He adds insult to injury with gems like this:
No academic that I've ever met works nine to five, five days a week. With three months of holiday and every weekend free…
I just wonder if we need a body to dispense largesse to projects that are quite so facile and obscure or those that are the personal pet of some very small clique who believe in the centrality of the oboe to 21st-century culture, or those who are governed by the most fashionable thinking on heritage or the cultural primacy of modern dance, or the digital future of everything. As for the literature projects so in need of funded buyouts, they could either be done at the author's leisure or not at all, rather than splashing their spurious claims of importance across the AHRC's website as success stories.
That's hit quite a raw nerve. I'm exhausted at the moment. I'm always in the office 9-5 and many days I'm in for much longer. My institution's teaching hours are 9-9. I've been in the office until gone 10 p.m. (that's 13 hours) most of this week and last week. Next week will be the same, despite this research showing that doing 3 hours overtime a day leads to a 60% rise in heart disease. I work weekends because I teach so many modules and so many big classes that's it's the only way to mark work in the ridiculously short period of time available. Research basically doesn't get done - which means I'll never get another job. As to a three month holiday - it's bullshit. We have exam boards, resits to mark, clearing hotlines to staff, modules to design, even try to squeeze some research in…
I've rarely read such a vacuous and reactionary piece of rubbish. I think humanities research is important because it helps us to understand human relations and human behaviour. Why he'd reduce this to a hobby is completely beyond me.
2 comments:
The good professor doesn't seem to be in touch with the real world. Perhaps, rather than take offence, we ought to pity him.
A colleague and I have shared a podium with Dr Bloom a couple of times, and he was a keynote speaker at a conference we organised. His heart's usually in the right place, but I'm afraid he's wildly outta touch with this piece. I think this is what happens when you join the professoriat.
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