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Author Topic: Evolving language  (Read 14577 times)
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filledeplage
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« Reply #50 on: April 10, 2016, 09:57:23 AM »

Also it does seem to me that since your friend has no interest in research then she wouldn't want to be a researcher for a living, which is what a professor is. I have no doubt that your friend is a great teacher, but he or she seems not to be particularly interested in being a professor. Which, of course, is a perfectly reasonable position to take - I say the same thing to myself almost every day.
Not so, but has a family and prefers to be away from her beloved students any more than necessary.

She has written several books. 
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Chocolate Shake Man
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« Reply #51 on: April 10, 2016, 09:57:52 AM »

Emily -  I would never suggest that this professor move to a college. The humanities departments have a different mission from many others.  I find them more retrospective than the prospective nature of what your father was involved in working prospectively towards policies for treaties. 

I'm sorry but that is a dramatically false characterization of the humanities. Of course every department differs from one another and they all have different goals and explore different areas of knowledge. But the humanities are very much engaged with the process of expanding knowledge, pushing knowledge further, etc. Maybe I'm unclear on what you mean by "retrospective" but I don't personally see it that way.
CSM - I was thinking about old literature from the MIddle Ages changing less than recent stuff.  Wink

People are still discovering texts from that era and, essentially, all eras. New texts are being unearthed all the time and that's thanks to the dedicated research efforts of literary scholars. Furthermore, the more we learn about an era like, say, the Middle Age (thanks to the dedicated research efforts of, say, historians or political theorists or religion scholars) the more our understanding of those texts changes or deepens. Again, knowledge is always being pushed further and forward - this is the point of academia and it is what is always going on in scholarly research institutions.
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Emily
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« Reply #52 on: April 10, 2016, 10:01:28 AM »

CSM, I understand you're in Canada and I'm unfamiliar with the Canadian model, so I don't know if what I've written applies.
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Chocolate Shake Man
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« Reply #53 on: April 10, 2016, 10:01:57 AM »

Also it does seem to me that since your friend has no interest in research then she wouldn't want to be a researcher for a living, which is what a professor is. I have no doubt that your friend is a great teacher, but he or she seems not to be particularly interested in being a professor. Which, of course, is a perfectly reasonable position to take - I say the same thing to myself almost every day.
Not so, but has a family and prefers to be away from her beloved students any more than necessary.

She has written several books. 

Well, again, it may be different here but here once you have tenure, there is not as much pressure to publish as there is when you are on track for tenure. Does she have tenure?
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filledeplage
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« Reply #54 on: April 10, 2016, 10:02:46 AM »

FdP, the difference between a BA or an MA, and a Ph.D. is that the former two are meant to be about learning the existing body of knowledge and the latter is about adding to that body of knowledge.  They are not only different in level, they are different in kind. It is not just a different name. It's a wholly different purpose. Perhaps that's why you think this is snobbery, because you think that Ph.D.s are the same as the other degrees but more advanced. They are not the same. They are not better or worse, they are different.
That a Ph.D. Is about research applies to any field, including the humanities.
I'm aware of Harvard's history. It's my Alma Mater.

Emily - I've been involved for many decades and am well aware of the differences among the degrees.  

There is an absolute element of snobbery among the schools as among them.
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filledeplage
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« Reply #55 on: April 10, 2016, 10:03:22 AM »

Also it does seem to me that since your friend has no interest in research then she wouldn't want to be a researcher for a living, which is what a professor is. I have no doubt that your friend is a great teacher, but he or she seems not to be particularly interested in being a professor. Which, of course, is a perfectly reasonable position to take - I say the same thing to myself almost every day.
Not so, but has a family and prefers to be away from her beloved students any more than necessary.

She has written several books. 

Well, again, it may be different here but here once you have tenure, there is not as much pressure to publish as there is when you are on track for tenure. Does she have tenure?

Yes, for decades.
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Chocolate Shake Man
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« Reply #56 on: April 10, 2016, 10:04:49 AM »

CSM, I understand you're in Canada and I'm unfamiliar with the Canadian model, so I don't know if what I've written applies.

So far it seems completely the same.

