à m'exclure afin de me marginaliser encore plus, moi et mes étudiants.
 
Tout d'abord comme tu le sais déjà depuis notre discussion à la dernière réunion du SNESup, ma collègue Donna Andréolle, qui est spécialiste de la littérature de science fiction aux États-Unis, a été choisie par Claire Maniez et Susan Blattes de préférence à moi pour faire le cours d'agrégation sur la présidence impériale, un sujet qui tombe carrément dans mon domaine d’expertise (cf. les documents de A à H).
 
Deuxièmement Denis Bonnecase m'a informé la semaine dernière que je ne pouvais pas faire un cours de Master-1 sur le cinéma américain à des non spécialistes parce que mon français n'était pas assez bon (cf. documents I et J)
 
Troisièmement un de mes étudiants de doctorat qui est forcé comme tous mes autres étudiants de doctorat de s'inscrire à Chambéry, a déposé une candidature dans de nombreuses universités pour un poste d'ATER. Stendhal est la seule université à lui avoir envoyé un avis défavorable signé par P.Chézaud (cf. document K).
 

Je voudrais protester contre ces trois décisions qui ont des raisons politiques, de P.Chézaud, Claire Maniez, Denis Bonnecase et Susan Blattes : elles font tort à l'université Stendhal, et à mes étudiants, en me privant de cours de civilisation américaine pour lesquels je suis compétent.
 

en solidarité,
Francis Feeley

cc : Lise.DUMASY@u-grenoble3.fr, Odile.LAGACHERIE@u-grenoble3.fr, vicki.briault@wanadoo.fr, Mohamed.Benrabah@u-grenoble3.fr


 

11 DOCUMENTS


______________
Introduction :
5 June 2007

Dear Colleagues,
As you know, I have protested against the attempts to exclude me from next year's Agreg courses at Stendhal University, and I am now writing to ask you for your advice on a very specific question of tactics.

Claire Maniez, who is the Responsable for all of the Concours classes next year at Stendhal University, told me on May 28 that she had selected Donna Andreolle to teach the American Civilization courses in political history on "The Imperial Presidency". Two days later, she placed an announcement in all the faculty mail boxes, dated 29 May, announcing a general meeting of everyone interested in teaching Agreg/CAPES classes. This meeting is to be held on 13 June.

As I have seniority over Donna as American Civilization Professor at Stendhal University, and as I am uniquely qualified to teach this subject in U.S. political history at Grenoble, and as the AFEA meeting to discuss this Agreg course is scheduled to occur at Paris III next week, 8-9 June, I wrote Susan Blattes, the Director of our UFR at Stendhal University, asking her to make a decision as early as possible so that, if I am permitted to participate in these classes, I can profit from the Paris meeting next week.

As you will see below in Item B., Susan has called a meeting in her office for next Wednesday (June 6) with me, Donna Andreolle, and Claire Maniez to discuss this question. Item A. is a letter of support from my colleague in American Civilization at Stendhal University, Patrick Moreno. To both Patrick Moreno and I it is obvious that I should not be excluded from teaching of this course, but Donna has refused to share them with me (see Item D.), and Claire has stated that she will not reconsider her choice of Donna to teach these courses next year (see Item F.).


All this leaves me with a decision to make, and I would like your advice : Should I go to this Wednesday meeting, which appears to be "a done deal," according to the pattern established long ago by Patrick Chezaud's very visible record of excluding people he does not like, or should I attend the meeting in Susan's office next Wednesday morning and plead in private before these three people that I should be allowed to participate in the Agreg/CAPES courses next year?

The politics of rumors, stigmatization and exclusion in the UFR d'Anglais at Stendhal University should come to an end, but I'm not sure that meeting behind closed doors with these three colleagues next Wednesday is the best way to accomplish this aim.

And, of course, there are many other interesting intellectual pursuits available next year besides the Agreg course. . . . It is simply a question of principle.


