Tag: Independent Scholarship

What’s Your Collaborative Research Platform?

The hardest part about being an academic ronin is the lack of conversation. People with traditional academic jobs end up talking to friends and colleagues in the hall or at the bar. It is an important stimulant for creative thinking and for providing one with resources one might not otherwise have known about.

“Have you read this article…?”

“There’s this great book by…”

“Let me send you a link to…”

You discuss what you are reading and thinking about, and you get suggestions on what to read and (thusly) think about.  Continue reading “What’s Your Collaborative Research Platform?”

Work Woes

Work has been kind of a struggle for me lately. Working at Vanderbilt has been a blessing, but over the past couple years I have watched my primary job responsibilities become my secondary job responsibilities. I was initially hired as a “term” position to help bridge the academic and residential sides of our flagship summer program, and later took a permanent post working almost exclusively with academics—recruiting, training, and equipping instructors to teach academically gifted youth. But now, through a series of accidents, I am mostly tech support. Continue reading “Work Woes”

Funding My Theology Habit

It is never a good idea to announce online where you work. People get fired for saying stupid things about their places of employment. So I will not tell you the name of the university. But if you were to guess, “Vanderbilt,” you would be right.

I am staff, not faculty. I do not teach at Vanderbilt the university. I am an educational consultant for a department that offers services to support academically gifted students. What that means is that I help put the classes together. There is a large technology component to my job too, which happened somewhat by accident. Continue reading “Funding My Theology Habit”