On Being a Ph.D.

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I have been in my program now for about three and a half years, and I have begun to wonder what kind of Ph.D. I am going to make. Am I going to be the academic pedant, "strutting and fretting my hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"(Shakespeare C.1620)? Or am I going to be a pasty wonk, seldom escaping the musty confines of the library, more content to interact with texts than with humans? Maybe I will be like Doctor Sullivan at NSCC back in Lynn? He looked like he just came from his bolling league, and he sounded authentically Bostonian, but he knew his subject, loved it, and inspired us with his teaching.
I suppose I will end up a mixture of these. One of my friends saw me in class recently and said I looked pedantic. I know names and titles and use phrases like "in terms of". I guess by the standards here, I am a big, ostentatious poseur. But by the standards I grew up in, and by those I witnessed in my very short tenure in England, I am very informal and even inappropriate in my informality.
I suppose it is a matter of perspective.
For now, I will occupy my time with my attempt to be a publishing pedant, for I have yet to achieve this greatness, which means I am a sub-par academician, by university standards.
What ever happened to being praised for one's pedagogical abilities?
Look for me in the journals! - If I can find something worthwhile to be said, that hasn't been "scooped" yet!


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