Professorial practices – Andrew Dillon, PhD

October 5, 2018

Grievance Studies and the Academic Hoax

Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship

Read this and weep — laughter? tears? your choice really. Personally, I’m glad folks do this from time to time as it reveals something of the flaws in the system. Two things to note. As I teach my Understanding Users class, humans have to organize a lot of data coming at them quickly, and they do this by mobilizing the rapid, sometimes automatic categorization schemas in their heads. When something looks kinda real, and one has no real reason for doubting authenticity, then you organize your thoughts around it and move on to the next data point. In this case, the reviewers likely received what they assumed to be a genuine paper and allowed their own automatic processes for reading and deciding to publish or not to kick in without too much effort. It’s lazy but it’s human. So, no, it is not too surprising this happens and people can fool the process.

Second thing — it takes some brave folks, particularly untenured ones, to tackle this kind of project and risk censure and disapproval from one’s community for dragging them into disrepute, allegedly. I don’t share that view, I think Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian might be targeting low hanging fruit given the choice of topic, but they raise genuine questions about scholarship and editorial practices in some parts of the academy that deserve attention.

October 3, 2018

Meetings…

There I was trying to ‘bujo’ my next few days (I’m so glad they chose that constriction and not just the initials for bullet journaling) when I realized I was running late for a faculty meeting. We have lots of them, at least one a month, and they can be quite tedious but at least they get us all in a room talking and making decisions. Now of course, when faculty gather to make decisions, there’s a certain fluidity to the process that means either a) we forget we took a decision and vote on the same things multiple times over several semesters, just to be sure, or b) like the people of Britain rethinking the referendum, we decide to hold another vote to undo a decision taken before. It’s endless fun, really.

No need for details, who knows who’s reading anyway, but I am regularly reminded of scenes from Russo’s Straight Man when I’m at work. For faculty meetings however, Malcolm Bradbury’s History Man captures it more pointedly — if ever there was a laugh out loud description of the foibles and freneticism of faculty votes, that book has it. It all came flooding back when I entered the scene slightly late today. Sometimes life really is like a novel. Glad, when I think so, that it’s an English farce rather than a Russian tragedy that comes to mind.

August 29, 2018

Here I go again

Sabbatical over, it’s time to return. Like most universities, UT is geared up for the new semester, the stock, cliched welcome messages from administrators are in full flow, reminders are being sent from instructional services about how to write a good syllabus (a bit late now don’t you think?) and the scheduling emails for meetings are starting to pile up. Watching this from the perspective of a faculty member for the first time in years is both illuminating and frustrating, but more of that in future posts.

For now, I’m back and will start teaching tomorrow — and am looking forward to being in a regular classroom again rather than a budget planning meeting (where one can be assured there is always a challenge and always a ‘new’ suggestion to try something we did before that never worked then either, plus ca change). For me, universities are not businesses, so let’s have some quality education this year. Onwards.

May 23, 2018

Do professional associations matter anymore?

As part of my taking a fresh look at career options, I have been asking myself if it really matters what professional associations I belong to now. We are told repeatedly as young academics that membership of the right associations matters, helping you find a community, offering a conference venue or related publication venue, and so forth, which might be partly true but only partly.

As renewals have come up for a few, I’ve decided to let my membership lapse. I take a look at what the association claims as benefits for membership and then ask myself if I either receive or avail of said benefits, and if so, are they worth the price of admission? These days I am beginning to think the answers are negative.

Sure, as a former president of ASIST, I have a tie to the organization that is difficult to sever, and I know the challenges of even sustaining never mind growing membership. But over the last 15 years I maintained membership of more than half a dozen associations, at a cost of well over $1000 a year and I now question just how much value there is in this.

Not to pick on any one society but I’ve let my ALISE and SLA memberships elapse. The stated benefits of these organizations are not great: a mix of some I barely use (e.g. access to a limited scholarly journal, possibility of being considered for an award (as if!) or membership of a SIG) and those I’d never use (membership lists?). Yes, a discount on attendance at conferences, usually the equivalent of membership dues, offers a wash but if I don’t attend the conference there’s not much going for this either.

SLA claims to offer a bit more than most, to keep members ‘ahead of the learning curve’ and advance career options, but I can’t say i experienced too much of this, but then maybe that’s just me. When I told them upon receiving my reminders to renew that I found the cost-benefit ratio to be too small they just politely told me ‘thank you’ and that was it. Fair enough, what association has time to deal with such members when there’s committee meetings, resolutions to draft, learning curves to keep ahead of, and awards to hand out.

The real point though is just what can associations offer in this age? Yes, they’ll cling on as long as they are running financially viable conferences which they can price to encourage membership but this is hardly the purpose is it? Rather than hide behind cliched mission statements, repetitive presidential editorials about ‘excitement at developments in the field,’ associations need to renew their purposes and deliver value beyond the old formulaic benefits. In the information space, one might really think a group that pushes harder for greater educational quality might gain some traction. What a pity those claiming to do so seem to be distracted, shuffling task forces and committees in mundane attempts at survival.

