A class of its own

With the teaching of humanities in decline, PAUL LITTLE recalls when some of the biggest names in NZ literature taught at Auckland University's English department.

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In June 2023, Alex Calder gave his inaugural lecture as professor of English at the University of Auckland. Calder was a student from 1974-79, when he earned an MA, followed by a PhD in 1987. In his lecture, he named some of the people who'd taught him in the late 70s, including poet Allen Curnow, novelist Bill Pearson, poet and novelist CK [Karl] Stead and many other literary household names. These people weren't just teaching literature; they were making it. Their colleagues included other names less familiar outside academia but internationally distinguished in their fields (see “Roll call”, page 27).

Other universities also boasted prominent names – creative and academic – but Auckland was in a class of its own. It was, by any assessment, a stellar roster. Other starry names would grace the department in years to come, but it can be argued critical mass was achieved in the late 1970s.

The department hit a numerical peak around 1999. It's not a precise apples-to-apples comparison, as it later spun off into linguistics, drama, film, creative writing and similar blocs, but the university calendar that year listed some 45 staff. By 2015, it was down to 15. This year, the university's website lists nine academic staff in English.

A 2023 Listener story (“Arts & minds”, June 3) examined the decline in teaching the humanities in general. This article functions as a prequel to that, looking back to what has been lost in the process.

MUS THE MAN

How did so many variously talented people come to be working in the same place at the same time? Ask them and most will say “Mus”. They don't make them like Professor Sydney Musgrove any more: scholar, gentleman and creative administrator. From 1947 until 1980 he lectured in and headed the department. Today's Musgroves would struggle to fit into the managerialist, profit-driven, box-ticking environment the university has become.