How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment by Mich?le L

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Everyone in academia stresses quality. But what is it, and how do professors identify it? Lamont observed deliberations for fellowships and grants, and interviewed panel members. Here, she reveals her discoveries about this world, illuminating the confidential evaluation process and pushing gatekeepers to better understand and perform their role.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

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. Michèle 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.

Notes

This fair-minded and reader-friendly book might just help produce the trust, respect, and tolerance necessary for academic community. By closely examining scholarly evaluation and identifying distinctive disciplinary definitions of quality among the humanities and social sciences, Michele Lamont shows that academic culture, far from being a hierarchy declining from supposedly more "rigorous" and demanding disciplines to those less so, is constituted of many different excellencies. -- Thomas Bender, author of Intellect and Public Life A masterpiece. Lamont starts with her greatest accomplishment: a nuanced account of the epistemic cultures that dominate social sciences and humanities. Their differences show the problem of building a culture of discourse in multidisciplinary review, so that committees can decide which standard is best. Lamont breaks new ground in showing how personal preferences, disciplinary, gender, and ethnic diversity, and elitist and populist impulses are incorporated in such decisions. -- Arthur Stinchcombe, author of The Logic of Social Research Professors pride themselves on objectivity, or failing that, fairness to competing views, or failing that, at least the capacity for neutral analysis. But based on her ground-breaking study of peer review, Michele Lamont argues that professorial pride is excessive, that the outcomes of peer review are shaped by institutional mechanics as much as by reason, and that reviewers favor work that looks like their own much more than they realize they do. But Lamont also shows that that reviewers are serious about trying to identify the best proposals and trying to overcome their own biases, and that their commitment to the review process itself makes the outcomes more fair. How Professors Think will be eye-opening for those who run peer review, those who participate in it, and those interested in a sociology of expert judgment. -- Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council In this ingenious study, the first of its kind, Michele Lamont opens an important and mysterious black box--how professors arrive at "fair evaluations". Lamont brilliantly shows us not only the interpersonal processes that make review panels work, but also how disciplinary cultures affect academic judgment, and what the political and knowledge consequences are of the way we judge excellence. It will be enlightening for everyone in academia. -- Karin Knorr Cetina, University of Chicago and University of Konstanz All the deans and provosts who fret about their rankings and grant money should read this first hand account of how scholars and social scientists are evaluated in practice. -- Bruno Latour, author of Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy

Back Cover

Everything you need to know about Scotlande(tm)s independence referendum: the options, the big issues and what happens nextScotlande(tm)s voters are promised a referendum on independence in 2014: the countrye(tm)s biggest decision since it became part of the union in 1707. While many of the details have yet to be finalised e" the precise date, the wording of question, who is allowed to vote e" we know for certain that this referendum will shape the future of the country, placing a heavy responsibility on Scotlande(tm)s electorate.But what will happen afterwards? What would independence mean? What about the oil? What will happen to Faslane? What will the currency be? What will happen to old age pensions if the UK splits? What will change if Scotland votes to stay in the Union? And how will Westminster, the rest of the UK and the EU respond? Scotlande(tm)s Choices clearly explains the issues you may not have considered, what will change after the referendum and how each of the options would be put into place.e Written by leading experts at the heart of the political process who are equipped to ask hard questions about the optionse Lays out the facts in clear language without taking sidese Explains the little-understood Scotland Act, which will come into force if the vote is Noe Looks at the key issues that must be addressed if the vote is Yes: public spending, tax and welfare, EU membership, the future of Faslane, the currency, financial regulation, oil revenues and many othersIain McLean is a Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford.Jim Gallagher is Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and a Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow.Guy Lodge is Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy. Cover images: iStockphoto.com.Cover design:[EUP logo]

Author Biography

Michèle Lamont is Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

* Contents * Opening the Black Box of Peer Review * How Panels Work * On Disciplinary Cultures * Pragmatic Fairness: Customary Rules of Deliberation * Recognizing Various Kinds of Excellence * Considering Interdisciplinarity and Diversity * Implications in the United States and Abroad * Appendix: Methods and Data Analysis * Notes * References * Acknowledgments * Index