February 22, 2018

The right to carry, and to forget

When you reduce multidimensional dynamics to a single variable, answers seem easier to find. Advocates of gun rights always ask if, when a gun is pointed at you, it would be better to have a gun of your own for self-defense or not? Well, of course it would, everything else held equal,….but I prefer to ask, why can anyone point a gun at me in the first place?

Now we’re told the FBI or other authorities should be responsible for making sure the mentally ill or disturbed among us should not have access to guns. Authorities receive many thousands of ‘tips’ every day about possibly dangerous people. Do we really want to live in a nation where every suspicion results in full investigation and suspension of rights? Leaving aside the costs of even managing this, how do free speech and openly expressed thoughts fit here? Am I under suspicion and liable to FBI-interrogation just for writing this?

This is all pertinent given the latest tragedy in Florida, but it’s exacerbated for me today when I learn that two gun-owners on my campus actually left their guns behind today, one in the restroom and the other in their college building. Yes, we all lose things and misplace our phones, our keys, or books from time to time. But I tend not to lose my car, my glasses, or anything else that I have to make an effort to own. What does this say about guns and the easy right to carry them around campus?

UT agreed to allow concealed carry for permit holders, and postured publicly to justify the simple compliance with state law, even rewarding the chair of the complicity committee with a formal honor. Let’s see how the university treats those who can carry but can’t remember where their weapons are.

[Update — as expected, nothing of note happened to these casual folks]

February 8, 2018

Viewed from within: how to cliche your way to relevance

I’m beginning to cringe at the constant push of designer-liness and experience-y hokum in multiple venues. While I am delighted our graduates are getting jobs with their education in HCI&D, the words of our speciality are being popularized into meaninglessness by those wishing to jump on the bandwagon.

A couple of years back I baulked first at everyone trying to be all “disruptive” and “entrepreneurial”. These terms became cliches as every university or business stuck the labels on and attempted to polish the same old crap they were pushing. I actually sat in university leadership meetings where people used these terms as if they somehow justified another committee delivering the same tired recommendations to adopt the technology of the day. (Side note, most digital ‘innovation’ in education has pathetically ignored the existing research base while claiming ‘this time’ it would really have impact). Perish the sane folks who raised questions, I mean who wants to be labelled a resister or laggard when you can give the appearance of being hip and contemporary? Not many university administrators, apparently.

So here we are a few years on, still being urged to innovate, and now we are told the best way to do this is to adopt design thinking. Yeah, right….it’s allegedly a new form of ‘thinking’. Of course, those most urging it either have no experience in the domain in which they now urge change, or like some recently converted believers, have replaced rational thought with zeal. Hey, if industry wants designers, call yourself one and go for it. You can dismiss existing knowledge and methods with a waive of your felt marker-carrying hand….Oh dear…I blame Steve Jobs.

How long before we have undergrad courses on ‘design thinking for pharmacists’?

June 27, 2017

Another ALA down

Chicago in June is a pretty good location for a conference, even if the basic quality of food in the downtown area belies the other impression of the city as a truly impressive cultural center. ALA in town means thousands of people hauling bags of free books and pens around the streets, less like plundering hordes than old sherpas, but that’s what some folks go for surely, all the goodies they can grab. Someone should ask the airlines if the weight of personal luggage shifts up significantly on return flights this week – in the age of big data, this should be easily established.

Yes, there were guest speakers…very expensive ones, typically designed to deliver reinforcing rather than challenging speeches, and the usual too many sessions to be easily navigated (my strategy of avoidance is the best source of cognitive comfort in such circumstances). What does bother me most is the real purpose of this gathering and the enormous expense involved. Over 20,000 attendees across all days adds up to significant revenue for some, and those attendees I spoke with seemed happy, as I am sure were the hotels and bars in Chicago given the crowds but as I reflect on the last few conferences I’ve attended, and this most recent ALA in particular, I do wonder what purpose is served by such gatherings?

I know people will argue that meeting is vital to the functioning of the association and that yes, it can be fun to meet up with folks, but who pays for this and who profits? Moreover, what is the point of endless council meetings which seem to spend an inordinate amount of time passing motions, often not particularly related to or informed by the practices of librarianship? When I ask practitioners, I am usually politely chided that academics either do not understand or ‘should’ attend to show support. But what is it that we are supposed to be supporting? ALA always makes grand statements of intent, mission, vision, advocacy etc but what does it really achieve? And I’m not just picking on ALA, though it is a big, fat, easy target. I could say the same of most association meetings. At scholarly conferences we argue that we are sharing research, but to be honest, some venues are not even good at serving this function. But why ALA? We are facing a near crisis of fake news, loss of faith in rationality and the commercialization of access to information, but it’s hard to see much urgency in the response of professional organizations. Oh nevermind, an sure Hilary will make us all feel a bit better about it.

December 5, 2012

Announcement of incoming ASIST presidency

UT did a nice PR piece on my being elected to lead ASIST – perhaps the first time we’ve ever had ASIST mentioned on the university news feed — onward! Meanwhile, the name change results are due this week, looks like most people are in favor of our becoming the Association for Information Science & Technology.