"The Horror Stories"

We often laugh—and for good reason—at the so-called “horror stories” Dr. Chyi tells us in class. We hear about the temptation of publishing for publishing’s sake, an understandable impulse in this highly competitive research environment we’ve chosen to be a part of.

But I doubt we’re the first class to find these stories funny. My hunch is that, in the past, a class of students very much like our own laughed at similar tales. And the class before them laughed, too. And the class before, and so on.

So while scholars-in-training are usually aware of the funny caricatures of status quo research, something is obviously perpetuating them. Will we, too, be complicit in reinforcing a safe, dependable, intellectual career path?

This is the ethics issue I think about a lot. I don’t suspect that many of us who are pursuing a doctoral or master's degree set out to be the safest milquetoast scholar we can possibly be. I know my grandfather never sat me down to give me his inspiring "Dare to be Average" speech. For the most part, I want to be bold--provocative, even. But will I have to compromise to get—and keep—a job? Will I need to play nice?

I think is why I find the horror stories funny. I know that, despite my best intentions, I’m probably going to have to find at least some middle ground between safe and daring if I want to make it in the academic world. And if I can’t laugh about that, what option am I left with?