Comments on: On academic collaboration

By: Sean Duncan

Sean Duncan — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:46:17 +0000

Fantastic post, Jonathan — should be read by all. And makes me feel much better than the original blog post did, considering we just submitted an edited volume to the publisher a few weeks ago. 🙂

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:34:24 +0000

sorry for the double post, but the streams here are multiplying. It bothered me too, hence this: http://www.extratextual.tv/2011/08/edited-collections-why-bother/#more-895

By: Kelli Marshall

Kelli Marshall — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:33:40 +0000

Bless you. Off to read it now…

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:28:49 +0000

I got pissed off with that link, and instead of hijacking this post, I wrote a new one: http://www.extratextual.tv/2011/08/edited-collections-why-bother/#more-895

By: Kristina Busse

Kristina Busse — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:01:28 +0000

I think our entire culture is pushing at collaborative work, so the humanities may be the last holdout but probably eventually find ways to at least allow more diverse ways of knowledge creation? [Theoretically, of course, that’s always all the rage, but little of the oh so cool cutting edge stuff holds up with traditional hiring committees!]

By: Kristina Busse

Kristina Busse — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:58:53 +0000

And still with the eating metaphors. LOL.

Yes, I do think that having another mind challenging every thought, every sentence makes for better writing. I just had a two hour conversation with my co-editor that made me dig deeper and think farther about something I’d written, and while we do that when we beta one another’s essays, it’s different when both your names are on the essay 🙂

By: Kelli Marshall

Kelli Marshall — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:32:22 +0000

I wonder if this working-alone-is-better mindset will change once those currently “in charge” retire; after all, many professors my age have no problem with collaboration and do not see it as a detriment to their academic status…

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:10:01 +0000

Collaborative collaboration, especially in academic projects need not only a thorough approach, but also a skeptical eye for everything. For one needs to understand that at the receiving end are mostly docile minds looking for more info to gobble up and not decipher like seasoned analysts. Good post mate! 🙂

By: Kristina Busse

Kristina Busse — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:55:12 +0000

That blog gives me all kinds of creepy vibes of preying on the fears of grad students, but then if I were her I’d just say that I’m only jealous and all 🙂

All that being said, I think it’s interesting where the focus of both those blog posts was: I was all about the creating together and learning from one another, whereas hers is all about the eyes on the prize…

And in reality it’s a bit of both, I guess. It’s work, definitely, but to me it’s as fannish an activity as betaing a vid or a story. It’s not a chore as much as it is enjoyable for me. I certainly wouldn’t be doing it otherwise!

By: Gabrielle Malcolm

Gabrielle Malcolm — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:57:31 +0000

And re: the blog that Kelli cites, where the author mentions the dilution of one’s work/name ?? Well, I don’t know how other people go about editing and collaborating but in my experience it is very far from a dilution – what a strange and negative description! And it might be naive (!) of me to say this – coming from someone who also does not have tenure and is an independent scholar — but I would seriously think twice about working within a faculty that saw such work as diluting my name and reputation!