“Last year, broadcaster and academic Mona Siddiqui expressed surprise that so few academics were prepared to talk to the media about their work. ‘I think they feel that there’s too much at stake in the academic world,’ she said. ‘But why so many people are precious about their discipline is beyond me.’ I share her puzzlement, having transferred to higher education from Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, where I had been editor and where we were continually surprised at how many academics refused to appear at all, or else would stipulate stringent conditions. Back then, I didn’t realise quite how tribal academic life could be. Why on earth would a fiery phenomenologist object so stridently to being placed across the studio table from a perfectly pleasant positivist? I was particularly nonplussed by a radical feminist who refused to engage with any man at all …” (more)
[Sally Feldman, THE, 19 February]