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It was so hard to get motivated to read academic lit over the break. The good news from various universities has really helped me find that motivation again. The latest news is that I was accepted by the MS of Urban Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. That means I've been accepted by both halves of the MLIS/MS dual degree program there. I'm still waiting for more info to know what the whole situation will be for me and what options I'll have to choose from, but it seems very likely that grad school is in the future for me.
And as my advisor pointed out regarding one of my human geography applications, I should be proud of myself. I've been provisionally accepted at one of the best programs in the country in my field. Though I'm sure I'm going to feel the effects of impostor syndrome once I'm enrolled somewhere, that's a fact. It's an achievement.
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Tonight, I'm reading something for my historiography class that I found really interesting. It's the 1931 annual address to the American Historical Association, given by then-president Carl Becker. He argues that historians cannot say anything of value when they divorce themselves from interpretation. Without stepping forward to say what certain history *means* to the present and its inhabitants, those inhabitants are not going to engage with that history. He writes:
To me, this means that, as academics, we must be engaged in the trials and tribulations of the current time and place, even as we dive into the elsewhere and otherwhen. If we have as our goal to make the world a different, better place, we must make ourselves relevant, and our communication accessible.
And as my advisor pointed out regarding one of my human geography applications, I should be proud of myself. I've been provisionally accepted at one of the best programs in the country in my field. Though I'm sure I'm going to feel the effects of impostor syndrome once I'm enrolled somewhere, that's a fact. It's an achievement.
---
Tonight, I'm reading something for my historiography class that I found really interesting. It's the 1931 annual address to the American Historical Association, given by then-president Carl Becker. He argues that historians cannot say anything of value when they divorce themselves from interpretation. Without stepping forward to say what certain history *means* to the present and its inhabitants, those inhabitants are not going to engage with that history. He writes:
Our proper function is not repeat the past, but to make use of it, to correct and rationalize for common use Mr. Everyman's mythological adaptation of what actually happened. We are surely under bond to be as honest and as intelligent as human frailty permits; but the secret of our success in the long run is in conforming to the temper of Mr. Everyman, which we seem to guide only because we are so sure, eventually, to follow it.
To me, this means that, as academics, we must be engaged in the trials and tribulations of the current time and place, even as we dive into the elsewhere and otherwhen. If we have as our goal to make the world a different, better place, we must make ourselves relevant, and our communication accessible.
