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Re: [xmca] Human Sciences Scholar life?

Google "Tihomir Petrov AND urinate" and you'll fetch 8,500 results, which is more than 100 times the number of Google Scholar results attached to Petrov (73). And Peter, I do think Petrov may have had a broader (alleged) impact on his students and his field through his (alleged) actions than through his scholarly publications.
Recently, a disaffected fellow graduate student told me she wished someone had informed her of the high attrition rate for Ph.D. students before she decided to pursue graduate study. My response: Someone probably did tell her. Someone certainly told me--many people told me-- about the long, grim path of academia. We don't listen because of one very human characteristic: We think we're special. We think: it must be so sad for those students who do drop out before finishing their dissertations, for those academics who can't find jobs, for those scholars who can't figure out how to balance their priorities.
Hey, at least I'm having a really good time in my toils toward obscurity. To borrow a line, I get to visit exotic locales (like Scottsdale and Indianapolis!), meet interesting people (like Mike Cole and Jay Lemke!) and...well, never mind the rest. 






~~

Jenna McWilliams
Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University
~
http://www.jennamcwilliams.com
http://twitter.com/jennamcjenna

~
jenmcwil@indiana.edu
jennamcjenna@gmail.com




On Mar 27, 2011, at 12:00 PM, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:


Here's one way to make an impact:

* The Feral Professor:  Tihomir Petrov, 43, a mathematics professor
at California State University Northridge, was charged in January
with misdemeanors for allegedly urinating twice on the office door
of a colleague with whom he had been feuding.  (Petrov was
identified by a hidden camera installed after the original puddles
turned up.)  Petrov is the author of several scholarly papers, with
titles such as "Rationality of Moduli of Elliptic Fibrations With
Fixed Monodromy." [Los Angeles Daily News-AP, 1-27-2011]

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca- bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Wagner Schmit 
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 5:32 PM
To: lchcmike@gmail.com
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Human Sciences Scholar life?

Another video, this time "Simpsons" view of Grad Students

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XViCOAu6UC0&NR=1

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XViCOAu6UC0&NR=1>Wagner
On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 6:29 PM, Wagner Schmit <mcfion@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm a freshman in academic life... pursuing a PhD and already working as temporary teacher at University and College. The only thing that makes me still pursue an academic life is that i try to make my students think about 
the impact of their work in other peoples lifes, and that, i hope, my
research will bring something that may help people in their school life...
But it is hard, no time to read, no time to write (the coordinator of our research group always says "you need to publish"), all "free" time i have is dedicated to prepare classes and supervision of trainees. No weekend, no holiday, no vacation and a very low payment (my students in the private 
college i work have a better income than me).
But what worries me most: who really reads what we publish? I see ideas in 
the educational field pointed as "innovation", but they were already
presented by people like Dewey and Vygotsky decades ago... One of my
students, after a meeting with pedagogues of a high school, pointed out that "all we listen and see is just common sense, where are the application of all those researches you pointed? where are the educational theories?"
I point out that one of the works of Psychologists in School (since i give classes to future psychologists) is to rethink school along side with the school community (teachers, administration, parents, students)... This helps articulate science and real life, but only in a punctual way (in the daily 
life in school)...
What about academic life? what can we do to change it? Or, should it be changed? Where are the academic debates, innovation and contribution to 
society?

Those things make me sleepless sometimes

Wagner Luiz Schmit
Londrina State University - Brazil
On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 5:45 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote: 


I think all of us recognize this scene, Wagner.

At LCHC we are discussing these issues. "We" includes grad students,
post-docs,
old people like me. We are lucky that the interpersonal alienation at LCHC is lower than that depicted (although it is in abundant profusion among those around us). But difficulties for grad students contemplating making a living in academia are pretty grim, especially outside of the presumably "non-ideological" areas of science and technology (where a different set of 
alienating circumstances are plentiful).
We have no great revelations but we are grateful that we have adopted an intellectual stance that makes the study of human life in cultural practices our grounding. we are trying to work that into an implementable strategy for 
surviving graduate school and gaining acceptable employment.

What are others doing? What more might we be doing collectively?
mike
On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Wagner Schmit <mcfion@gmail.com> wrote: 


Hello,

I wanted commentaries on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obTNwPJvOI8&feature=player_embedded#at =201 

Wagner
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