I have been in this profession for 20 years and received my Ph.D.
about 6 years ago. I have worked in Academia and with Federal
agencies and have published in a wide variety of journals, from Human
Ecology to Wildlife Biology to Urban Planning. I encourage everyone
to read the following book: Ethnographies of Conservation:
Environmentalism and the Distribution of Privilege Edited by Anderson
and Berglund 2003.
I chose to give up certain career opportunities to raise my son. I am
a single Dad and there are "colleagues" who will no longer talk to me
because I chose my son over career. I also had people at "the
University" take advantage of me as a Postdoc because they knew my
situation as a single parent and thought I would stay in the area and
"take what I could get". They paid me much less than other postdocs
and refused to give me and my son benefits while at the same time
professing their support for "universal health care". I published 2
articles in less than 1 year and co-wrote successful grants, so when
they refused to give me benefits or a raise after that year, I
finally got the courage to stand up for myself and leave.
Because I stood up for myself and because I agree with the views of
the book mentioned above, I am now being blacklisted despite my
skills and experience. The entire situation (mine and others) is
reminiscent of what Martin Luther King said about civil rights..."In
the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends."
I have been silent long enough. If this has happened to me, then it
has happened to others. There are people out there who know what
happened to me and my son, but refused to help. They also know, or
should know, how ideas are stolen from Grad Students and Postdocs
and, more importantly, how the myths that are exposed in the book
mentioned above continue to be perpetuated...but they remain silent
because they are afraid and appear to care only about their own jobs.
If we banded together, we'd be a lot more effective.
The money that we get to do research does not belong to us, it
belongs to the public. Universities have perverse incentives that
encourage and allow this type of behavior. I was in the Navy as a
young man and learned early in life how to work as a team.
"Interdisciplinary research" is just the new name for the status quo.
Most (not all) in Academia have no clue how to work as a team. This
is why they will continue to fail in their service to society...but
they'll make tenure.
jon mccloskey
