http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=rMz5ZGfscDQq6mkby2kjG4TtCqPGXbsf I’m trying to get all the details on this story, which I’ve just tripped over. Apparently Arden terminated the contract of Patricia Parker, professor of English at Stratford University, who was working on a new edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (for something like 10 years!). Well, people are going bananas, and there’s a petition demanding her reinstatement. Arden’s making no public statement on the reason for her termination, but Parker herself says that “failure to meet deadlines” was the reason given to her. Normally I’d think that letting somebody out of a contract is no big cause for alarm, but when you realize that she’s been working on this thing for 10 years, and then they up and fire her under suspicious circumstances — keeping her work, by the way, and not saying what will happen to it — you do have to wonder if perhaps a little more detail should be forthcoming. Anybody got more gossip?
