Chicago's loss

That's not a reference to the latest Bears game, but to the University of Chicago's decision to deny tenure to Daniel Drezner. The New York Sun wonders whether his blogging might have had something to do with it:

Under normal circumstances, a scholar who is denied tenure assumes that the decision was simply a reflection of a department's assessment of scholarship. In this case, Mr. Drezner and others are wondering whether the blog may have had an impact on his tenure status.

News of his tenure denial has struck a nerve in the growing community of academic bloggers, who are aware that blogging can be a double-edged sword: a powerful way to communicate scholarly ideas to the public and increase name recognition, and a risky venture in a field where every idea - even those roughly thrown together at 3 a.m. - matters.

While refusing to go into specifics about Mr. Drezner's tenure case, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Chicago, Dali Yang, dismissed the notion that his department considered Mr. Drezner's blog in making its decision. "I can assure you it's not specifically about the blog," he said.

Mr. Drezner says he's confident that his blog did not play a major role in the decision. "I would caution people against jumping to conclusions," he told The New York Sun yesterday in a telephone interview. Answering his own question about whether he had any regrets about blogging, he wrote on his site, "I can't say I didn't go into this with my eyes open."

Academic bloggers interviewed say the most common problem they face is convincing their colleagues that their online activity does not come at the expense of scholarly research. While some of the nation's most prominent scholars have started their own blogs, most notably Chicago giants Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, and Richard Posner, a federal judge, blogging is still perceived by some academics as a slight activity lacking in intellectual value.

That may not just apply to academics. I have a disclaimer on this site stating that my own blogging does not necessarily reflect the views of the law firm for which I work, but even then, to preserve my own professional reputation, I try to be somewhat careful about what I write. (Needless to say, gossip about this firm or the local legal community is strictly off limits.) And, of course, blogging at work is to be kept to a bare minimum - which is why this site is usually updated early in the morning, over the lunch hour, or in the evening.

Drezner's post on the subject is here. I'm sure he'll land on his feet somewhere before too long.

Posted by damian at October 11, 2005 09:08 AM | TrackBack