How might the process that I’ve described in the last four posts be
improved?
For me, the answer to this question is shaped by my own perspective:
that of a director of a multidisciplinary institute. The process that
I’ve described (a general description that is not specific to any one
institution) is far too discipline-centric. Searches, as a result of
the academic politics involved, tend to hire individuals whose
scholarly interests lie at the point of a pin. An example: a
zebrafish neuroscientist who uses molecular biology to study
neurodevelopment or alternatively, a confocal imager who interested
in the cell biology of mitosis. While these hypothetical targeted
hires are actually very interesting, I would much prefer a more cross-
disciplinary hire: say a signal transduction cell biologist
interested in genes that may have facilitated the development of
language in humans.
How do we get there? For me the key is collaboration between units on
joint hires (faculty lines split between two or more units) and
search committees that reflect the diverse multidisciplinary
interests of those units. There is a problem here however: newly
hired faculty with homes in more than one unit tend to have
difficulty–for example promotion and tenure can be problematical, or
at the very least complicated.
And so perhaps we need to allow units which normally don’t grant
promotion and tenure (institutes for example) to begin to do so.
Just a thought….
Jim
Discoverers and Discoveries 