April 3, 2009

Reviewing the Reviewers

By KAREN J. WINKLER

A Q&A With Michèle Lamont

Most professors have mixed feelings about participating on peer-review panels. It's an honor. It helps the discipline. It's a waste of time. It's biased. Michèle Lamont wanted to know whether it works: specifically, whether, and how, professors identify excellence. So the multi-titled Harvard University scholar — professor of European studies, sociology, and African and African-American studies, and senior adviser on faculty