INFS 291-C — Academic Work*
Draft, February 2012.
Course information:
Number: INFS 291-C
Title: Academic Work
ID: 628-535-204
Quarter: spring 2012
Location: room 245, GSE&IS Bldg.
Time: Tuesdays, 9am-12h30pm
Web site: http://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/12s-infstd291C-1
Instructor information:
Instructor: Jean-François Blanchette
Office: room 218, GSE&IS Bldg.
Phone: 310 267 5137
Fax: 310 206 4460
Email: [email protected]
Web: polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/blanchette
Office hours: M 13h00-15h00
1. Motivation
The authority of scholarly knowledge depends not only on the observance of
sound research methodologies, but on a number of other institutional
mechanisms, including tenure, faculty governance, peer review, scholarly
communication, public funding for ‘basic’ research, doctoral training, etc. Under
the rubrics of service, teaching, and advising, a significant portion of the
academic life is devoted to the management of these mechanisms, and their
successful performance is a requirement for promotion at all levels of the
academic ladder. In recent years, these long-standing institutional structures of
the scholarly experience have come under important pressures, among others:
• Growing reliance on contingent faculty and corresponding diminished
relevance of faculty governance and academic freedom;
• Globalization of “knowledge economies”, and the role of the University as
training facility for “flexible” workers and citizens;
* I am indebted to Richard Cox for advice, and for his syllabus for LIS 3000, “Introduction to the
Doctoral Program” at the School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh; to Kavita
Phillips, Ron Day, Michael Wartenbe, and Katie Shilton for feedback; as well as to Kim Fortun for
initiating this experiment several years ago.