In what promises to be a screwball ceremony at Harvard University tomorrow night, the science-humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research will award its 15th annual Ig Nobel Prizes, which pay tribute to research that "cannot or should not be reproduced."
The Igs, as they are known, honor achievements “that first make people laugh and then make them think,â€? according to Marc A. Abrahams, editor of the magazine. Past prizes have celebrated the pink plastic flamingo, Murphy’s Law, the comb-over, and the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. The awards are timed to coincide, more or less, with the Nobel Prize announcements, and they are given to proud (or embarrassed) recipients by actual Nobel laureates from past years.
Tomorrow night’s ceremony will feature a mini-opera about infinity, a Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate contest, and the group’s traditional 24/7 lectures, in which scholars describe their fields of research first in 24 seconds and then in 7 words.
A Webcast of the event, which will take place in Harvard’s Sanders Theater, will begin at 7:15 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.
23 Responses to Not-So-Nobel Prizes
Katrina Gulliver - December 31, 2011 at 11:34 pm
Congratulations on the move! I wonder whether academia tends to put more expectations on people that “THIS is the job that is desirable”, so it is difficult for those who are unhappy in that situation to face that, and just leave.
This obviously relates to the issues that Tony Grafton has been raising recently about plans B through Z for history PhDs. But even within university employment, we limit ourselves by seeing one type of institution or job as “desirable”, when it won’t be for everyone.
I know I have learnt more about myself through my academic research than I have about the subjects I was actually studying. Perhaps in some cases figuring out what you really want may be harder than getting it.
May the job fairy smile on others in the new year :)
pianiste - January 1, 2012 at 10:55 am
One assumes from the little bio to the right of Professor Potter’s posts that “Zenith University” is Wesleyan University in Connecticut. So what’s the name of the university in “Metropolis” where Professor Potter will henceforth be employed?
The coyness about the names of the two schools prompts one to wonder a) why is Professor Potter leaving Wesleyan in the middle of the academic year? and b) what’s behind advice item No. 2, “If you leave your job, you don’t have to leave for a job that is ‘better’ by all the conventional standards of the academy”? (Is Professor Potter no longer going to be a professor?)
BTW, I’m a fan of “Tenured Radical” and think it’s the best single-author blog at The Chronicle. I fear for its being able, however, to continue to call itself “Tenured Radical.”
tenured_radical - January 1, 2012 at 11:08 am
Nothing to hide here: the timeline has to do with a set of negotiations that worked out to everyone’s satisfaction even though they are a bit unconventional. Yes, I am going to be a professor — bloggers don’t always project their personal experience on everything, and what I am trying to do is get people to think about what might be a “better” job outside of conventional frameworks (ie, if you don’t go to an Ivy after Zenith, what’s the point?)
My next job is at the New School in NY, and I’m very excited about it. The reason I use pseudonyms for institutions is that there is a lot of traffic here that could drive these posts up the list of Google hits, and I don’t think that the places I work should necessarily be subjected to publicity they don’t want — particulalry in the event of a troll attack. Glad you like the blog, and it will be up to the readers to decide whether I should change the name of the blog to Self-Satisfied Old Fart or not.
physioprof - January 1, 2012 at 4:59 pm
These are all excellent pieces of advice for new faculty, especially about taking your work aggressively outside your institution. While it might seem to new faculty like they “work for” their university, really they “work for” their field(s) of scholarly inquiry. And it is ultimately the judgment of their colleagues in their field(s) that will determine their future academic trajectory, including promotion and tenure.
Best wishes for an easy and fruitful move!! Once you get settled in at your new digs, shoot me an e-mail if you want to meet some time in Metropolis for a coffee or cocktail.
Lisa Lynne Moore - January 1, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Seems like a position at the New School is the very definition of Tenured Radical! Congratulations TR. Your fan, Lisa.
http://sisterarts.typepad.com/sister-arts-gardens-po/
pianiste - January 1, 2012 at 5:30 pm
OK. But since a couple of questions in a comment got the beans spilled anyway, why did TR use pseudonyms in the first place? TR really can’t protect grown-up institutions such as Wesleyan and the New School from “publicity they don’t want–particularly in the event of a troll attack.” Academe now has its own Office of Homeland Security?
