[Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship

Sun Feb 18 10:32:14 PST 2018

Really inspiring words and work, Francine. I do see community colleges and many other educational settings apart from universities as really valuable and exciting opportunities; the PhD and following postdoc etc training in universities, however, tend to be very much targeted towards a very narrow spectrum of positions, or at least that's been my experience. I am very happy that this thread may widen that scope and make visible other paths. And as Mike suggested, it would be very interesting to hear from several others who have followed distinct trajectories apart from the phd-postdoc-assist/assoc. prof-prof, and yet made a career in touch with most of what was developed in the junior (phd and few later) years. 
Thanks!
Alfredo
________________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Larry Smolucha <lsmolucha@hotmail.com>
Sent: 18 February 2018 06:20
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship

Message from Francine Smolucha on a scholar's life with or without academia

Alfredo,

There are other jobs that pay well (sometimes with tenure and early retirement benefits) - besides professorships at four year colleges and universities.  Administrative and support staff positions pay well. And don't overlook community colleges, technical colleges, and public grade schools and high schools. There is also the private sector and government jobs.

As a 'low status' community college professor, I managed to translate Vygotsky's

overlooked writings on creativity (back in the 1980's) and introduced his theory of creativity to academia.  I got early retirement at age 53 and continue to write and publish. While my Ph.D from the University of Chicago gave me academic bona fides, it was the quality of the scholarly work that ultimately mattered.

I was always inspired by the harsh circumstances of Vygotsky's life and how he still kept on writing.

[When I felt really sorry for myself, I would actually say "Well at least I am not coughing up blood"]

So many of his works were not published in his lifetime, he did not collect a royalties check, and    they say he was depressed at the end of his life.

I leave you with this quote from an ancient Sufi mystic -

You can't always get what you want but you can get what you need

.

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2018 7:07 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship

Yours is a quandary shared by your generation, Alfredo.
Being allowed to teach and conduct research in a quality institution is a
great privilege and an
increasingly rarer possibility.

There are several people on this list who have organized their lives to be
independent scholars
while staying connected to the core institutions of disciplinary training.
It might be nice to hear
the variety out there.

It appears pretty certain that the situation is going to get worse
before/if it gets better.

What can the collective experience of xmca come up with that would be
useful to the many
of you caught in this meat grinder?

mike

On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 4:49 PM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
wrote:

> Good luck then, Wagner!
> A
> ________________________________________
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Wagner Luiz Schmit <wagner.schmit@gmail.com>
> Sent: 18 February 2018 01:07
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship
>
> This just hit me in the spot...
>
> Wagner
>
> On Feb 17, 2018 9:48 PM, "Alfredo Jornet Gil" <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no> wrote:
>
> > I have not been able to contribute to this list as much as I'd like to
> > lately, among other things, because I need to find a job, and I need to
> > make sure that I have checked all those boxes that selection committees
> > will check (enough first-authored publications? in good enough journals?
> > enough leadership in projects? teaching? supervising? acquiring funds?
> more
> > than all others candidates? and more than favoured-for-whatever-other-
> reasons
> > candidates?). So I have been doing all I can these weeks to fill up a
> > competitive CV, for my contract is about to expire.
> >
> >
> > And, although I did not think that it was particularly well written, it
> > was both relieving and discouraging to read this article (see link below,
> > which I take from the facebook wall of a colleague who I think also
> > subscribes this list). The article makes visible the pain scholars go
> > through when, after so many years of digging and digging and digging a
> > little (but deep!) hole, may after all have to leave it and find some
> other
> > thing to do. In Canada, I met a French astronomer who was moving through
> > the world with his lovely family, short-term project after short-term
> > project, getting better and better at what he worked on (apparently he
> was
> > among the few who had expertise in computer modeling simulating some
> > astronomic events) , and finally having to step out academia last year to
> > find something else to do, for his family no longer could stand the
> > constant uncertainty and travelling. It could be me soon. And that may
> not
> > be a bad thing, or even a thing in itself, but the story seems to be
> quite
> > endemic to academia and may be interesting to some of you:
> >
> >
> > https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Everybody-Loses-When/242560
> >
> > Alfredo
> >
> >
> >
>
>