I too agree with Anne about this. Scholars have to live with what they
publish for a long time, and frequently early work simply isn't as mature as
later work (though one has to live with it all, once it enters into print).
Moreover, this sort of pre-professionalism does interfere with what
undergraduates ought to be doing with their time. Even when I interview
candidates for tenure-track jobs I am not as impressed with published work
as with excellent, in-depth preparation. And while I'm at it I'd like to
put in a word for that forgotten term "breadth." Doctoral candidates are
increasingly too narrowly focused--in order to complete degree programs
within short periods of time, in order to take qualifying exams as soon as
possible in their doctoral years, and in order to find dissertation topics
(and write them up) quickly, so that they can publish and get jobs. The
problem is that, as one who teaches at an undergraduate institution--where
many excellent jobs can be found--we need candidates who are prepared to
teach more than their narrowly-defined dissertation topics in the classroom.
Too many can't. This overly-narrow preparation, at the graduate level,
might be fine if all graduates who complete the PhD can find jobs in large
doctoral-granting institutions. But my guess is that they can't.
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Lancashire [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 1:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: International Undergraduate Shakespeare Journal
I have real qualms about the professionalization of undergrad studies: quite
apart from the concerns others have already expressed. Against current
trends, I
believe the university system these days is pushing even graduate students
into
giving papers at conferences, and submitting papers to journals, etc., too
soon
and too often; and an undergrad journal moves these pressures back even
further
into yet earlier academic years. Why should undergrads want to publish
academic
articles unless they are going to go on (to grad school, to journalism,
etc.)?--in which case they will be able to publish from these other venues
soon
enough (and with more to offer). Whatever happened to the idea of gradual
development? Moreover, undergrads thinking about going on to grad studies
should
be warned against starting a trend whereby, e.g., to get into MA/PhD
programs
universities may start expecting undergrads to have published something
already.
Ratcheting up the pressures and demands associated with applying to and
getting
into grad schools is NOT a good idea.
Anne Lancashire
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