Academic Vocation Research Articles

Mentoring Matters: Theological Explorations of Generational Transition and the Academic Vocation

Mentoring Matters: Theological Explorations of Generational Transition and the Academic Vocation

Agency of Trauma in Anand's Untouchable and Roy's The God of Small Things

Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable (1935) and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things (1997) seek to represent the traumatic sufferings of the scheduled castes in the caste-ridden Indian society. The authors of the novels under study are not from the scheduled-castes the traumatic sufferings of whom they have tried to represent in the novels. When such is the case, the problematic resides in the authenticity of voice in the representation of dalits' traumatic sufferings. The traumatic pain of the downtrodden people the authors enact in the novels evokes the affect of sympathy in the readers. However, the big question in trauma theory is not just the sympathy that the authors evoke in their readers towards the traumatized protagonists but whether the evocation carries the direct voice of the authors and the middle voice. The projection of dalit subjectivity accompanied by the academic vocation also evokes the affect of sympathy, besides the construction of pain in the transaction between language and body. The agency of trauma supports the representation of dalits' trauma only when the authentic voice of the authors accompanies the narrativization of pain. Examined in the light of Dominick LaCapra's notion of the middle-voice and Melissa Gregg's idea of communicating investment, this research has come to the conclusion that Anand's representation of dalits' trauma in Untouchable carries the agency of trauma, which is consistent throughout the novel, whereas; Roy's representation of dalits' trauma remains ambivalent vis-à-vis the consistency of the agency of trauma in the novel The God of Small Things. Therefore, the intensity of the agency of dalits' trauma in Untouchable is more intriguing than in The God of Small Things.

Dilemmas of an Indigenous activist anthropologist: Iban textiles and community development

This article discusses several anthropological dilemmas related to the researcher’s role in community development, the scholarly responsibilities to the discipline, and the tension between activism and academic vocation. I explore these issues in the context of my research and involvement in the production of pua kumbu, a traditional Iban textile. Since 2013, I have researched Indigenous and traditional knowledge as a development tool, focusing on the pua kumbu as a central artefact which is a cultural expression of ideology around family and community but is also a product for the commercial market. It is at this juncture that I engage with the community of weavers working with the women to perform an entrepreneurial collaboration by engaging the weavers to a commercial market platform with the emphasis on the conservation of the intangible aspect of the pua kumbu.

Lessons from Malachi for Christian Doctoral Students

A sense of disillusionment grips many doctoral students as they face financial distress, lack of adequate mentorship, concern about job prospects, and other challenges. The Old Testament book of Malachi is a little-recognized resource for students struggling with feelings of disillusionment. Malachi’s audience faced disappointment after joyfully returning from exile to a homeland beset with problems. In response to such disillusionment, even the priests at the Jerusalem temple lowered their standards. Malachi not only condemns such behavior, but also addresses the root problem by pointing beyond the immediate circumstances to the people’s continuing status in covenant with God. In this theoretical essay, we propose that doctoral students today can learn from Malachi’s words. First, these students might look beyond their present circumstances to their larger vocation as stewards. Second, they benefit from being part of a community that reminds them of their vocation. Third, just as Malachi points the priests to the positive example of their ancestor Levi, doctoral students can recall people who embody the academic vocation.

Reflections of an Imperfect Anthropologist

This article summarizes my perspective on vital lessons that I have learned over my 45 years as a practicing anthropologist. To avoid repeating previously published biographical details of my life, I have only briefly described the facts and stages of my career here. Instead I have focused on a personal account of what I have learned from the events and experiences of my career and have attempted to distill them into underlying premises that have guided my academic vocation. I call them “nine truths I live by.”

What Does It Mean to Hear the Call of Science? Listening to Max Weber Now

ABSTRACTThis article performs a depth hermeneutic of the two senses of ‘vocation’ that were available to Max Weber when he delivered his complementary lectures to graduate students one hundred years ago: ‘Science as a Vocation’ and ‘Politics as a Vocation’. Both senses derive from the Protestant Reformation, but the relationship implied between the divine sender and human receiver of the ‘call’ are radically divergent. On the one hand, the Lutheran sense of ‘vocation’ involves hearing the call from God, recognising it for what it is, and then justifying one’s life in terms of it. In contrast, the Calvinist sense of ‘vocation’ involves neither the certainty nor the submission of the Lutheran call. Instead the call amounts an invitation to wager one’s life by venturing into a world of potentially – but by no means necessarily – transcendent significance. Weber associates the academic vocation – as he had previously the ‘capitalist ethic’ – with the Calvinist sense of calling. The stated and implied critique of conventional academic practice, which Weber saw as tending in a more ‘Lutheran’ direction, remains of contemporary relevance. Among the topics covered are the relationship between the pursuit of free inquiry and state policy, the status of academic works, and the sense of ‘purpose’ with which academic inquiry should be pursued.

