The Renaissance person’s dilemma
Two recent trains of thought:
- If you had the time, money, and leisure to go for another degree, or at least take enough courses to become reasonably
informed about something you're interested in, what would you study? Me, I'd have a hard time deciding where to start: music theory and
musicology, or geography with a digital-humanities focus, or
anthropology, or classics (my old undergraduate first love), or bibliography and textual studies and
book history, or urban planning, or psychology, or computer science, or, or, or… So many things to learn, so little time in one life span. I don't know how I ever thought I could be a specialist in
one and only one field. How about you? - On a related note: One of the great, freeing things about not being a tenure-track faculty
member is getting to indulge one's Renaissance-person tendencies. On the other hand, one of the drawbacks of not being
a tenure-track faculty member is not having structures in place to
motivate one to actually carry out a project to its finish instead of getting distracted by the next bright shiny topic. Today I tried to draw a concept map of all my current interests, and came to the conclusion that, while they're all interconnected in a dozen different ways, there are altogether too many potential projects to work on at once, and I'm having a hard time making myself choose one and stick with it. Fellow Renaissance people, how do you cope with Intellectual Magpie Syndrome?
Oh, Amanda, you are blogging my life! Much of what’s on your no. 1 list would be on mine, too, except for the things on it that I’ve already done, like classics and bibliography etc. High on my list at the moment: costume history and design; architectural history; art conservation (but I suck at chemistry); dramaturgy; Sanskrit.
And on point 2: Yes yes yes! I mean, yes, I recognize the syndrome, and I have no solution. I am looking forward to indulging my magpie tendencies. My new persona: The Happy Dilettante.
Ooh, costume history and dramaturgy! Those are on my list, too, dating all the way back to my stagestruck phase in high school. And speaking of conservation, I got to visit a book conservation lab while I was in library school, and it was way cool: a mixture of applied fine arts and lab chemistry. I don’t know how well I’d do at the chemistry side of things either, but I loved watching them dissolve old paper into a paste and then use it to patch up tattered pages.
And another one I forgot to add: book arts. Every time I look at an artist’s book or a small-press book I start thinking “I want to know how to do that.”
I have done book artsy things and definitely plan to do more. Binding didn’t really float my boat, but I LOVED printing: the combination of design and fiddliness and text was just about perfect. I have ongoing fantasies of starting my own little press – but first I have to settle in a place where I can accumulate equipment.
At some stage, I looked into studying conservation, but they required a lot of chemistry coursework as a prerequisite. I think that’s a hurdle I’d never get over. But I really am thinking of trying to learn to sew properly, and then see if I can learn pattern draping, because even if nothing came of it costume-wise, there would be direct payoff in my own wardrobe.
My adviser in graduate school always hounded me to “focus.” Oh course, he also told me that one day I would wear sensible shoes, and he was partly right about that, so who knows?
I keep thinking that I would make a fabulous forensic investigator. Or a conservator. I was watching a documentary on the Theremin last night, and I was thinking that I’d likely be good at that.
What I did do last term was start taking Japanese. My parents lived and met and married there, and my Aunt Florence and Uncle Hank lived there for 35 years (Uncle Hank was an architect with the Army Corps of Engineers). It was always part of my life, so, at 45, I have started to really study the language. I’m in my second term.
Do I have answers? No. Am I right there with you these days? Absolutely.
Goodness me you hit it on the head here. I am just a 2nd year student in Mech Engineering but boy oh boy is it hard to balance activities (and maintain a mediocre grade). When you find out how, be sure to tell the world!