Some wag once said that academia was a pie-eating contest in which the prize was more pie. The reason this evokes rueful chuckles from academics is that, like all good jokes, there is truth in this hyperbolic description. (The more gloomily inclined among us will recognize a deeper existential truth in here: life can allContinue reading “Academia As Pie-Eating Contest”
Tag Archives: academia
Academics And Their Secretaries
In the preface to The Age of Revolution 1789-1848 (Signet Classic, New York, 1962, p. xvi) Eric Hobsbawm writes: Miss P. Ralph helped considerably as secretary and research assistant Miss E. Mason compiled the index. In the preface to the new edition (1969) of Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (University of Stanford Press, Cultural Memory in the PresentContinue reading “Academics And Their Secretaries”
Mary McCarthy On Henry Mulcahy’s Selfishness
In Mary McCarthy‘s The Groves of Academe, John Bentkoop, a faculty member at Jocelyn College, offers his take on his beleaguered colleague, Henry Mulcahy, who has set in motion schemes of varying deviousness in his bid to hang on to his precious position after receiving a dismissal notice from the college president: Hen has a remarkableContinue reading “Mary McCarthy On Henry Mulcahy’s Selfishness”
On Safe and Unsafe Academic Workplaces: An Email to a Colleague
Here, on this blog, I have often written posts about the academic life. Some of those posts have concerned themselves with the state of affairs in my discipline, philosophy, and yet others have been more generally directed–perhaps about academic publishing, for instance. A recurring concern in my posts on academia might be termed ‘workplace issues’–mattersContinue reading “On Safe and Unsafe Academic Workplaces: An Email to a Colleague”
Unsung Heroines and Premature Glory
News Scientist is currently featuring a story titled “Unsung Heroines: Five Women Denied Scientific Glory.” The woman scientists featured are: Hertha Ayrton, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Gerty Cori (an odd choice given she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize), Rosalind Franklin, and Lise Meitner. For my money, of the stories told here, those ofContinue reading “Unsung Heroines and Premature Glory”
On Being a ‘Professional Philosopher’, Contd.
In my previous post on being a professional philosopher, I had emphasized the scholarly world: publishing, writing, theoretical orientation etc. Today, I want to take note of another very important duty of the modern professional philosopher: teaching. Most philosophers in the modern university teach a mixture of classes: the introductory ‘service’ courses, which in manyContinue reading “On Being a ‘Professional Philosopher’, Contd.”
On Being a ‘Professional Philosopher’
A recent post in The Philosopher’s Magazine blog set me thinking about some of the strictures on being a professional or academic philosopher, which today amount to pretty much the same thing. (I realize this might leave out bioethicists, some of whom do not have the typical duties or work profiles of philosophers that are facultyContinue reading “On Being a ‘Professional Philosopher’”
A Nerdy Break-Up: Leaving the Academic Life
In the past few weeks I have had several conversations–electronic and face-to-face–with folks–friends and acquaintances–that have walked away from academic careers. Though I do not have numbers to back this up, it seems such departures have become increasingly common in the modern academy. The reasons have been varied: bad job markets (some things never change; inContinue reading “A Nerdy Break-Up: Leaving the Academic Life”
Samir Chopra 