markham

Those little things that professors do

Date: December 13, 2023

Sometimes the life of the professor can look very easy. Teaching some classes and writing some books are the most visible outcomes of a professor’s work life. However, in truth, professors are a little like icebergs. There is more going on under the surface than others realize.

Please allow me to use myself as an illustration. Sitting on my desk right now is a manuscript from Cambridge University Press. I have been asked to provide a “Reader’s Report” – this is where an external evaluator determines whether the manuscript is publishable or not. I need to read the manuscript and then write a report with a recommendation. Last Friday, I was reading a different manuscript. Then I was asked by a publisher to provide an endorsement (a “blurb” that goes on the back cover). Both of these “hidden” tasks are time consuming and important.

I know plenty of Faculty colleagues who also do this work. We don’t capture this data. But this work helps good books to appear and good books to be sold. It matters.

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary

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