20 questions for dana (vultures not allowed)
 

first question

can you define 'academia'?

not the dictionary definition, but your personal take...

*nods* I think of academia as a wide community, incorporating those active within 'academic' fields of study and who are engaged in study and dialogue in order to push forward our knowledge or understanding of ourselves or our world. I also see it in more concrete terms. A little like a craft guild, if you like, which maintains a degree of control over who and what is incorporated into 'academia' in order to maintain a high level of excellence. I see it also as a historical continuum of which i now am part.


[eta] at a more emotional level, it is the dream I held most dear at a very young age. It is an arena in which my talents shine (though not the only one. My brief flirt with politics showed I wasn't half bad at that field either - disturbingly) and which allows me to stretch my mental muscles. I am just finally, now, in my dissertation, being let off the training reins *smiles* and I think I'm good.

a craft guild maintaining a degree of control over who and what is incorporated into 'academia' in order to maintain a high level of excellence.

drawing from above...the second and third questions

within your field (a brief description of that would be nice), who determines what is 'excellence', and how do 'they' arrive at such a standard?

I need to give a little thought to that one. Will have to come back to it. I am currently drawing together some disparate strands in my dissertation :P

we have all the time in the world...take as much as you need

My field is history, and in particular 18th and 19th century class and gender history. It is the 'elders' of the field, if you will, who determine excellence. As a historian's reputation builds through peer reviewed, researched work, they become the directing forces within the field. There are distinct generational shifts within that. But it is essentially a set of standards arrived at through a collaborative and competitive system of relationships and institutions. It occurs partly through printed dialogue and partly through collaborative working. It is a changing landscape.

Apparently Henry won't be returning to engage with this after all :P


Aww bless.

Whew, another one rides the bus.

:the vultures descend upon the thread:

heheh


I should get me some knitting.