Inclusion of young scholars in the university is the Scholarly Legacy we want to leave
This event gave me the lesson that whoever you are, one must be respectful to scholars especially young scholars who are the future of academia.
I am at the University of Copenhagen for giving two lectures. My host is Nicole Doerr, a sociologist specializing on social movements and immigration. She did an amazing job in organizing including a workshop with her colleagues. I am grateful for her dedication to her colleagues and her Center for Anthropological, Political and Social Studies (CAPS).
In early stages of my scholarly Career, I was not getting so much attention to my scholarship as I do now. I had good publications, but I was a junior scholar, with little experience on how such lectures and networking events should be done. When you are a junior scholar, you are not paid as much attention in conferences. More established scholars socialize with each other, ignoring young ones. Our scholarly culture puts the most emphasis on mid-career scholar, because they are the most active and they sit on cumulative grant and social networks.
More than a decade ago, I was invited to a major university in Europe as a junior scholar. I packed my good clothes, arranged childcare and flew to that city. This university is a significant place for social sciences, they are the main hub of raising top quality doctoral students who then become professors and top level bureaucrats. The university has significant resources, and mostly conducts research for policy making.
On a rainy morning, I arrived for my talk in the seminar room. To my surprise, there were only four people in the seminar room. My host arrived and gave me the discouraging news that the secretary at the front desk forgot to announce my lecture. The four people in the room were students who show up regularly for a lecture at that time.
I gave my lecture. My host kindly arranged a discussant in advance who prepared a historical discussion related to my talk. There was not much discussion after as the group was small and unspecialized on my topic.
In the evening, my host asked me if I could replace them for a dinner with other colleagues. I was surprised as there was no previous announcement of it, but I accepted it, since I did not know better. I launched at a dinner table with four scholars in a beautiful and probably expensive restaurant. The dinner participants were the president of the university, an academic super star who was visiting and a scholar whom I dont remember her name but she had a lot of diamond jewelery for an academic. Since I am actually not invited but a filling in as a replacement, not a well-known scholar, originally from conflict-ridden Turkey and with no diamonds in sight, they did not know who I am and what I do. And they did not ask. All evening, they talked to each other, important scholars, and I sat there. Kindly enough, the president of the university felt bad and offered to drop me off at my hotel after dinner and talked about the diminished quality of his life after being the president. He had to commute more, and although he is not a scholar but a politician, he felt sidelined from his normal political environment and instead he had to attend all these dinners with academics.
It was the biggest lesson of my career. I was so traumatized with the whole thing with ignoring younger scholars, wearing overdone diamonds for academic occasions, and politicians as university presidents, I wondered if I am in the right career path. In addition, I felt so insecure, I never could wear the same dress that I wore that day. I felt really bad about myself.
This event gave me the lesson that whoever you are, one must be respectful to scholars especially young scholars who are the future of academia. Whenever I organize an event or an invited lecture I make sure young scholars are included, showed attention, valued for their contributions and they are part of discussions. They are the future of academia, so if we dont let them be included, then what is the purpose of being in a university with young researchers?
This experience also led me to think of what kind of legacy I want to leave. Think about Margaret Taetcher. Once an iron lady, ruling the country and dismantling the welfare system, which Britain did not yet recovered. And yet she died in the hands of a terrible disease, she did not know who she was in the last months of her life. The legacy she left for many young people in Britain is one that of severe inequality, and anxiety in front of a mean welfare system. Is this the kind of feeling we want to leave to younger people?
As scholars, we don’t want to leave a legacy of inequality, alienation and feeling of worthlessness to young scholars. We want to leave a legacy of decency, encouragement, solidarity and passion for improving research and disseminating knowledge. Yet we are so wrapped up in our egos that we rarely forget that it is our important mission of being a scholar and leaving a decent legacy. It is not about flashy names and diamonds, it is about decency, hope and respect for new scholarship of the next generations.