Years ago, when I was still a full-time, tenured professor of philosophy, navigating the rewards and frustrations of that career, I came up with this instruction to myself: "Do more of what you love, less of what you hate." That remains good advice for me now as I ponder the future direction of my professional life - and perhaps for you, too - for all of us.
Do more of what you love, less of what you hate.
Some things I love about the academic life:
Talking with people I love who love the same books I love.
Writing thoughtful, insightful (but also critical) articles about the books I love.
Teaching eager, motivated students about the books I love.
Some things I hate about the academic life:
Academic politics, conflicts, "call-outs," MEANNESS!
Jumping through other people's hoops, especially hoops held by anonymous strangers.
Feeling like a failure, a fraud, a fake - the "imposture syndrome" known to almost all academics.
How can I get more of the former and less of the latter?
Well, one of the bad things about decades in a profession is feeling a bit worn out and washed up. But one of the FABULOUS things longevity provides is LOTS AND LOTS OF WONDERFUL FRIENDS. Some of my children's lit scholar colleagues are retired now - not just retired from the university, but retired, period. But others remain extremely active in the field, filled with ideas galore for organizing conferences, arranging symposia and discussion groups, and soliciting contributions for volumes they are editing on all kinds of delicious topics.
So: I no longer have to submit my work to scholarly journals for double-blind peer review, where usually one reviewer is kind and encouraging, and the other one is... not. On my most recent submission to a prestigious journal in my field, the first reviewer wrote, "This is a fascinating and informative article that stands to make an important contribution to the scholarship [on topic x]." Reviewer #2 wrote, "One of the key issues the author should consider addressing in revision is the essay’s overall lack of purpose and coherence."!!!! Ouch!!! This, after my having published - I just counted - some 50 academic articles and book chapters over the last forty years! So I'm hardly a wet-behind-the-ears newbie! Should I try to revise this piece to please Reviewer #2, who went on to provide a full page with half a dozen similar comments, all scathing, and who will likely prove impossible to please? Or should I declare myself done-done-DONE! with trying to please all the Reviewer #2s of the world forever?
Farewell, Reviewer #2! I have realized that I can write - and publish - heaps of lovely academic articles just by working with fellow scholars who already like me and value what I do. They will want revisions, too, of course; they have appropriately high standards of their own. But this doesn't feel like jumping through endless hoops of fire. It feels like joyous collaboration with people I know and respect.
I may continue to attend academic conferences, but smaller, friendlier ones. I will continue to teach, but at smaller, friendlier places. Hollins University (pictured below), where I have taught regularly for many years, offers graduate programs in children's literature that are BLISS for students and faculty alike. I told a new faculty member who was arriving as I was leaving from my first stint of teaching there, "You are entering the portals of paradise."
Sounds like perfection to me! Bravo to you!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Maybe not perfection, but close enough!
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