In Pursuit of Knowledge : Scholars, Status, and Academic Culture

by Rhode, Deborah L.

• ISBN13: 9780804755344
• ISBN10: 0804755345
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-11
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

Although academics have never lacked for critics, publications on the profession tend to be either popularized polemics, which are engaging but misleading, or scholarly analyses, which are intellectually responsible but of little interest to anyone but specialists.In Pursuit of Knowledgeoffers an alternative: a unique portrait of academic life that should appeal to both experts and a general audience. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, including higher education, history, law, sociology, economics, and literature, the book focuses on the ways in which the pursuit of status has undermined the pursuit of knowledge. Deborah Rhode argues that both individual scholars and institutions in higher education are caught in an arms race of reputation. The result has been to skew priorities in scholarship, erode commitments to teaching, compromise efforts of public intellectuals, and impede effectiveness in administration. The book offers several solutions to counter these pervasive problems in our research institutions. Rhode makes a case for increasing accountability and realigning reward systems. She argues that what is needed is a greater sense of responsibility among universities and their faculties to narrow the gap between academic ideals and practices. In Pursuit of Knowledgeis meticulously researched and elegantly written. It is also exceptionally entertaining in its use of quotations culled from over a hundred academic novels, including works by Kingsley Amis, Saul Bellow, David Lodge, and C.P. Snow. (For example, from P.G. Wodehouse'sThe Girl in Blue, "The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.") The result is a highly readable but also deeply reflective analysis of the academic profession.

Author Biography

Deborah L. Rhode is Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, and Director of the Keck Center on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profession at the Stanford Law School. She has written and edited fifteen previous books, including Pro Bono in Principle and in Practice: Public Service and the Professions (Stanford University Press, 2005).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Chapter One THE ACADEMIC MISSION: IN PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE	1	(28)
Chapter Two SCHOLARSHIP	29	(34)
Chapter Three TEACHING	63	(25)
Chapter Four ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICE	88	(25)
Chapter Five THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL	113	(39)
Chapter Six IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS	152	(23)
Notes	175	(46)
Bibliography: Selected Academic Novels and Humor	221	(4)
Index	225