Pursuing praxis

Did you know the moon has colors? I didn’t. Sure, it takes 14 merged photos to see them, but they are there.

The following was my response to a "Grad school sucks, and academia is even worse, get used to it, bitches!" line of reasoning on a forum.

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J. makes good, real-world points that deserve attention, consideration, and incorporation into anyone’s future strategy. That’s not to say that I agree with "keep your head down," "publish or perish" or "take one for the team" or "life just ain’t fair," or any other capitulating, spirit-breaking attitude. Early on (by about my senior year of college, and definitely within the first two years after graduation) I recognized this tendency to commodify (?) PhD’s, turning them into glorified research techs instead of the blazing, innovative, heroic intellects we all dream of being.

Servitude is not to my liking. Perhaps it is for some, and that’s fine and dandy if it floats your boat; there’s plenty of work to be done, and you can make a living doing it. Obviously, it’s not for me, although I could happily work for someone else’s research agenda, but that would require rather extraordinary - and as yet hypothetical - circumstances. Practically speaking, I don’t expect to change the system or blind them all into submission by my brilliance. I’ll simply find other ways to do what I want to do, with the opportunities I either come across or create myself. One must think outside the box of academia, whether you stay in or get the hell out.

Specifically, I chose a lab and advisor that explicitly allow and encourage me to identify, create and pursue my own research agenda. To ensure that this happens (and in large part because my advisor has no money, although he’s tenured) we all work for the department as TAs or part-time hourly research assistants, and/or get our own funding. I’ve taught and I’ve got funding. The authority my advisor wields over me is strictly on paper, and explicitly by mutual agreement - he wants to train the next generation, and feels personally invested in me besides, and I want quality advising and all the perks of wisdom, experience and networking that go with it. I’ve made the choices and taken the necessary responsibilities in order to make this so. I expect him to ride my ass about picking an important and feasible question with long-term potential, getting done on time, networking, and planning ahead for "what lies beyond". He expects me to be a voracious intellectual, honest, hard-working, genial and realistic (in terms of my own talents, interests, and dreams as well as the realities of academia).

In terms of sharing projects, I’ve taken over one part of an existing project of my advisor’s only because it plays directly into what I plan on doing. I could chuck it back in his lap if I felt like it, but there are too many benefits to keeping it. I’m in a lab that is united by concepts and common theory (literature and otherwise), and there are many technology- and subject-based overlaps, but that’s purely secondary. For example, I’m the only person in my lab working in Africa, on mammals, on behavior, on morphometrics, and on philosophy. I overlap with at least one person on bone histology, paleontology, history of science, development, macroevolution, and phylogenetics. Conceptually, we all study the origin of major adaptations. Big change, big patterns, big questions, and all the hairy issues that go with that.

In terms of my future, I developed a strategy before applying to grad school. The rigors of a publish or perish mentality do not appeal to me (I expect many people share this sentiment), but perhaps unlike many, I decided to figure out ways to (appear to) have my cake and eat it too. I identified a line of post-PhD work that is in demand and allows a certain amount of freedom in research, which comes from reduced authority over you, which comes from monetary independence. I keep my eye on prospects and have young faculty contacts from whom I seek advice and perspective and tips. I strategize my teaching experience and responsibilities such that I’ll be an ideal candidate for the exact kinds of jobs I want. I am identifying the places that I want to teach (and I have a crystal clear idea of what that "want" entails), then I will figure out what they want, and then if that’s acceptable, I’ll sell my abilities, and I’ll sell them hard. I don’t expect 100% success. In fact, I don’t expect any success. But I think I will have some modicum of success. And I have at least two back-up plans, within and without academia.

I also chose a field of science that can be low on research costs. Ridiculously low. In two years as a tech in a cancer research lab, I purchased over $140K in supplies (for, on average, 3-4 full time researchers), and my boss got well over $12 million in grants during that period. By contrast, in paleo you can have a fully funded field season, get in National Geographic and in an IMAX movie for under $15,000. (Not that the latter two are any rubric of expense or quality, but you get the idea; this isn’t plugging and chugging or mopping up other people’s leftovers, it’s ground-breaking work. Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun). This is the strategy my advisor uses - small grants piecemeal, largely for travel and expenses (which are small), and he does cutting edge work. He tried the whole bitch-of-the-NSF thing for a while, and decided it wasn’t worth it, and that he could get around it. And everyone in lab is extremely well-off for it.

I plan on doing something similar. I’ll certainly try for a Giant Grant, but I’ll organize things such that if I don’t get it, I’m not stalled in my tracks. Instead, I’ll be able to seamlessly switch to some other, related line of inquiry that just doesn’t cost as much. I’m also a philosophy freak, and all you need to do that is a quality library and some quiet time. Good conversation helps, too.

I realize many disciplines simply aren’t as amenable as mine to dodging the horrors of "the system," but at the same time, no one’s forcing you into it. Having a taste for hugely expensive research isn’t something you’re born with. This is a mutualistic affair, and any mantle of martyrhood is borne strictly voluntarily. I say, figure out what’s important to you, take a long hard look at what you think you want, own your choices, and use that million-dollar machine between your ears to figure out how to make things work in acceptable (if not ideal) ways.