Comments on: It’s not the blog

By: The Message That Is Sent | Cosmic Variance

The Message That Is Sent | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 08 May 2007 23:48:22 +0000

[…] In the short term, I worry that the most obvious effect will be a deleterious one for the bloggers. For the most part, I don’t think that hiring/tenure committees care if you have a blog, occasional anonymous scare-mongering notwithstanding. (It might even help.) But blogging about the process might be the kind of thing that makes committees nervous. Personally, I would never blog about a major occupational transition while it was going on; when it’s all set up and the ink is drying, it makes sense to let people know, but in the middle of the process I would be (with good reason) worried about stepping on people’s toes. (Same thing with getting engaged.) […]

By: BoÃ®te noire » Archive du blog » Blogs et carriÃ¨res universitaires

BoÃ®te noire » Archive du blog » Blogs et carriÃ¨res universitaires — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 02:48:36 +0000

[…] Les deux cas de refus de poste Ã des blogueurs qui viennent immÃ©diatement Ã l’esprit sont des refus de tenure, survenus aux Ã‰tats-Unis, et qui concernaient le politologue Daniel Drezner et le physicien Sean Caroll, qui a pris le soin d’indiquer que, selon lui, le blog n’a eu aucune incidence dans la dÃ©cision de ses pairs (son blog collectif, Cosmic Variance, contient aussi une lecture intÃ©ressante de l’article citÃ© plus haut). […]

By: Doug Natelson

Doug Natelson — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 03:10:58 +0000

I think there is an attitude on the part of many serious academics that anything that takes time away from research, whether it’s teaching, outreach, textbook writing, blogging, and for some even family life, is a misallocation of time that could be spent furthering one’s research impact. We’ve all seen this in action - comments like if you’re a junior faculty member who gets really strong course reviews, it’s probably a sign that you’re spending too much time on your teaching….

By: Roughtheory.org » The Relationship of Blogging to Academic Work

Roughtheory.org » The Relationship of Blogging to Academic Work — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 03:59:27 +0000

[…] The impact of this article was accentuated by the near-contemporaneous decision by the University of Chicago not to tenure two prominent academic bloggers - Sean Carroll and Daniel Drezner. The University of Chicago’s actions prompted a burst of blogosphere speculation on whether the tenure decision related in any way to blogging, speculation which ultimately bled into the mainstream print news. While both Drezner and Carroll appear agnostic over the relationship between their blogging and their tenure decisions, their fates, combined with the very public castigation of jobseeking bloggers in the Chronicle, sparked a cascade of reflections on the wisdom of blogging by untenured academics. […]

By: Risky Business? | Cosmic Variance

Risky Business? | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 21:30:41 +0000

[…] We’ve chatted (see e.g. here) about blogging and academia, and some of the scares associated to it, (largely due to ignorance which is hopefully short-lived). I’ve also told you about the meeting I was in last week where several interested parties brainstormed about the issue. Here’s another article* about the matter, this time by Robert S. Boynton, in Slate magazine, sensationally entitled: Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs - When academics post online, do they risk their jobs? Looks like he’s been chatting with Crooked Timber’s John Holbo, who was one of my fellow brainstormers last friday. He’s been thinking about several approaches to making academic blogging more accessible and more… acceptable. Some of his thoughts (many of which would be excellent to implement) are in the article. […]

By: Dissident

Dissident — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 10:49:16 +0000

JoAnne wrote: “Which says something about the state of people’s impressions about blogging.”

It says more than something about the state of people’s impressions about academia…

By: kmeson

kmeson — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 22:40:28 +0000

Sean -
This post addresses the question “Were you discriminated against due to your status as a blogger?” I wonder if you think that your status as a member of an even more often discriminated against group might have played any roll in the decision? “Were you discriminated against due to your status as an atheist?” I did not pick up on any thing like that kind of hostility while I was there but I was just a lowly grad student.
Cheers,

By: jaimito

jaimito — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:17:44 +0000

The “loyalty” and “dedication” things mentioned above are the key to understand this tenure situation.

In every job I had, my bosses wanted blind and total devotion from me, and were driven to irrational jealousy by my extra-curricular activities. I was sacked for writing and lecturing, and that it was done in my own time was not accepted.

And my attitude toward my own people was/is worse and even more unjust. I spend a lot of time wondering about what are doing and thinking, whom they are seeing and talking to. I am only relaxed when I feel I have a complete grip of the person’s life and I have him/her classified in a safe box. Safe for me, I mean.

Sean is wrong to assume that his colleagues were unaware or uninterested in his blogging activity. Everybody is intensely, passionately interested in others sexual life and personal connections. And if the dynosaurs in the Dept. did not understand a thing about blogging - it is worse for you, they formed their opinion on the basis of two-world comments (which probably didnt hear clearly).

Sorry, I am old enough and far away to tell what I think is real life.

By: Also not quite anonymous

Also not quite anonymous — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 23:47:42 +0000

“Is physics just a job?”

I come from another less funded area of academia so I’m looking at this from a different angle. I think if academia was not regarded as a vocation like some kind of intellectual priesthood, then employment conditions would improve.

By: ed hessler

ed hessler — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:07:15 +0000

When I read about Mr. Drenzler, I took the occasion to review some of your posts on preposterous. Wow, were/are they preposterously good, full of good energy and zest; smart and thoughtful. I’ve learned a lot from them (I think), at least my life has been enriched by them.

I was made sad again by the tenure decision but for those of us outside academia and perhaps for those of you inside, this is one of the great mystery/black boxes.

One of the things that I appreciate about you, Sean and now the cosmic group, is that as experts you don’t hold me at arm’s length. You make me feel welcome to your world as you try your level best to help me understand enough of it to enjoy, appreciate and be awed by the mystery of it all, the mystery that delights, enchants and bathes our souls and minds in wonder. The other side of it was captured in that incredible comment made by the former teacher with whom you talked: “The world is not magic.” It is knowable. That is wonder!

Thanks again for your informed comments on blogging and tenure.