Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:04:35 -0700
From: virginia kuhn
Subject: new PhDs are researchers! re:[Humanist] 26.371 alternative publishing+ advice
In-Reply-To:

While there *is* only one comment on the *THE* story, I disagree that that
comment shows why open access publishing “can’t work” for academics, early
career or otherwise. Instead I see this comment as both reflecting and
contributing to the culture of fear and risk-aversion that increasingly
renders academe irrelevant. I also don’t think it worth losing sleep over
any sort of advice one gives to a new academic: after all, earning a
doctorate qualifies one to be a researcher. Why isn’t the business of
knowledge production subject to these research skills, especially by
humanists?

I honestly cannot see how someone enters academia in the current moment
without an understanding of the ways in which scholarship, research and
pedagogy shifts in light of sweeping technological changes, and without an
awareness of the need to champion the scholarly practices that still make
sense, and to abandon those that are obsolete (or have always been simply
bad practices). I am not suggesting that these issues are straightforward
or even universal, but articulating the rationale for one’s scholarly
trajectory seems essential. There should surely be intentionality and
context in one’s choices (even if that means one has chosen not to deal
with the biases that inhere in some traditional forms of publication while
understanding the potential penalties), and anything else seems like
incomplete scholarship. At a panel on the future of publishing at the
conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies last year, I was
amazed when several ABDs in the audience suggested they wanted to be
scholars and didn’t want to concern themselves with the business of
academe, as if those things could be untangled somehow.

Further, there are many early stage scholars who have made open access
“work” for their careers, because they have articulated the reasons for
their choices, and they have also shown dexterity among discursive
communities, pursuing both traditional and nontraditional modes of
scholarship. And while I am not young, I am a new-ish academic (2005)
having worked in the private sector between my degrees, and I publish in
all the ‘wrong’ places. These choices have not always served me in the
short term, and I guess the jury is still out on the long-term
implications, but at least my decisions have been informed ones.

While paternalistic warnings might be called for, maybe it’s better to ask
graduate students to be rigorous about how they approach their work based
on what type of career they are after. Models don’t hurt either and I, for
one, applaud those senior scholars who have chosen to work with Open Book
Publishers but also the junior ones (I am delighted to be a contributor to
a forthcoming anthology which has both types!).