Thinking in Groups

How do professors think? The domain of the university and the behaviour, values and practices of those who inhabit it can be puzzling to an outsider. Non-academics (and by that I mean everyone who does not teach or do research at a university) may think that, like public school teachers, university professors’ main activity is teaching undergraduate courses. In fact, research in their field of specialty is a larger part of their job. Sometimes this research is difficult for the lay-person to understand. Every May, for example, coincident with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences meetings, the mainstream media in Canada publish stories about some of the more arcane topics of research being discussed, items like “Semiotics and Simulation: The Impertinence of the Referent” or “Opening, Closing and Revolving: Studies in Doorology.” The fact that public funds are used to support this arcane research can lead to grumpiness from politicians and questions in the House...