As I attempt to reconstruct the course my life and work has taken, I am
very conscious that many "decisions" and actions taken or not taken were
intimately connected with aspects of my non-professional life. To refer
to them in sufficient detail for my account to be intelligible would mean
implicating other people who are close to me (and who would be recognizable,
even if not named) in ways that might embarrass or offend them.
These sort of revelations are, of course, the stuff of political and showbiz
autobiography, but they don't seem to be appropriate in academia, where
we pretend that our professional activities are detached, rational and
unrelated to our "private" human emotions. Which they definitely are not!
So, while I agree with those who are urging that we attempt to critically
examine our intellectual trajectories, I am uncertain about the ethical
and professional appropriateness of telling the "truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth."
Gordon Wells, gwells who-is-at oise.on.ca
OISE, Toronto.