Author: Anthropologists and Aging

Being History

Being History

by Robert Launay I have taught the history of anthropology since 1978, give or take a year (who’s counting?). At the beginning and the end of my career, I have had to cope with the same question: why should students have to study the history of the discipline? The rationale underlying such a question has shifted radically, though. The 1980s were the heyday of positivism, the conviction that social “sciences” like anthropology should actually be scientific, that is to say {+}

Careers and Caregiving: An impossible juggling act?

Careers and Caregiving: An impossible juggling act?

By Kathe Managan This fall, with my AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) card in my wallet, I attended my third new faculty orientation and learned about the policies of tenure and promotion at a university where I have been teaching since 2018. That’s because I only recently made the transition from a non-tenure track instructor position to assistant professor. Anxious to get to know and bond with my new cohort, I chatted with the small group of other recent {+}

Bifocal Glasses: Too old for an academic career?

Bifocal Glasses: Too old for an academic career?

By Marco Lazzarotti We have a tendency to perceive the passage of time as traced by the path of an idealized academic career. In this vision, an academic career is perceived as an obstacle race, or perhaps an elimination race—with well-defined paths and obstacles carefully laid out before us. As we inexorably move down this path, we are so focused on the goals and obstacles ahead that we forget to notice as our life—and our youth—comes to an end. After {+}

It’s not all downhill: On becoming an older scholar

It’s not all downhill: On becoming an older scholar

By Laura Miller. Expectations for academics are sometimes based on stereotypes. One idea is that people reach the apex of their creativity and intensity before diminishing energy and relevance after the age of 60. I suspect that “relevance” has more to do with academic trends than with research productivity. Less energy may be a genuine problem, but I’d like to focus on a few positive aspects of becoming an older anthropologist and newbie historian. Although my early career was plagued {+}

The parallax effect of middle age

The parallax effect of middle age

Post by blog member Kerim Friedman. As one gets older, one’s experience of time simultaneously collapses and expands, creating a parallax effect. Amidst the daily routine of the school year, time seems to pass ever slower, each semester much like the next, erasing any sense of the passage of time. At the same time, the years breeze by at an ever faster pace, unnoticed, until they are brought to one’s attention with a sudden shock of realization, such as when {+}