Excellence. Originality. Intelligence. Everyone in academia
stresses quality. But what exactly is it, and how do professors
identify it? In the academic evaluation system known as "peer
review," highly respected professors pass judgment, usually
confidentially, on the work of others. But only those present in
the deliberative chambers know exactly what is said. Michele Lamont
observed deliberations for fellowships and research grants, and
interviewed panel members at length. In How Professors Think, she
reveals what she discovered about this secretive, powerful,
peculiar world. Anthropologists, political scientists, literary
scholars, economists, historians, and philosophers don't share the
same standards. Economists prefer mathematical models, historians
favor different kinds of evidence, and philosophers don't care much
if only other philosophers understand them. But when they come
together for peer assessment, academics are expected to explain
their criteria, respect each other's expertise, and guard against
admiring only work that resembles their own. They must decide: Is
the research original and important? Brave, or glib? Timely, or
merely trendy? Pro-diversity or interdisciplinary enough? Judging
quality isn't robotically rational; it's emotional, cognitive, and
social, too. Yet most academics' self-respect is rooted in their
ability to analyze complexity and recognize quality, in order to
come to the fairest decisions about that elusive god, "excellence."
In How Professors Think, Lamont aims to illuminate the confidential
process of evaluation and to push the gatekeepers to both better
understand and perform their role.
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