Review

This fair-minded and reader-friendly book might just help produce the trust, respect, and tolerance necessary for academic community. By closely examining scholarly evaluation and identifying distinctive disciplinary definitions of quality among the humanities and social sciences, Michèle Lamont shows that academic culture, far from being a hierarchy declining from supposedly more "rigorous" and demanding disciplines to those less so, is constituted of many different excellencies. -- Thomas Bender, author of Intellect and Public LifeA masterpiece. Lamont starts with her greatest accomplishment: a nuanced account of the epistemic cultures that dominate social sciences and humanities. Their differences show the problem of building a culture of discourse in multidisciplinary review, so that committees can decide which standard is best. Lamont breaks new ground in showing how personal preferences, disciplinary, gender, and ethnic diversity, and elitist and populist impulses are incorporated in such decisions. -- Arthur Stinchcombe, author of The Logic of Social ResearchProfessors pride themselves on objectivity, or failing that, fairness to competing views, or failing that, at least the capacity for neutral analysis. But based on her ground-breaking study of peer review, Michèle Lamont argues that professorial pride is excessive, that the outcomes of peer review are shaped by institutional mechanics as much as by reason, and that reviewers favor work that looks like their own much more than they realize they do. But Lamont also shows that that reviewers are serious about trying to identify the best proposals and trying to overcome their own biases, and that their commitment to the review process itself makes the outcomes more fair. How Professors Think will be eye-opening for those who run peer review, those who participate in it, and those interested in a sociology of expert judgment. -- Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research CouncilIn this ingenious study, the first of its kind, Michèle Lamont opens an important and mysterious black box--how professors arrive at "fair evaluations". Lamont brilliantly shows us not only the interpersonal processes that make review panels work, but also how disciplinary cultures affect academic judgment, and what the political and knowledge consequences are of the way we judge excellence. It will be enlightening for everyone in academia. -- Karin Knorr Cetina, University of Chicago and University of KonstanzAll the deans and provosts who fret about their rankings and grant money should read this first hand account of how scholars and social scientists are evaluated in practice. -- Bruno Latour, author of Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into DemocracyBalanced, informative and largely persuasive. -- Adam Kuper * Times Literary Supplement *How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment gives the reader keen insight into the decision-making process behind the awarding of prestigious fellowships. Lamont's book is an enjoyable read, even a bit of a page turner at times...It is a "must-read" for graduate students and new professors. -- Marybeth Gasman * Academe *

Promotional

This fair-minded and reader-friendly book might just help produce the trust, respect, and tolerance necessary for academic community. By closely examining scholarly evaluation and identifying distinctive disciplinary definitions of quality among the humanities and social sciences, Michele Lamont shows that academic culture, far from being a hierarchy declining from supposedly more "rigorous" and demanding disciplines to those less so, is constituted of many different excellencies. -- Thomas Bender, author of Intellect and Public Life A masterpiece. Lamont starts with her greatest accomplishment: a nuanced account of the epistemic cultures that dominate social sciences and humanities. Their differences show the problem of building a culture of discourse in multidisciplinary review, so that committees can decide which standard is best. Lamont breaks new ground in showing how personal preferences, disciplinary, gender, and ethnic diversity, and elitist and populist impulses are incorporated in such decisions. -- Arthur Stinchcombe, author of The Logic of Social Research Professors pride themselves on objectivity, or failing that, fairness to competing views, or failing that, at least the capacity for neutral analysis. But based on her ground-breaking study of peer review, Michele Lamont argues that professorial pride is excessive, that the outcomes of peer review are shaped by institutional mechanics as much as by reason, and that reviewers favor work that looks like their own much more than they realize they do. But Lamont also shows that that reviewers are serious about trying to identify the best proposals and trying to overcome their own biases, and that their commitment to the review process itself makes the outcomes more fair. How Professors Think will be eye-opening for those who run peer review, those who participate in it, and those interested in a sociology of expert judgment. -- Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council In this ingenious study, the first of its kind, Michele Lamont opens an important and mysterious black box--how professors arrive at "fair evaluations". Lamont brilliantly shows us not only the interpersonal processes that make review panels work, but also how disciplinary cultures affect academic judgment, and what the political and knowledge consequences are of the way we judge excellence. It will be enlightening for everyone in academia. -- Karin Knorr Cetina, University of Chicago and University of Konstanz All the deans and provosts who fret about their rankings and grant money should read this first hand account of how scholars and social scientists are evaluated in practice. -- Bruno Latour, author of Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy

Review Quote

Balanced, informative and largely persuasive.

Details ISBN0674057333 Short Title HOW PROFESSORS THINK Publisher Harvard University Press Language English ISBN-10 0674057333 ISBN-13 9780674057333 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2010 Imprint Harvard University Press Subtitle Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass Country of Publication United States Illustrations 1 line illustration, 9 tables DEWEY 378.121 Pages 336 UK Release Date 2010-10-30 AU Release Date 2010-10-30 NZ Release Date 2010-10-30 Author Michèle Lamont Audience Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Publication Date 2010-10-30 US Release Date 2010-10-30 We've got this

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