“If you don’t go to any Ivy after Zenith, what’s the point?” is less than a “conventional framework.” It’s a stuffy notion held by a relatively small segment of academe, who work predominantly in the East. To ascribe it to enough of TR’s readers to make her have to “get people to think differently about “what might be a better job” is a little, well, patronizing. A lot of us actually don’t think that the only improvement on a job at an Eastern SLAC is one at an Ivy.
susanda - January 2, 2012 at 4:31 am
Good luck, with the move, TR. I think your advice is great. The only thing I’d say about the planning is that it often takes time and doing things to figure out your inner compass. I think mine was really only calibrated in my late 40s, and it took time for things to fall into place. I actually think one reason that many people in academia are unhappy is that they decided what they wanted to be in their early 20s, and haven’t revisited it. Also that we find ourselves engaged by different things at different points in our careers – we can never assume that what gives us satisfaction today will do so in ten years time…
tenured_radical - January 2, 2012 at 10:36 am
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear: it’s not about hiding anything, it’s about an ethical position that balances my right to free speech with the institution’s right to represent itself in chosen ways. I am respecting the autonomy of institutions to not be fully identified with me. I have no interest in protecting institutions, but I do have an interest in not making myself unnecessarily noxious to my employers. If I become institutionally noxious, I would like it to be about something more principled than, say, a blog post about college football. I never had an inkling that Wesleyan did not respect my free speech, and I expect the same of the New School. That said, given the output and readership of this blog, Wesleyan (and I presume the New School will feel similarly) may not wish to be identified with every view expressed in this space. I am actually quite sure of that, in fact, and making them pseudonymous means that a simple Google search will not leave the impression that they are. Troll attacks push a post way up in Google rankings: hence, it is most likely that the most politically fraught posts will come up in a search using the institution’s name.
And by the way? Under the best of circumstances, academic blogging has a lot of peculiar social consequences and creates as many hurt feelings through misidentification and misunderstanding as it does through deliberate representation. I can’t tell you how many times I have completely invented a character in the blog and later learned that some colleague felt injured because s/he believed it was a portrait of hirself. If you start your own blog, you will learn this. Personally, I think it is worth it to not incite administrators or colleagues unnecessarily and risk creating situations where I have to justify my rights to free public speech and constantly be alert to relationships in need of repair. It’s also respectful not to cause unnecessary anxiety to other people.
Lastly, I don’t know where you work, but many of us do live in that stuffy little bell jar — my point is that it is very liberating not to do so. That will be news to some people: if it isn’t to you, well good for you. I have never understood why people feel patronized or condescended to when I express views that are already in synch with their own, but I think that’s a therapy question and not for discussion on this thread.
Now I must go and figure out why my entire blog seems to be presenting itself in italics……
tenured_radical - January 2, 2012 at 11:51 am
Thanks pal — send me your real email again & we are good to go. I lost it in the Great Address Book Calamity of 2011.
physioprof - January 2, 2012 at 1:26 pm
I just e-mailed you at what I think is your correct Gmail address.
loumac - January 2, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Good advice, especially to those thinking of leaving academia. I can’t think of another profession, except perhaps the priesthood, the leaving of which prompts such a peculiar blend of judgment, incomprehension, doubt (and maybe some unacknowledged jealousy).
jliedl - January 2, 2012 at 8:00 pm
TR, congratulations on making the move to something and someplace new that will help you continue to grow as a professional while you do the same for others. I’m not in a position to move, myself, for a variety of reasons, but so much of your advice applies to those of us who’re remaking ourselves and our careers in situ. #3 and #4 hit on exactly what I found in the last few years and they keep me going even when the other pressures of the job feel unbearable!
