I wrote in this space recently about how difficult it is to face graduate students entering the worst academic job market I have ever seen. Well, I spent three days with a few dozen of them last week, at a conference in Brighton, England. I heard papers from a number of well-established scholars, but it was more heartening to listen to some top-notch work from people just piecing together their doctoral theses. Upbeat? I do not know if I would describe them as upbeat, exactly: they were dedicated to the profession, certainly, and, as it was an international conference, different people were responding to very different circumstances.
In England, post-secondary education could be facing a twenty percent cut in funding. There is talk of closing some institutions, and established scholars will be shown the door. Graduate students in the United Kingdom inherit a very uncertain future.
But the most interesting interaction I had was with a young woman who, the day after I had given my paper, sat next to me in the audience. Having been in England less than a day, and having made the decision not to use an audio-visual component in my presentation, I began by managing their expectations. Essentially, I suggested that I am a modest scholar with, on this day, at least, a modest little argument to make. This humility seemed to have made an impression on the young woman, who explained to me that she had used, in a draft of her thesis, a book chapter I published about a decade ago.
I am always thrilled to be recognized for my work. My enthusiasm was not at all blunted when she told me that she used my chapter in order to disagree with my argument. My head was still spinning when she said, "Now that I met you, I might want to go back and look at it again." Oh, no, I thought. Scholarly debate is a good thing. "You should not be shy about questioning what I had to say," I reassured her. "It's not that I reject what you think," she continued, "but I should be more clear that I am building on what you said."
How civil. In these tough times, we should all be so civil to each other.
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