Your advice on this matter would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Francis


____________
A.

5 June 2007
Francis,
Here is a pasted copy of my letter to Susan.
See you Thurs.
Patrick


LETTER OF SUPPORT TO SUSAN BLATTES, FROM PATRICK MORENO, AMERICAN CIVILIZATION TEACHER AT STENDHAL UNIVERSITY-GRENOBLE 3 :


Dear Susan,
 
I'm writing you on a different matter (not the cong de formation). I've just heard that Francis was kept out of the Agreg. course, "Lempire de lexcutif : la prsidence des tats-Unis de Franklin Roosevelt George W. Bush (1933-2006)," which is scheduled to take place next year. I've also heard that Donna has been asked to do the course, making it her fourth year teaching an Agreg. class. This was a big surprise to me because I know that Francis is more competent to teach the contents of the class than Donna is. I've been working with him closely for the past 5 years and I know the extent of his experience in the domaine of presidential American politics and US Foreign Policy. Donna is a specialist of Utopian literature, Francis is a specialist of US Foreign Policy! Doesn't that seem strange to you? How was this decision taken? Should it not be discussed openly among the teachers concerned before a unilateral decision is taken?
Also, is there not an issue of "parit" involved? Is it normal that Donna does the Agreg. classes every year, especially if Francis has more seniority in our Department and more expertise in the subject matter?
 
You may think that it is no concern of mine, but please allow me to differ. I've known Francis not only as a colleague in American Civilization but also as a thesis director. I can attest to his pedagogical skills where he has taught me a great deal in terms of historical methodology. I do not believe that our mission here in Grenoble is to crank out teachers, to teach only for the sake of having them pass an exam. (That resembles Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy, where schools spend the last year of high school trying to get students to score the highest on standardized tests.) In-depth thinking and analysis should be our main priority and surely Francis has proven to be a Professor who excells in both. It chagrins me to conclude that, for lack of a better reason, Francis has been left out of the Agreg course because of his political beliefs. This is all the more alarming to me because Francis and I have a very similar intellectual approach to American History, and I've seen, year after year, students come to me saying how much they enjoyed our classes and that they had never been taught US History from a progressive perspective. Is there no intellectual freedom in our Department? The scholars that Francis and I teach in our Civ. classes are among the most highly respected world-wide in our field. What message are we sending to our students by not allowing Francis to teach his specialty at the highest levels?
 
If politics is behind this decision, than it's a shame for our students and an act of persecution; if formatting students to pass an exam is the reason, then we are failing in our mission to educate our students to the utmost of their capacities and are not fulfilling our duty to prepare them to do scientific research.
 
Francis told me that there is a meeting on this tomorrow, I would have liked to attend, unfortunately I have child-care resposibilities on Wednesday.
 
Please keep me informed on the results of the meeting, for as a specialist of US Civ. in our department I feel very concerned by this.

Patrick Moreno


__________________
B.
At 12:03 01/06/2007, Susan Blattes wrote:


Re-bonjour Francis,
Je pense qu'il faudrait discuter de cette question. Je te propose une runion dans mon bureau avec Claire et Donna :
mercredi 6 juin 8h30 ou 11h30. (J'ai cours de 9h30 11h30.)
Merci de me faire part de ton choix d'horaire.
Bien cordialement,
Susan



________________
C.
31 May 2007
Francis Feeley
to
Mohamed Benrabah

Hi Mohamed,
Below is the very rude response from an angry Donna Androlle, who doesn't seem to want to share the Agreg/CAPES course with me next year. 

I really don't know what she is talking about, grading papers, but it is true she does no research.

And now she threatening to remove me from all third-year courses, even my TDs ??? Rapport-de-force relationships seem still to be the norm in our UFR. So much for democratic discussions -- a legacy left by Patrick Chzaud when he was Director of our UFR?

