Returning to a theme
Another post from a First Generation academic. Not that I'm sure what that means. But some things ring true here.I could say smart things about this and be reflective about the ways in which this makes being a professor complicated, but I don't really know how to talk about it right now. I have tried before, and I haven't been too smart about it. I know I'm not the only one in the world who is a First Generation Academic, but I don't really know what it means to be First Generation.
I think it means I have to explain myself more to my family than people would if their parents were professors.
I think it means I have a different version of the fraud complex because I sort of feel like I lucked my way into being in academia.
I think it means I feel like I have no examples in my own family of how to be in this professional role and sometimes that makes me feel... weird? Like there is some sort of secret handshake I never learned.
posted by Elizabeth @ 12:55 PM
10 Comments:
:)
I wish I knew how to be more reflective about this First Generation thing. Sometimes I think it's not a big deal, but other times... yeah. It's huge. And I have a lot of trouble thinking about why.
It's nice to meet you two, by the way... I have some catching up to do to get to know you. I just linked to you and bloglined you. :) I hope that's okay by you.
Hey, as someone commented on brightstar's blog, there should be a support group for people like this (like me/us?).
Though, really, when I get together with my family, we spend heaps of time making fun of me for being a "non scientist", watching all sorts of (non-US) sports (cricket, football, rugby, you name it, we watch it) and discussing O'Reilly's show (granddad, unfortunately, happens to be a fan. I think he just likes creating ripples and arguing) and buying fruits and veggies (no supermarkets, you see, so this takes up a lot of time). Oh, and eating, of course :-)
Discussions of academia are pretty much non existent.
Welcome, brightstar! Linking is always fine by us.
I'm finding that the blogosphere is as close to a support group as I've seen. It's probably selection bias, but a lot of the academic blogs that I read are by people who are playing without a net--no family history of academics, no financial fallbacks, untenured or grad students--and they (we?) all seem to share an unease with the rules and unspoken assumptions of our professions and fields.
But this is another case of what Priya and I have talked about in RL--saying that "everyone knows" what a proper argument is, or that "we all know" the best departments and conferences misses the point. It puts the failure to understand the rules on individuals, without ever considering that the unspoken requirements aren't at all intuitive, and serve as gatekeeping and othering mechanisms.
But, is it really that bad? Or am I looking at this from the perspective of an "outsider" (i.e. alien) who is not expected to understand US academic rules anyway? Also, it's not like there are universal rules for every uni/field but rather each institution has its own quirks. And, when asked, professors and other postgrads usually help out with information on "best" journals, conferences, etc. These days, even I try :-)
I say social networking matters, professors should be more of "mentors" rather than "get thee out of Uni quick!" but we, as postgrads, also position ourselves as insiders/outsiders/confused/clued in based on the situation we are negotiating within and this is okay. But, that's just me--the eternal optimist.
I disagree that it's all somehow context-specific. Each institution has unique rules, but there's also a broader culture of requirements and taboos that are thought of as natural when they're anything but.
And I agree that most of our "elders" :) are helpful. But we're back to GS's post about comfort with professors--the belief that it's okay to ask questions of authority figures is not one with which I was raised, and it isn't something you just pick up without help. Saying that we position ourselves ignores the social context that determines the positions we can choose.
My advisor was extremely helpful in aiding me access to structures of interacting in academia. I'm thankful for that. And his support helped me formulate questions in future situations, so I think it's someone on the individual, but also not... because sometimes it's hard to even recognize what you don't know to know how to formulate a question.
I am curious about this conversation. A first generation academic is someone who is the first in the family to attend graduate school or college in general?
I appear to be a bit out of the loop on this section of the blog. Sorry for my ignorance.
(A long answer to a simple question...)
We're talking specifically of first generation grad school. In my case, it's actually both--first generation to go to graduate school and work towards becoming an academic, and the first in my immediate family to finish college. I have a couple of uncles and an aunt who have B.A's, but other than that it's associate's degrees and a couple years of college at most. Until you get to my generation, when the graduate degrees begin multiplying like bunnies--two cousins, me, my sister, and now my brother is thinking about his MA after he finishes college.
But I'm the oldest, after a cousin who moved to England for her degree and hasn't really come back, and none of them are planning to become academics.
When people in my family do go to college, it's for "useful" things, like nursing and business degrees. When I went to law school, everyone thought it was great, because that meant we'd have a lawyer in the family. When I decided to go for a PhD, they didn't know what to say--why in the world would I want to have more school "just to be a teacher?"
I went through cycles with it--at first, I didn't see anything strange about my background, because we have such a fluid society that I figured it was ordinary, then I was upset because it turned out that very few of my peers in law school and grad school came from a background similar to mine, and now I'm starting to accept it as something that causes problems, but gives me a unique perspective on the whole process.
Knowing there are other people out there who have similar experiences helps--especially when they've managed to make it through and get jobs.
But it still pisses me off when people assume that the way we do things is natural and makes inherent sense. The tenure system, and the dissertation process in general, do not follow from some natural law of academia. They're constructed, and can be changed. It's ridiculous to pretend otherwise, as if the way we do things is some immutable force for creating true academics.
I guess i don;t fit into that category...i really would like to go back for the sheer learning process but also wonder if it would really even help me career wise in the long run. my problem is more networking related because i;m not in with journalists and there are none in my family....its hard to break into a field when you dont know where to start.
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