Wow! eBook
How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment Reprint Edition
Author(s): Lamont (Author)
- Publisher: Harvard University Press
- Publication Date: 1 Oct. 2010
- Edition: Reprint
- Language: English
- Print length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 0674057333
- ISBN-13: 9780674057333
Book Description
Excellence. Originality. Intelligence. Everyone in academia stresses quality. But what exactly is it, and how do professors identify it? In the academic evaluation system known as ‘peer review’, highly respected professors pass judgment, usually confidentially, on the work of others. But only those present in the deliberative chambers know exactly what is said. Michele Lamont observed deliberations for fellowships and research grants, and interviewed panel members at length. In “How Professors Think”, she reveals what she discovered about this secretive, powerful, peculiar world. Anthropologists, political scientists, literary scholars, economists, historians, and philosophers don’t share the same standards. Economists prefer mathematical models, historians favor different kinds of evidence, and philosophers don’t care much if only other philosophers understand them. But when they come together for peer assessment, academics are expected to explain their criteria, respect each other’s expertise, and guard against admiring only work that resembles their own. They must decide: Is the research original and important? Brave, or glib? Timely, or merely trendy? Pro-diversity or interdisciplinary enough? Judging quality isn’t robotically rational; it’s emotional, cognitive, and social, too. Yet most academics’ self-respect is rooted in their ability to analyze complexity and recognize quality, in order to come to the fairest decisions about that elusive god, ‘excellence’. In “How Professors Think”, Lamont aims to illuminate the confidential process of evaluation and to push the gatekeepers to both better understand and perform their role.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Balanced, informative and largely persuasive. — Adam Kuper Times Literary Supplement 20090918 How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment gives the reader keen insight into the decision-making process behind the awarding of prestigious fellowships. Lamont’s book is an enjoyable read, even a bit of a page turner at times…It is a “must-read” for graduate students and new professors. –Marybeth Gasman Academe 20100101
About the Author
Michele Lamont is Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
