2018/01/21
Higher Education Is Drowning in BS
Pointed self-criticism of BS in academia by Christian Smith. Well done, it matches my experience with academia's rewards, as well as the frustration of both contributing to this same BS and agreeing with how difficult it is to change it, except, perhaps, via long-term strategies like demanding and interdisciplinary training of graduate students. Thanks to Erik Stolterman for the pointer.
"BS is the farce of what are actually 'fragmentversities' claiming to be universities, of hyperspecialization and academic disciplines unable to talk with each other about obvious shared concerns. [...] BS is the institutional reward system that coerces graduate students and faculty to "get published" as soon and as much as possible, rather than to take the time to mature intellectually and produce scholarship of real importance. [...] BS is the grossly lopsided political ideology of the faculty of many disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences, creating a homogeneity of worldview to which those faculties are themselves oblivious, despite claiming to champion difference, diversity, and tolerance. [...] the idea of tragedy is incomprehensible in institutions drifting in a Bermuda Triangle marked by the external-funding addictions of the STEM fields, the obsequious scientism of the social sciences, and the intellectual fads, ideological doctrines, and science-envy that captivate and enervate the humanities. And when the protagonists and victims of such a tragedy cannot even recognize their own tragic condition, the situation is even more dreadful and pathetic."
"BS is the farce of what are actually 'fragmentversities' claiming to be universities, of hyperspecialization and academic disciplines unable to talk with each other about obvious shared concerns. [...] BS is the institutional reward system that coerces graduate students and faculty to "get published" as soon and as much as possible, rather than to take the time to mature intellectually and produce scholarship of real importance. [...] BS is the grossly lopsided political ideology of the faculty of many disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences, creating a homogeneity of worldview to which those faculties are themselves oblivious, despite claiming to champion difference, diversity, and tolerance. [...] the idea of tragedy is incomprehensible in institutions drifting in a Bermuda Triangle marked by the external-funding addictions of the STEM fields, the obsequious scientism of the social sciences, and the intellectual fads, ideological doctrines, and science-envy that captivate and enervate the humanities. And when the protagonists and victims of such a tragedy cannot even recognize their own tragic condition, the situation is even more dreadful and pathetic."
Labels: #Academia
