More grousing about the state of academia, what I want, and why
I'm frustrated. This time with Jeremy.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 15:24:10 -0500 (EST)
From: cdent@burningchrome.com
To: Jeremy Fischer
Subject: Re: wacky

On Tue, 30 Apr 2002, Jeremy Fischer wrote:

[snip]

> > Actually that's debatable and that's why it is such an ongoing
> > problem. It's not as if this is a case of I need to pay my dues
> > so I can do stuff (unless we are talking the long road to tenure)
> > but more sort of a fundamental difference in the way that I want do
> > my studies and the way things are structured in SLIS
> > specifically, to some extent in IU generally and is endemic to
> > the (financially strapped) academic establishment.
>
> But what is the long road ? Is it to get tenure ? I think that's
> something to be examined closely over the relatively near future
> because it makes a huge impact on how and what you study.

I was being sort of sarcastic. The long road to tenure is many
many years and is a process I can't imagine doing unless the
interim process changes. That interim process is one of doing
some learning and it is for the learning (as an end in itself)
that I do this stuff. The learning is not going as well as I
would like because of the fundamental (structural) differences
between how I would like to learn and how "the system" requires I
learn. Those requiremnts have a great deal to do with the
economic factors of schools and departments trying to stay afloat
in an environment that encourages something of an assembly line
approach to education, even at the doctoral level.

The other problem is that especially at the doctoral level, one
is expected to focus and specialize, I'd rather not do that. I'm
more interested in moving from discipline to discpline getting
the interesting stuff, forming connections, find what matters,
going forward, backing up some for stuff that gains new relevance
in the light of new discoveries. The idea is to build a network
of broad and flexible knowledge, not a deep hierarchy of narrow
knowledge.