Thursday, March 08, 2012

What does our job as academics consist of?

At this time of the year, my university produces its annual magazine. For good or for worse, typically I cannot resist the temptation to put pen to paper and to contribute one or two pieces to that publication. This year has been no exception, and I ended up writing a piece, aimed at students and the general public, that tries to explain what our jobs consist of. The reason for offering this specific contribution to the university magazine is that I have been feeling for a while that our students do not know what we do. And if they do not, what are the chances that anyone else will?

The result is Unveiling the Ivory Tower: The academic's art of work, just in case it may be of interest to any of my readers. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really nice article, written concisely and creatively

Anonymous said...

Hi Luca,

Thank you for writing down so clearly why I both hate and love my job so much! I may use this piece to explain interested students, relatives and friends what the hell I spent my time on, since they indeed have no clue.

Groeten,
Michel Reniers

Xana said...

Hi Luca,

Beautiful text! I will link it, I think it is really revealing :-)

Best wishes,
Alexandra