The only difference which I think comes up from Filledeplage's point is that, here, students do not pay the kind of money to go to post-secondary institutions that they pay in the United States because these institutions get a lot of public funding. In my view the amount that students pay to go to university in the US is scandalous, but not because the main focus of a professor is research.
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Chocolate Shake Man
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« Reply #57 on: April 10, 2016, 10:09:27 AM »

Also it does seem to me that since your friend has no interest in research then she wouldn't want to be a researcher for a living, which is what a professor is. I have no doubt that your friend is a great teacher, but he or she seems not to be particularly interested in being a professor. Which, of course, is a perfectly reasonable position to take - I say the same thing to myself almost every day.
Not so, but has a family and prefers to be away from her beloved students any more than necessary.

She has written several books. 

Well, again, it may be different here but here once you have tenure, there is not as much pressure to publish as there is when you are on track for tenure. Does she have tenure?

Yes, for decades.

In that case, I am surprised that she feels that kind of pressure.
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Emily
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« Reply #58 on: April 10, 2016, 10:39:43 AM »

CSM, I understand you're in Canada and I'm unfamiliar with the Canadian model, so I don't know if what I've written applies.

So far it seems completely the same.

The only difference which I think comes up from Filledeplage's point is that, here, students do not pay the kind of money to go to post-secondary institutions that they pay in the United States because these institutions get a lot of public funding. In my view the amount that students pay to go to university in the US is scandalous, but not because the main focus of a professor is research.
On that, I certainly agree.
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Emily
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« Reply #59 on: April 10, 2016, 10:48:31 AM »

FdP, the difference between a BA or an MA, and a Ph.D. is that the former two are meant to be about learning the existing body of knowledge and the latter is about adding to that body of knowledge.  They are not only different in level, they are different in kind. It is not just a different name. It's a wholly different purpose. Perhaps that's why you think this is snobbery, because you think that Ph.D.s are the same as the other degrees but more advanced. They are not the same. They are not better or worse, they are different.
That a Ph.D. Is about research applies to any field, including the humanities.
I'm aware of Harvard's history. It's my Alma Mater.

Emily - I've been involved for many decades and am well aware of the differences among the degrees.  

There is an absolute element of snobbery among the schools as among them.
Sorry. There are a few phrases in this passage, as well as others, that don't recognize or even outright deny the distinction:

"Many colleges take on university status when they offer a PhD program. They differ little in quality, offer similar degrees, at the Bachelor's and Master's level. It is merely a change in name.  One state with which I am familiar recently renamed all the colleges to universities.  And the main difference is the doctoral track. and the link backwards to the community colleges, as a sort of feeder system, so they are all part of one university system. When the students finish their 60 credits, they are guaranteed the state university admission, as well as other private ones in their feeder track. 

Having been in both systems, the difference I saw was that the public university/college was not spoon-feeding anyone.  You had to sink or swim on your own determination and work. The private ones tended to hold-your-hand and provide student support for students who were academically on the fringe.  The public colleges/universities could learn from them in that respect."
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Emily
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« Reply #60 on: April 10, 2016, 10:49:51 AM »

Also it does seem to me that since your friend has no interest in research then she wouldn't want to be a researcher for a living, which is what a professor is. I have no doubt that your friend is a great teacher, but he or she seems not to be particularly interested in being a professor. Which, of course, is a perfectly reasonable position to take - I say the same thing to myself almost every day.
Not so, but has a family and prefers to be away from her beloved students any more than necessary.

She has written several books. 

Well, again, it may be different here but here once you have tenure, there is not as much pressure to publish as there is when you are on track for tenure. Does she have tenure?

Yes, for decades.

In that case, I am surprised that she feels that kind of pressure.
I've not witnessed that the expectation of publication lessens with tenure. Just emeritus.
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Chocolate Shake Man
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« Reply #61 on: April 10, 2016, 10:53:27 AM »

Also it does seem to me that since your friend has no interest in research then she wouldn't want to be a researcher for a living, which is what a professor is. I have no doubt that your friend is a great teacher, but he or she seems not to be particularly interested in being a professor. Which, of course, is a perfectly reasonable position to take - I say the same thing to myself almost every day.
Not so, but has a family and prefers to be away from her beloved students any more than necessary.

She has written several books. 

Well, again, it may be different here but here once you have tenure, there is not as much pressure to publish as there is when you are on track for tenure. Does she have tenure?

Yes, for decades.

In that case, I am surprised that she feels that kind of pressure.
I've not witnessed that the expectation of publication lessens with tenure. Just emeritus.

Oh, yes, the expectation is definitely there. My assumption though is that you are relatively protected job-wise when it comes to tenure. I may just be thinking somewhat narrow-mindedly though when I'm thinking about the term pressure in this case.
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