On Academic Arrogance (again)

It is such an awesome thing that nowadays, academics are using in an increase number social media. In just a couple of words, they can share their latest researches, connect with researchers and aspiring academics interested in their line of work and eventually start substantial collaborations in real life.

But clearly, social media in the academic field has, as in the case of many other circumstances, a two-edge: if used wisely it can be a very useful tool advancing knowledge - regardless the domain, but it can also be a self-reproducing tool of stereotypes, intolerance and non-sense.

A couple of hours ago, someone tweeted on a topic I am not academically qualified - although it pertains to my area of study, which is about ethnic minorities and intellectual representations in Central and Eastern Europe, but that happens to know as a fact of life. It was about the Yiddish culture and language. The respective tweet was complaining that as the number of Yiddish native speakers is diminishing, the language itself is entering a threatening stage. The quoted article was referring though to a very intellectual version of Yiddish, promoted by YIVO, which mostly relies to the intellectual works done in this language, like the works of Shalom Aleihem or other known Yiddishists.

However, I have a good news and a bad news. Although the literary, intellectual production in the Yiddish language decreases, the language is not dying at all. Rather the opposite. There are thousands of children born in the US, Europe - Belgium and France mostly - and Israel whose first language it Yiddish. Part of very strict religious groups - like for instance the Satmer - they are using the language in a very active way, in their specific variants - Hungarian, Lithuanian etc.. They do not write literature - yet, but think about those children who once growing up will probably decide to not be religious anymore but they keep the language and might want to write first in their mother tongue. 

I bet - and I hope I am wrong - the academics involved in the discussion about the dying status of Yiddish are not familiar -in a direct, non-academic way - to those realities, never actually spoke with someone belonging to this group and if there are not some academic references about the topic, they will never actually figure out such people really exist.

I am often faced with such discrepancies between the realities of the academic worlds and life. The arrogance and self-referential attitude which ignores anything coming from 'non-expert' - probably a bunch of 5 people spending their time reading everything on the topic but with a very narrow interest in checking the facts - as such an approach is depreciativelly qualified as 'journalistic' creates the premises of false projections. When you are talking about a language in danger, the measures that might come to mind, if not connected to a reality on the ground, will not help in any respect.

Personally, I will not cease to balance the intensive academic research and reading with direct contact with the 'subjects' I am about to study. For the preparation of my PhD I've spent an impressive amount of time talking with people, learning and speaking their languages, understanding their education system and their mindset, instead of relying exclusively on academic approaches. It helped me to understand the conundrum of the mentality, the eventual evolutions as well as the patterns. Such an attitude keeps me busy enough to avoid both in real life and through social media self-sufficient academics. 

For a Better Academic Year

With only a few post published on a blog and only a limited academic activity, 2017 was not my best in terms of academic achievements and professional advancement. For reasons completely independent of my will, of very personal reasons - but luckily, not mine - most of my academic readings had to do with issues dealing with mental health and mental instability of persons that did not benefit the proper medical support when they needed to, developing into toxic unstable adults. An interesting investigation after all, but not my area of study and not something I am very keen to further explore.

However, once I settled down - at least on my side - my own version of the story, it is about time to set up my visual board and aim high for a reboost of my academic career. I am fully aware that things will not jump out of nowhere from 0 to 100, but at least, settling down in an academic mood, sounds like what I have to expect for my next 12 months. And work hard towards achieving it. 

In this new arrangement, the blog - and the Twitter account which is slowly slowly growing up (like 1 follower the year...maybe) is playing a very clear role, as a dairy which will help me keep the track of my records, but also encourage me to move forward with my efforts towards a better academic visibility and planning. The plan is to post at least twice the week, with a clear focus on books and various academic challenges specific to people with the highest academic training - as I do, with a PhD in history, a book written and couple of academic articles - but without the clear thought of actually being part of the academic establishment - at least for now. Maybe it is about time to make a change in this respect and hopefully 2018 will be the year when I will sort out my serious plans and maybe some teaching perspectives too. 

Here it is for now! Hopefully, things will get much better and I will be able to keep up with a modest schedule and academic planning!

Wish all my academic readers a happy healthy and successful 2018!

The turning point of campus politics

After the last year racial unrest in US and Canadian universities, it seems that it was about time to start a larger discussion about the successes and failures of campus politics. Aimed to explain the current state of the art of academia beyond the high walls of universities, Campus Politics aims and succeeds to offer a balanced perspective on what was wrong and right with the philosophy that structured the campus everyday life in the last decades. 

In a way I was expecting more boldness in approaching strategies such as the downsides of 'political corectness' and left wing mindsets, but this is not the purpose of the book. Instead, it offers a basis for serious discussions, and possible reconsiderations in the future. First, you need to know the terms and conditions and the reality. For instance, contrary to the stereotype, there are more conservative teachers and students in the North American universities than expected, which can explain how, in fact, the 'politically corect' approach was not that successful, despite the predominance of this discourse in the public space. 

Many terms, such as freedom of speech - which isn't 'a license for professors to do whatever they want' - are sometimes misused and misunderstood, ant the race and gender equality is still an aim. In a way, academia is only one of the many environments a person is part thereof during a lifespan and as long as the other segments of the society ignore the need to consider seriously their admission and acceptance policies, universities are not (the only) responsible for the failure. 

