The term “public scholarship” is problematic for me. By using this term, it seems as though we are implying that there exist a scholar who has no public/audience. What would it mean for a scholar to not have a public? Even if the scholar wrote/created material, not for the “average Joe,” publishers, administrators, or students, […]
continue readingCiting the Misdoers and Bad Behavers?
Dr. Steven L. Jacobs is Professor and Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at The University of Alabama. His primary research foci are in Biblical Studies, translation and interpretation, including the Dead Sea Scrolls; as well as Holocaust and Genocide Studies. In the December 14, 2018 issue of The Chronicle Review, Brian Leiter of […]
continue readingA Modest Proposal for the AAR’s Guidelines for Evaluating Digital Scholarship
The Sneetches. Do you know the story? Dr. Seuss’ story has stuck with me. Somehow, this is what came to mind when I read through the AAR’s draft guidelines for evaluating digital scholarship. After reading through the draft, I began to wonder whether appending “digital” to the work of a scholar is akin to the […]
continue readingREL Heads to Texas for the American Academy of Religion
Something happens every weekend before Thanksgiving. No, not the cupcake tune up game before the Iron Bowl. It’s the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the national scholarly society for the academic study of religion. This weekend many of the faculty from REL are headed to San Antonio for the meeting and […]
continue readingOut of My Reach?
I assume you’ve seen the discussion over the past month of so around the CV of failures — a movement among some academics to publicize, and thereby make apparent to others, a list of their failures, so as to dispel the myth of merit, i.e., that success just naturally comes to those who already have […]
continue readingThe Illusion of Paradise Lost
Are you following the labor situation at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York? No? Then you may want to at least read this first.
continue readingOut of Bounds
The blokes (that’s the right word, no?) over at The Religious Studies Project posted a link earlier today to an article entitled “The Case Against Mix-and-Match Spirituality” — an article, summarizing a recent session at The Aspen Ideas Festival, that nicely demonstrates how easily (and often) scholars adopt a stance from within the groups they […]
continue readingIsn’t That Special
Did you see the post from last year at The Chronicle‘s site, on widespread dissatisfaction of mid-career profs? I’d not, so thanks to a Facebook friend for re-posting it the other day. The researcher who conducted the survey of over 13,510 faculty comments:
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