Why Academia is no longer a safe haven for outcasts
As an 18 year old who had often felt somewhat different and failed to relate to people college was one place where I felt seen for the first time. Academia to me then represented a space where I could endlessly pursue knowledge, ask questions and learn new things everyday. It felt as if I had finally found my niche after all these years, a place I might finally belong to. While I had my own tribulations and drama like any other college student, academics and curiosity felt like one arena where I still felt safe. Not because I was consistently a topper (I scored awfully in master’s) but because it seemed like that one space I would finally belong to. A planet I would no longer be an alien in, because much like me everyone would come to academia for the sake of knowledge and peace. Stories of great men like Tesla and Faraday had persuaded me that research is a place full of people motivated by curiosity as I am instead of the corporate hustle to climb the ladder and mint money
Until, my first job happened and proved everything to be incorrect. Brutally incorrect. In my experience, most of modern academic spaces are marked by the same ruthlessness as any corporate entity except that it comes with a false veneer of respectability. Cleverly dyed white hair and thick glasses serve as effective props for the performance of a serious academic amongst modern professors. What happens behind the scenes however is anything but a noble pursuit of knowledge. Endless calls for funding, schmoozing the higher ups and the lower downs to get advantage, forcing students to give first authorship on papers, free riding on the work of your fellows and worst of all using students to launch a proxy warfare on your colleagues. This is just the tip of the iceberg on what is wrong with academia today.
At the end of the day one tries to find reasons to continue in the so called noble and respectable profession of a professor when the ground reality is anything but noble. Corporate toxicity without the fancy package. Add to that the easily ignitable youth who have already been fed endless rumors against you and see you as nothing but a clown putting on an underwhelming performance in front of the class right from day one. In my first class within first few minutes I saw one of the favorite student’s of another teacher making faces at me while sitting on the first bench. The first class. I didn’t have any idea who these people were but my image had been set in stone before I took a single lecture. While I ignored it as an idiosyncrasy the false harrasment allegations which followed afterwards within 2 weeks of my classes (amongst other things) were a major reason for me to consider switching careers.
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What motivated certain personalities to enter the field of knowledge creation is a mystery to me. It doesn’t pay as well as industry and income is a huge factor in how certain people measure your worth so why did they not choose corporate and money themselves? Politics certainly was not a demotivating factor.
Anyhow, on my current job search I have found that my profile is often met with a flagrant shock by HRs (those who bother calling) trying to understand why I would switch profile from a profession that receives so much societal admiration. Answering the answer honestly would cost me any chance I have at that job and so I beat about the bush to anyways never receive a callback.
What else would be a safe haven for outcasts like me is an answer I do not have. What I do now know is that academia and teaching isn’t it. So for any fellow youngsters don’t opt for academia as a career choice because you finally felt like you belonged somewhere when you went to the college library. Knowledge acquisition is very different from knowledge creation. While many people have ideas, great ideas even, not everyone is able to publish them or protect their ideas from getting poached by people with more access to resources and funding bodies. Even if you manage to do all of that not every idea is receive with equivalence.
Academia has never been a space solely for the Sheldon’s and Leonard’s but now it seems to be inching closer to the Edison’s and Lysencko’s working for laurels and government grants. Given my own experience, the release of the Epstein files was no shocker, there’s probably another island running somewhere with many more of such ‘academics’ committing crimes while writing scathing ethical reviews to graduate students in their free time. That is not to say all scientists are criminals but the field is not restricted to those who are working for the love of the profession.
For the nerds and weirdos like me who for once felt acknowledged by academia and now plan to make a career here, think twice. It’s not merely reading books, writing papers and delivering lectures. It’s no longer an escape for hermits who wish to live life on their terms while contributing to society in terms of knowledge. This profession is rife with it’s own volatility, warfare and financial instability to top it off.