graddirector - January 3, 2012 at 8:24 am
I would like to emphasize one of tenured radicals comments…. Make sure that any job change at the tenured ranks is actually not making your situation worse. We have had some turn-over of tenured faculty at our institution and I would say that at least 1/2 of these moves were rapidly regretted by those making them. All institutions have their problems and the biggest mistakes come when folks decide to leave on relatively short notice (in academics in less than a year) after a particular irritating event. In one case, a full professor left our institution in a snit over not getting an administrative post and insulted everyone doing so. Guess whose reappointment was voted down nearly unanimously by our faculty when he wanted to return a couple of years later after the “great job” that he failed to research with due diligence turned out to be a dead end..
urbanexile - January 3, 2012 at 11:25 am
I am thrilled for you, as you know, and I consider it an enormously courageous act to change jobs at this point in your illustrious career. This blog should be in O Magazine as an encouragement to all women who want to grow at whatever age. Shall I send it over and try to prove myself as a competent agent? ;-)
Have fun, TR, and have a great new year.
tenured_radical - January 3, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Definitely. If you can sell something, we will talk turkey on agenting.
pianiste - January 4, 2012 at 11:34 am
At the risk of being a nag, and an obstinate one, I still don’t see why saying at the outset, “I happen to be changing jobs, going from one at Wesleyan University to one at The New School,” wouldn’t have been entirely appropriate. It’s not like Wesleyan never lost a tenured faculty member to another institution, or that The New School never hired somebody away from another school, is it? As long as TR doesn’t nastily dump on Wesleyan on the way out, what’s the harm?
The old saw about academic politics being so vicious because there’s so little at stake, apparently has a flip side: Academic politics can also be so decorous because there’s so little at stake.
As to that “stuffy little bell jar,” it’s hard to feel any sympathy for the need for liberation for the people who live in it. These people are Ph.D.’s, putative intellectuals, with minds allegedly broad enough to see the bigger picture. If they’re intellectually truncated enough to think that if, when they move from an SLAC they don’t go to an Ivy they’re making an embarrassing lateral move at best, well, too bad. I’ll reserve my sympathies for the family down the block who think that if they trade in their Chevy Cruz for anything less than an Audi8 they’ll be the laughingstock of the neighborhood.
David Crawford Jones - January 4, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Good luck with the new gig, TR.
Chris Raymond - January 5, 2012 at 12:34 pm
This is a great article, and I found myself nodding over and over again–your thoughts apply equally to designers. I esp. loved the comment “ou could realize that you have transported your unhappiness to a location where it will flourish to an unprecedented degree”
Thanks.
Chris Raymond
mulerooster - January 5, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Very good article. I can relate to a lot of it as a graduate student and new faculty member. #1 especially relates to my experience in grad school. Unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to quit grad school when you really want your degree. And I definitely had a lot of relatives tell me how happy I should be (or how lucky I am) to be a student at this world famous place.
http://wayfaringprofessor.blogspot.com/
I’m going to bookmark this article for future use. Congrats on the new job.
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cwgregory - January 14, 2012 at 11:44 am
T.R., I got here because of a link posted on, um, zenchat. I enjoyed the article immensely, and like other commenters I think the advice applies perfectly to other fields, in my case software engineering. Since I became self-employed a dozen or so years back I am much happier with my work and even with my lifestyle, despite a significantly reduced income. I get to pick what I work on and who I work with, and reinvent my work life on a daily basis. It’s exhilarating, when I remember not to worry too much about where tomorrow’s rent will come from and just enjoy the challenges and opportunities.
Good luck with the new gig, be yourself, and be true to yourself.
millie_fink - January 21, 2012 at 11:06 am
All that Passive Aggressive does not look good on you. You should change into something else.
millie_fink - January 21, 2012 at 11:09 am
While it might seem to new faculty like they “work for” their university, really they “work for” their field(s) of scholarly inquiry.
You must work at a research school? Those teaching at “teaching” schools have no such sense of their work. Job One is teaching, not research.