Shaun C. Henson and Michael J. Lakey, Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today: ‘And With All Of Your Mind’

Shaun C. Henson and Michael J. Lakey, <i>Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today: ‘And With All Of Your Mind’</i>

Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today

Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today

Educational Misdirections: Attending to Levinas’s Call for Ethics as First Principle

ABSTRACTThis essay examines a shift of significance, movement from faculty to increasing administrative impact. The consequence of this change is not only structural but impacts the very nature of an academic calling and vocation. The university is increasingly a business run by an ever-expanding pool of managers. The lament of Benjamin Ginsberg, in The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters, provides the background conversation for this essay. Emmanuel Levinas’s framing of ethics as first philosophy offers a response to this historical shift in higher education. The task of this essay is modest and perhaps fundamental; there is no attempt to change this historical moment of higher education. This essay explores Levinas and ethics with a hope of sustaining educational commitments in the midst of an educational era of misdirection.

REFLECTION ON FAITH INTEGRATION IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Over the past two decades, there has been an ongoing discussion about “faith- learningintegration” in Christian colleges and universities. As Christian academics realized the dangerof becoming secularized, they began to pursue higher education that is firmly groundedin Christian perspectives. Christian institutions, therefore, ask their faculty of all disciplinesto approach their fields within the framework of Christian principles and doctrines. Thus,it is now imperative that Christian faculty be able to integrate their Christian faith intotheir academic vocation. On the surface, this seems an effortless task in the field of Christian education, sinceChristian education is inherently grounded in the faith. However, given that Christian educationneeds to have deliberate, continuous dialogue with other disciplines such as philosophy,theology, and social sciences, Christian educators need to find new connections with thepurpose of advancing His Kingdom. Since the ultimate goal of Christian education istransformation of a person for the work of God, faith integration within the field of Christianeducation must also ultimately aim to transform the individual through right teachings(orthodoxy), right actions (orthopraxy), and a right heart (orthokardia). Creative interactionbetween faith and a given discipline (e.g., Christian education) will enable students to developa Christian worldview and to see the interconnectedness of God’s truth in different disciplines. Christian scholars have practiced faith-learning integration through their lesson plans,assignments, readings, researches, and publications. Yet too often, they have done so withouta clear understanding of academic faith integration – not certain about what faith integrationentails or how it is to be executed. This article offers critical personal reflection on theperception and the practice of faith-learning integration in the academic setting, focusingspecifically on Christian education. I will present my own work in integrating faith withinthe larger disciplines of education and the social sciences, making it reasonable and applicable within the Christian context.

The closing of the American mind: ‘American School’ International Relations and the state of grand theory

Senior ‘American School’ International Relations theorists — John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, Robert Keohane, and others — have evinced a growing concern about a rise of technocratic hypothesis-testing, and a parallel decline in grand theory. We share many of their concerns; yet, we also find such discussions deeply unsatisfying. Grand theory descends into ‘technocracy’ because of reifying and depoliticizing processes deeply woven into both thought and the academic vocation. While confronting such processes is possible, these same scholars are among those who dismiss — and have long dismissed — the key intellectual moves that would sustain such a confrontation. That infelicitous combination, we argue, is unlikely to produce a renaissance of grand theory; indeed, past precedent suggests that it will further stifle it. To suggest how these theorists might better revalorize grand theory, we develop disciplinary-historical case studies around two key research programs: neo-functionalism and structural liberalism. Both were the product of an abiding commitment to grand theory; yet, both fell into reified and depoliticized stances that left little space for such theory. Breaking that cycle of reification and depoliticization might yet be possible; but it will require thinking beyond the call for ‘more grand theory.’

Stewardship: A Biblical Model for the Formation of Christian Scholars

THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES theological dimensions of the academic vocation, taking its cue from the research undertaken by the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, which envisions the scholar as a steward of an academic discipline. We contend, however, that the Christian scholar's sense of stewardship extends beyond one's academic discipline to encompass the Christian faith as well. Both the creation account in Genesis and the parable of the entrusted money in the Gospels illuminate three vital aspects of Christian scholarship: generation, conservation, and transformation. The article culminates in a discussion of formation or transformation of doctoral students preparing for the academy, with practical examples to illustrate.

