What does an academic sound like?

What does an academic sound like?

Friday musings from a public scholar, shared across my social platforms. Read on, this post contains a common question I receive sometimes framed as an insult, but more often said as a compliment.

"Dr. Hawthorne, you don't sound like an academic."

Thoughts and shares welcome.

I shared this with my graduate seminar class (mostly first year MA students) the other night as I listened to their struggles about new (and in many cases overwhelming) terminology in graduate school. It led to a really great discussion that wasn't on the schedule. I left energized and hopeful for the next generation of the academy. But I also left with the notion that we currently have a lot of work to do to make the academy a more accessible space for new students and broader society.

How can we better about teaching our students complex ideas, theories, and methods in a more "digestable" way? In seminar, I made the comment that we don't always need to use a ten dollar word, when a one dollar word can convey the same idea and also open up a broader audience. I'm looking at you words like epistemology, ontology, methodology, positionality. I love and understand these words too, but most folks have no idea what they mean, and we lose a lot of folks when we say these words in conversation.

With my class on Wednesday, I also shared a comment I have received a lot as an academic (as recently as Monday [six separate folk that day] at the conference I was a keynote speaker at).

"Dr. Hawthorne, you don't sound like an academic."

Most of the time that's meant in a positive way, and I take that as a compliment. I also use it as an opening to discuss the disconnect between most academics and society (including my own disconnect at various moments). But in sharing that comment with my class, I also remembered (and shared with them) at least a couple instances from academics where this was said more in a demeaning manner.

It led to a great discussion in the seminar about working on accessible language as academic, so we can all be better understood and appreciated by those outside the academic world (and by those just entering the academic world). I too am guilty of "academic speak" at times, but I hope that I get it right more often than not to create more engaging spaces for dialogue across the academy, industry and society. That's one of the major goals of our Citizen Science GIS and GeoBus work. I hope we're making a difference. And I hope we're encouraging others. I often wonder if the academic world is the right place for the community-based work I do. I'm still not sure, 12 years into being a professor. But I do know it's the best place to mentor and have access to students with hopes, dreams, and big ideas for a better academic world. I think in the end that's why I am still in the academic world. But I am often drawn to the non-profit world. Maybe one day...but I digress.

I think another thing that keeps me in the academy is being a part of the community geography field. So many CG folks are talking about these issues, and doing the good work to explore our world and to bring multiple voices into the discussion.

What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts on how we can bring more accessible language into the academy to open up our spaces for dialogue.

#reflections #community #language #research #education #teaching #communitygeography #publicscholarship #CitizenScienceGIS #GeoBus #education #nextgeneration #future #bebetter