 |
 |
Thanks for your interesting reply, Susan! I completely agree with you about the very composite (today more than ever, I would say) nature of what we may term 'academic identity'... What in the past may have been a fairly well defined concept has become much fuzzier today, when academics are no longer 'just' expected to teach and research but also to do increasing amounts of administration and, often, active publicity of their courses AND be accountable all the time... Society at large has definitely entered the academic domain in a very direct way (and with this I am not implying that before the axis academia-society was non-existent, of course) and, for better of worse, the academic world has been made to rise to the new challenges, which could be a good thing... As a result, the very notion of what we may want to define as 'academic identiy' has been made much more complex than before... Also thanks for pointing out that we may refer to 'students' when we talk of academic identity. In fact, the notion of a lecturer's academic identity is dependant also on how the students perceive and define the academic world. I think it is a kind of 'mirror-game' among three constituencies: the lectureres, the students and society at large. Each of these inevitably impact on the others, making the whole question of 'academic identity' a very complex and challenging one... I am personally interested in the whole notion of 'academic identity' for personal reasons, quite apart from research purposes. Having taught in HE for about 15 years now (in and outside this country), I am increasingly wondering about my role in HE and in society at large... Hence, my personal and research questions (I am actually researching on the academi identities of lectureres in Modern Languages in HE)... It may just be a middle-age crisis, who knows??? (but I do not think it is just that...)... Many thanks again and best wishes, Roberto. ------------------------- Private: Roberto Di Napoli Tel: ++44 - (0) 171 - 272 3128 Fax: ++44 - (0) 171 - 272 3128 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Work: School of Languages University of Westminster 9/18 Euston Centre LONDON NW1 3ET Tel: ++44 - (0) 171 - 911 5000 (ext./int.: 4309) Fax: ++44 - (0) 171 - 911 5001 E-mail: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%