[Xmca-l] Re: Public Academics and its risks

[Larry Purss]

Greg
An idea that I share may be utopian [ it is an ideal] which  comes from
reading an article by John Shotter where he offers commentary on
Voloshinov's dialogical approach to academic advancement of knowledge
This approach sees academic practices as dialogically responding &
 informing each other as each perspective adds [aspects] to our ongoing
shared conversations.
Here is a link to the article

http://www.johnshotter.com/papers/voloshinov%20instead%20of%20theory%20final.pdf

What I found intriguing is Volohinov proposes a *way* of reading and
engaging our differences in theories in a spirit of dialogical question and
answer.
If this model was more prevalent in our re-search then our differences
could be embraced as sharing common questions. Very utopian, but Vygotsky,
Gadamer, Bahktin, Voloshinov seemed to show this style of engagement it
fits into a particular TYPE or STYLE of scholarship that puts questions
into circulation for further elaboration.

Is this approach to advancing knowledge money is probably scarce, so I'm
not sure how to sustain this way of orienting our practices?
Larry




On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>wrote:

> and there is another story that runs somewhat parallel to this that
> involves academics at the front end of their careers:
>
> http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2014/03/10/essay-about-inability-find-tenure-track-job-academe
>
> the author, Patrick Iber, doesn't explicitly mention a failure to bring in
> big money, but one suspects that this might have been one of the big knocks
> against him considering that he teaches courses like "Artists,
> Intellectuals, and Social Change in Latin America" (see his blog at:
> http://patrickiber.blogspot.com/). Not likely to bring in the big grants
> with that...
>
> It is a nasty world out there. Anyone have any ideas how to make it better?
>
> -greg
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 5:41 PM, Glassman, Michael <glassman.13@osu.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > How extraordinarily painful.  The fact that one of the richest
> > universities in the world fired the found of the National Coalition for
> the
> > Homeless because he couldn't bring in 80% of his salary from grants
> > suggests something has gone very wrong with our collective enterprise.
> >  There was a time when people used to say we must support cynicism in
> going
> > after money because it can support nobler endeavors.  Now.....
> >
> > Buy a writer a beer on a hot day and he or she will tell you the three
> > unalterable rules of the universe without much prodding.
> >
> > Never eat at a place called moms.
> >
> > Never play cards with a guy named Doc
> >
> > and Never get into a relationship with somebody who has more problems
> that
> > you.
> >
> > Perhaps we need to add a fourth.
> >
> > Never make a deal with the devil because in the end the devil always
> comes
> > out ahead.
> >
> > Michael
> > ________________________________________
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu]
> > on behalf of mike cole [lchcmike@gmail.com]
> > Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:46 PM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l]  Public Academics and its risks
> >
> > This article seems relevant to prior discussion on the topic of public
> > engagement by academics. The issue is especially tricky when working on
> > soft money, but.......
> >
> > mike
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.thenation.com/article/178821/columbia-university-fired-two-eminent-public-intellectuals-heres-why-it-matters#
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>