Another merit of the book is to take into consideration the 'very hard to understand world' shaped by the challenges taking place after 9/11, and also mentions the anti-Israel bias that can be encountered in many high-end academic circles. 

As everything is in the making right now, with an unknown outcome, there is the responsibility of the students to offer a different approach. Instead of requesting the administration to take the needed measures, better they try to request and fight directly for their rights. 

Written in a very analytical way - without trying to be apologetical or over-critical, with many information about the history of campus politics, the book is a recommended read to both academics and students, and anyone interested to understand the current academic challenges in the USA. 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange of an honest review

Science blogging, a step-by-step introduction

Academics and particularly scientists do not have time to blog or read newspapers or be on Instgram. They are in the libraries, labs, at high-end conferences where they discuss the latest equations or microbiology discovery. True or not?

It is a matter of choice, after all, but nowadays, Science Blogging is a reality and sometimes all you need in order to proceed to the next practical step - like opening your blog - is a little bit of encouragement and acknowledgement of the results already achieved by other professionals in your domain. This essential guide reunites articles written by famous scientists bloggers, who are explaining in a very simple yet encouraging way what science blogging means, what are the advantages, how to manage the various technical choices - Tumblr vs. Blogger vs. Wordpress; if you ask me, I keep being a faithful Blogger follower and practician- how to use visual content or keep in mind copyright issues. There are also tips about how to read your blog metrics and how, eventually, one can make money out of it, although this should not necessarily be the main aim of the project. 

Instead of being dismissed as futile activity, mostly a waste of time, science blogging offers to the scientists several noticeable advantages: practising writing on a daily basis, personal branding, networking with other scientists, creating a platform for further academic contacts and freelancing work, to mention only few of them. 'Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint', mentioned one of the authors, as a warning that, similarly with the academia, science blogging does not guarantee a blitz-success. Science blogging improves teaching skills and social skills in general, can help testing concepts and ideas and, what I think it is very important, offer to scientists a voice against pseudo-science. 

Addressing the beginner and skeptical science bloggger, it is well written with good references and many good tips. Personally I think blogging can tremendously make a difference in the life of a PhD student that needs to polish his or her writing skills permanently, but also constantly test and confront various conclusions and results of the research. Wish I had used this opportunity more often during my doctoral research.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher via NetGalley.com in exchange of an honest review

Pro and cons of academic blogging

In 2016, there are problably few and few academics wondering what blogging is and why we, as educated people, we should use this medium to share our ideas to the world. Many of my academic friends already experienced at least once the bloggosphere, either as guest writers or as owners of their blog.

However, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and confusions regarding the advantages of blogging for academics and I am here to share some of them.

Let's start with the cons:

- Not every kind of scientifical domain can be easily blogged about. For instance, as a mathematician discovering new formulas, writing a blog post about this, will most probably not reach more than the usual people that are already familiar with your very niche activities. So, why to waste time setting up a couple of sentences about?

- Talking about time...one of the big arguments against blogging among academics is the waste of time. In a highly competitive academic world, where publish or die is still the motto, you better use every dime of time for forwarding your research, apply for academic conferences. If you also have a family, you practically do not have any extra time for scribbling.

- The blog post does not equal the academic article and will not (yet) be considered a reference for applying for a serious permanent academic position.

- It increases the risk of being caught in various commercial traps, especially when various companies or institutions are keen to offer sponsorship and thus, diminish the credibility and independence of the academic individual and research.

- It has the temptation of easy journalism, and may affect the hard polished academic skills which includes precaution and long preparation of the texts as well as cross-referencing.

The advantages are equally noteworthy:

- It offers visibility to ideas developed by academics, by offering a medium to share and discuss. This is particularly available for academics in the field of human sciences and politics. 

- It makes academic work transparent and relevant to the public and take back the intellectuals in the agora as parts of the public discussions. 

- It help spreading knowledge in parts of the world without a proper educational network. Wherever they are, people can read and get in touch with new ideas.

- Outside the rigid institutional settings, academics are free to express opinions not only about their daily work but on issues of public interest.

- It offers academics important opportunities to collaborate and share ideas. It also offers the chance to find people sharing common interests and researching similar topics, wherever they are. 

Probably there are many more things to outline about academic blogging and I will keep writing about this in next posts. As for me, I will always keep telling how grateful I am for being alive these times, with tremendous learning opportunities, many of them for free. 

Back in the academic blogging business

Almost two years without a blog post, and not too many academic achievements...True is that there were a lot of challenging taking place and the academic perspectives and experiences helped in finding solutions. Although academic writing and the improvement of the academic CV was relatively slowing down, or put on hold for a couple of months, it was just a provisory situation.

Right now, fulll of energy and ideas for at least one book until the end of the year, I am back and ready to use the blog as a tool for sharing ideas about books, academic life and academic travels and history. I am preparing a couple of reviews of interesting academic books that caught my attention recently and the blog will be updated at least once the week. 

With plans to upgrade my academic CV and some long time projects for the medium term. 

All being said for now, I am back preparing my next post!

Keep in touch with good academic news! Soon, very soon!