La iglesia de Alvar Aalto en Riola di Vergato. Italia Conversación con sus constructores Glauco y Giuliano Gresleri

Los hermanos Glauco y Giuliano Gresleri poseen una larga trayectoria como arquitectos. Aunque el primero se ha orientado más hacia el ejercicio profesional y el segundo a la labor académica, siempre han trabajado juntos desde los años 1956-1968, en los que se dedicaron con intensidad al estudio y a la promoción de la arquitectura sacra. Por encargo del cardenal Giacomo Lercaro, promovieron diversas iniciativas, y a sus veintipocos años, asumieron la construcción de varias decenas de iglesias en la periferia de Bolonia, la que sin duda, constituyó una de las experiencias fundamentales para entender la arquitectura religiosa contemporánea. En este contexto, a mediados de los años sesenta comenzaron las gestiones para que tres famosos arquitectos construyesen cada uno una iglesia en Bolonia. Sin embargo, diversas vicisitudes históricas propiciaron que solamente se llegase a construir la de Riola di Vergato, un pequeño pueblo de montaña cercano a la ciudad. El 24 de abril de 2009, ambos me recibieron en el estudio de vía Borgonuovo, y hablamos de todo ello.

Publish and Flourish, or Perish: RAE, ERA, RQF, and Other Acronyms for Infinite Human Resourcefulness

Publish and Flourish, or Perish: RAE, ERA, RQF, and Other Acronyms for Infinite Human Resourcefulness

Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America by Mark R. Schwehn

Among the contributions of postmodern thought is the recognition that teaching and learning do not occur in a valueless vacuum. Thus the secularization of the American academy away from its religious roots and values is but the replacement of one value system for another. The question today, then, is not whether or not education can occur apart from values and the ethics they engender. Rather the question is what set of values, judgments, and behaviors will teachers and students use and foster when they engage one another in the academy. What role, then, will America's academic communities play in helping students and faculties lead more ethical lives?

God as Cause or Error?: Academic Psychology as Christian Vocation

Christian psychologists can find it challenging to work in the context of secular psychology, with its presuppositions of methodological naturalism and its secularizing values. Unthinking engagement with the secular field of psychology can result in significant problems that must be carefully navigated by the Christian scholar. The doctrine of providence is briefly presented as an important theological foundation for an academic vocation in psychology. This is followed by a discussion of potential pitfalls, including secularization, an implied “God-of-the-gaps” theology, distorted notions of God's ways of working in the world, an incomplete picture of humanity, and the adoption of secularizing values. Following this, issues in philosophy of science foundational to the current discussion will be reviewed, and, finally, some suggestions for a vocational practice of psychology will be outlined.

Academic Career Management: The Higher Learning in the Age of Marketing

In 1917, a student association at Munich University began sponsor ship of a series of lectures on "Intellectual Work as a Profession." The first speaker, Max Weber, lectured on academic science and scholarship: "Sci ence as a Vocation," now regarded as a classic statement of the significance of scientific and scholarly work (Weber, 1958a, pp. 129-56). After cursory ob servations on the economic conditions of academic life, the division of labor in the university, and the implications of the social organization of academia for teaching and research, Weber posed the main questions of the lecture: "What is the calling of science within the total life of humanity? And what is the value of science?" (Weber, 1958a, p. 40, translation amended). We ber conceived academic science and scholarship as a "value sphere" defined by "ultimate values"?categorical imperatives of the academic calling, the obligatory force of which does not vary with opportunities, constraints, or personal proclivities and tastes. The academic vocation is grounded in the imperatives of clarity, intellectual integrity, and the project of fashioning the world as a "cosmos of truths" based on discursive reasoning. There is no sense in which their validity can be demonstrated to unbelievers or skeptics, who may reject the academic life as banal, futile, unworthy, contemptible, or even absurd. "The various value spheres of the world stand in irreconcilable conflict with each other," a struggle that Weber regarded as irresolvable and "eternal" (Weber, 1958a, p. 149). For the academic, however, commitment to these imperatives and to the truths that can be established only by discursive reasoning is absolute.

Americana: The Americas in the World, around 1850 (or ‘Seeing the Elephant’ as the Theme for an Imaginary Western)

Americana: The Americas in the World, around 1850 (or ‘Seeing the Elephant’ as the Theme for an Imaginary Western)

学術と人権

学術と人権

Book Review: Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America

Book Review: Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America