Reading between the lines, I guess Donna wants to keep all the Agrg classes for herself. I really can't imagine why. It's a lot of preparation, especially if you know nothing about the subject.

best wishes, anyway,
ff

______________________

D.
Date: Thu, 24 May 2007
To: Francis FEELEY <francis.feeley@u-grenoble3.fr>
From: Donna Andreolle <donna.andreolle@u-grenoble3.fr>
Subject: Re: cours d'agrgation
Cc: Claire.Maniez@u-grenoble3.fr;, Susan.Blattes@u-grenoble3.fr


Francis,
Thank you for the emails that are copies of things sent to other colleagues.
It is out of the question for me to only correct papers and let you teach the class. I already do that in L1 and L2 where you teach the CM but it's the TD teachers who make up their own exam subjects and correct the exam papers. It's a package deal, take it or leave it.
My only regret is that you did not think it necessary to consult me in any way, that you can just step in and take over a class because you think you are the most qualified, then leave all the other subjects to others who are willing to sacrifice dozens of hours to research in order to guarantee quality classes for our CAPES and Aggation students including in domains that are not directly related to their own specialization.
 If I do not teach the course (and I will not develop the arguments on why I am just as qualified as you are) then I would like to submit to whoever makes the decision that I want to take over the L3 CM and the TDs that you also teach in L3 in the name of rotating course teaching in American civilization. After all there is no reason that you and Patrick should have a monopoly on all of the CM teaching here and in Valence, and all the classes in L3 including renforcement disciplinaire.
I am sending a copy of this to Claire and Susan, for their information.
DA

________________
E.
A 18:31 30/05/07 +0200, vous avez écrit :

M. Francis FEELEY
à
Mme. Claire MANIEZ

Grenoble; le 30 mai 2007       
                                                        
                                      
Chère Collègue,
 
Je me permets de revenir à la question du cours d'agrégation de l'an prochain :
 
Ne serait-il pas possible que Donna et moi nous nous partagions les heures de cours, que Donna entraîne les agrégatifs à l'exercice de la dissertation en français tandis que j'assure la moitié des cours en anglais?
 
J'ai enseigné le cours d'agrégation lorsqu'il portait sur des questions de politique aussi bien à Grenoble qu'à Strasbourg pour six ans, et les seules années où je n'ai pas pu le faire, sont les années où j'ai dû être hospitalisé et où c’était hors de mon domaine de compétence, i.e. « representations of organized crime in popular American movies. »
 
J'ai reçu ma formation en histoire sociale dans ce qui est considéré aux États-Unis comme un des meilleurs, sinon le meilleur département d'histoire des États-Unis et ma thèse a été dirigée par Harvey Goldberg, éminent historien américain. J'ai publié plusieurs livres sur la politique des États-Unis; je reste en relation avec de nombreux historiens de gauche des États-Unis comme Howard Zinn, Gabriel Kolko, Douglas Dowd, etc. et je continue de publier leurs articles sur mon site de recherche sur les Etats-Unis à l’Université de Californie; j'ai déjà organisé plusieurs colloques internationaux à Grenoble et à Chambéry sur l’histoire contemporaine des Etats-Unis et les interventions de celui de 2006 sur les mouvements pacifistes aux Etats-Unis et en France devraient être publiées ce mois de juin.
 
J'ai traité la question de l'exécutif aux États-Unis à de nombreuses reprises durant ces dernières années et je considèrerais que ce serait une mesure vexatoire de discrimination par rapport à mes opinions politiques s'il m'était refusé la possibilité d'assurer au moins une partie de ce cours. Je suis sûr que Donna comprendrait très bien ma demande et ne s'en offusquerait pas. J'espère qu'il sera possible d'arriver à un compromis qui satisfasse aussi bien les exigences des responsables de l'agrégation que les intérêts intellectuels des deux professeurs de civilisation américaine, Donna et moi-même.
 
Veuillez agréer l'expression de mes sentiments très cordiaux,
Francis Feeley

___________________
F.
Date: Mon, 28 May 2007
To: Francis.Feeley@u-grenoble3.fr
From: Maniez Claire <claire.maniez@u-grenoble3.fr>
Subject: cours d'agrégation
Cc: claire.maniez@wanadoo.fr

 
Cher Francis,
Susan m'a fait part de ta proposition d'assurer le cours d'agrégation sur la fonction présidentielle aux USA. Je te remercie de ton offre, mais j'ai déjà demandé à Donna de faire ce cours l'an prochain, et elle a accepté. Compte tenu du fait qu'elle assure des cours d'agrégation depuis longtemps, qu'elle est rompue aux exercices spécifiques des concours (il faut notamment entraîner les étudiants à la dissertation en français), et qu'elle est membre du jury de l'agrégation interne, je n'envisage pas de remettre en cause sa participation à la préparation au concours.
Bien cordialement,
Claire

