MFA Democracy Now!

Last week the Huffington Post published a long article by Anis Shivani entitled “Is the MFA System Corrupt and Undemocratic?” Of course, the title is a rhetorical question, and the thesis of the piece can be summarized as: “the MFA system is corrupt and undemocratic.” Shivani has a novel take on an old beef, though, as his article is a strangely ahistorical comparison between contemporary writing programs and medieval guilds:

It is an undemocratic system from the inside, just as the medieval guild system was, despite expressions of social solidarity among the chosen fraternity. Certain über-masters… exercise disproportionate control over the distribution of rewards and honors. Woe betide any journeyman, let alone an apprentice, who crosses one of them!

But the question remains: “who thinks of graduate programs, in any field, as democratic institutions?” Oh, sorry, that’s a rhetorical question, which can be summarized as: “graduate programs, in any field, are not democratic institutions.”