Who Gets to Be Called a Scholar?

by Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D.

The word scholar usually refers to a status, such as a job, rank, or title. It also assumes that the person’s work (typically writing and research) counts as scholarship. The status and the work often overlap, but not always, and treating them as the same thing causes problems inside and outside the academy.

I’ve heard the word applied to high school students, retiring lawyers, blog writers, and academics who’ve contributed half a dozen pieces to a newsletter over a decade. We have junior scholars and senior scholars, distinguished scholars and emeritus scholars, and much of what these titles signify has little to do with scholarship. At some point you have to ask: what’s wrong with this picture?

The dictionary is of little help. Merriam-Webster defines a scholar as someone who attends school or studies under a teacher, holds a scholarship, or has done advanced study in a special field. By the first, every kindergartner qualifies. The second describes funding, not achievement. The last comes closest, but it says nothing about what all that advanced study is supposed to produce.

Here is how I’d draw the line. Scholarship is a property of the work. A scholar is someone with a record of producing it. To count, the work has to meet two requirements. First, it must add something to what we…