What's wrong w/ pre Phd pubs?

Ken Erickson (ERICKSON@UKANVM.BITNET)
Mon, 12 Dec 1994 21:42:10 CST

Allan Hanson, in an otherwise helpful post, notes the following:
<<
Graduate students could well be intimidated upon being told, as Mike
said, that "it is not unusual for brand-new Ph.D.s to have published
dozens of articles and a book or two." In my experience, that is very
unusual indeed. When it does happen, one reason is that the publications
are in another field where the individual had been active for a
considerable time before making the decision to enter anthropology. If a
person has many publications in anthropological journals and a book or
two in anthropology prior to getting the PhD, a likely response is to
think that something is wrong and to wonder why the individual did not
stick to the business of finishing the doctorate before becoming so
active in publication.


If it is still "a likely response . . .to think that something is wrong"
then those of us who put the product of the academy to work in the
applied sector need to do a much better job of publicizing the value
of our contribution to the discipline. Shirley Lindenbaum has no
PhD, Allan. Nor do I, and my little string of applied and empirical
publications are not the cause of wonder where I work. I wonder why
so many anthropologists fool around with the doctorate when they
could be out testing theory in the field.

There has to be room for techne- in the academy, dontcha think? ;-)