____________________
G.
At 09:10 21/05/2007, you wrote:
Dear Francis,
Thank you for your message which I will forward to Claire Maniez who will be preparing the organisation of the Concours. There will be a meeting soon to discuss this.
Yours,
Susan

__________________
H.
11:18 18/05/2007 +0200, vous avez écrit :
18  May 2007
Hello Susan,
I hope you had an enjoyable holiday.
I just received news from the AFEA officer Jean-Paul Gabilliet [please see below] that the Agrégation topic this year is "L’empire de l’exécutif : la présidence des États-Unis de Franklin Roosevelt à George W. Bush (1933-2006)."
 
This topic is within my domain of specialization, and I would like to teach it this coming year.
 
cheers,
Francis

____________________
I.
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007
Subject: Cours de tronc commun de Master
From: "Denis Bonnecase" <Denis.Bonnecase@u-grenoble3.fr>
To: Francis.Feeley@u-grenoble3.fr

 

Cher Francis,

Après mûre réflexion, il apparaît que tu ne feras pas le cours de tronc
commun en M1, dans la mesure où celui-ci doit se faire entièrement en
français. Je comprends ta déception. Il ne s'agit nullement d'une mesure
vexatoire. En vérité, cette décision est tout simplement dictée par le
fait que les étudiants du tronc commun viennent de tous les départements
de langues. Je suis à ta disposition si tu veux me contacter.
Cordialement,

D. Bonnecase

 

_________________
J.
Reply to Denis Bonnecase:

After speaking with Donna Andreolle last week about this course, we came to the agreement to share this M-1 course every other year, beginning with me teaching it this year. My plan for this course is to provide four American films for the students to watch outside of class. The twelve one-hour classes will be used to discuss a series of problematics concerning each of these films, including the social context of the production of the film and the cultural and political references made in these films.
 
While I am not a native speaker of French, and much of my research is in English-language sources, I believe that my work for many years in French language prepares me to give this course which must be in French due to the fact that many students in this course will be students of languages other than English.
 
I have spent many years doing research in the Archives nationals, and in the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris. I have also written several books using French sources, including a book based on interviews with French residents of Paris. I have directed  many M-2 memoires in French. I have served on the three Ph.D. juries conducted in French. I have defended my habilitation de diriger la recherche in French at l'Université d'Orléans, and I am serving as Président of the Commission des spécialists in French language at l'Université Joseph Fourier. I am now directing 7 Ph.D. thèse on topics from American civilization, written in French, at Chambéry.
 

For the above reasons I feel qualified to teach this 12-week course on American cinema in French next semester.
 
F. Feeley

 

___________________
K.
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007
To: Susan Blattes <susan.blattes@u-grenoble3.fr>
From: Francis FEELEY <francis.feeley@u-grenoble3.fr>
Subject: Re: Important Request.
Bcc: patrickfmoreno@yahoo.fr, b_chems@yahoo.fr

Thank you Susan for your message concerning a vacataire position next year for Chems to help us in American civilization classes. And now I have another request. Can you please tell me by what procedure and for want reasons Chems was sent a notice from Patrick Chezaud stating that he was given an avis défavorable for his application for an ATER positioin at Stendhal University next year?
Sincerely,
Francis

________________
L.
Date 19 August 2007
To: Francis Feeley
From: Professor Enrica Piccardo
Subject: Contact address at the Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les Discriminations.

Dear Francis
How are you?
I haven't forgotten our talk at the end of the academic year concerning the discrimination against you for the fact of not being a French native speaker, only I couldn't remember the name of the institution which is in charge of fighting against discriminations. Now I've got it: it's called HALDE (Haute autorité de lutte contre les discriminations) and here is the internet address: http://www.halde.fr/  il y a aussi un numéro de téléphone sur la page web.
I hope you're still enjoying some rest.
Enrica