21st Century Scholar

Peter Scott uses the metaphor of “the angle of repose” in his nice new book, Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent. The angle of repose is an engineering term, but I know it as the title of a book by one of my favorite authors, Wallace Stegner. In engineering an “angle of repose” is the angle at [...]

Recently, a friend asked us for a loan. This is someone we have known for a long time and because of the vagaries of the stock market and a downturn in the economy he has seen his savings diminish at the same time as he lost his job. The prospects in this economy for a [...]

by Bill Tierney The Idea of the University is one of those books that many will know about, but few will have read. The version I recently finished is 428 pages and most of it is dense. Two of Newman’s 20th century admirers were James Joyce and Edward Said. I’m not sure many authors could [...]

I recently read John Cornwell’s Newman’s Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint which tells the life story of Cardinal Newman of England. Newman wrote an epic book about higher education, The Idea of the University, which I will discuss at length in the next blog. For now, however, I would like to consider his life. I [...]

Part 5:  The Retirement Era of the Academic Life In this blog I examine the retirement years for academics and conclude the Academic Life series.  Today, I expand upon what awaits professors in the “academic afterlife”. My comments are based on deep conversations with several emeritus faculty.  I confess that the more I learned from [...]

Part Four:  The Academic Life and the Case of the Full Professor Finally, full professor!!  Living the life of the mind in the ivory tower complete with tenure, security, respect.  This is the rank that academics yearn for their entire careers.  In fact, my interviews and discussions with full professors did reveal a higher level [...]

Part 3:  The Academic Life as an Associate Professor For those who made it through the malaise of assistant professorship and into the next stage, the associate professor; life should be easier and more satisfying.  Is it?  Did tenure act as an antacid to ease the burn of assistant professorship?  My answer is “it depends.”  [...]

Part 2:  The Life as an Assistant Professor After the idealism of why people enter academe, today I tackle the life of the assistant professor.  For my research, I use my own experiences coupled with interviews with 8 current assistant professors around the country.  Although life as an assistant professor is one of looking to [...]

This week 21st Century Scholar is delighted to host Linda Serra Hagedorn as our guest blogger.  Linda Serra Hagedorn is Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, and professor at Iowa State University.  Dr. Hagedorn’s research focuses on college student success.  She is especially interested in issues pertaining to underrepresented student groups, and equity.  Prior to joining [...]

by Bill Tierney “Inside Job” is a well-done documentary about the collapse of the financial industry.  The movie is akin to Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” in tone and style.  The movie is very serious and has little of the fun of a Michael Moore flick.  But the director and writers make a very difficult topic [...]