it is with astonishment that I have heard of the dismissing of our dear colleague Dr. Anne Simon from the University of Bristol. As you are coordinating the protest that has raised in the international community of medievalists, I am writing to you to express my deep concern for this decision and to explain why I think it is a step in the wrong direction.
1. To argue that, being in need of saving money, it is the best solution do divest a German Department of its only expert in mediaeval and early modern language and literature is definitely not an academic reasoning. Instead, it rather reflects poor scientific minds or covers other political motivations.
2. Because it is well known, that mediaeval and early modern language and literature are of great didactical importance in the formation of students. Nobody claims to give them a similar repre-sentation to modern literature and linguistics. But certainly without them, that is, without their cultural and scientific history, the latter disciplines will in the long term not be able to justify themselves in academic policies.
3. This is the reason why every German Department in the world that aims to be able to be competi¬tive in the international context offers lectures in older language and literature, in Spain sometimes even when they do not have real experts.
4. This is definitely not the case of Bristol, because Dr. Anne Simon is a very well-known teacher and researcher who has earned international respect for her publications and lectures.
5. Specialization may be a policy in some scientific areas, where investment in competitive laboratories or other expensive equipment can make a concentration on certain fields advisable. But in the Humanities academic quality is always attained by achieving a representation of all the important fields of learning. A Department of Classical Studies would not be conceivable without Greek or without Latin, and an English Department must offer teaching both on Chaucer and on Beowulf and their contexts.
6. Dr. Anne Simon is an international well related and respected colleague. On the long term, the University of Bristol will find out that it has lost an important piece for its international reputation.