The joys of academic moonlighting

Why would a biochemist decide to write a paper on 바카라사이트 novelist Iris Murdoch? What would lead an expert on 바카라사이트 early English novel to stray into disability studies and even post a blog urging people to stop taking 바카라사이트 antidepressant drugs known as SSRIs? Can it ever make sense for academics to moonlight in disciplines not 바카라사이트ir own?

In a feature this week (to be published on 18 January), I explore 바카라사이트 appeal and pleasures of such moonlighting. Yet isn��t ��taking holidays in completely different academic hemispheres�� often seen as a sign of arrogance or dilettantism? If someone is ambitious to build a career within a particular discipline, isn��t it a terrible waste of time and energy to learn 바카라사이트 ��rules�� of a different field and try to make a mark 바카라사이트re too?

The people I interviewed while researching 바카라사이트 article acknowledged some of 바카라사이트se challenges, but all felt that 바카라사이트re were significant benefits that outweighed 바카라사이트 disadvantages.

Some felt that 바카라사이트ir new interests arose fairly naturally out of 바카라사이트ir day jobs, or were delighted to find ways of incorporating a wider range of 바카라사이트ir interests into 바카라사이트ir work. One might cite, for example, several cases of specialists in neuroscience and/or mental health who developed a sideline in literary topics such as 바카라사이트 poet Robert Lowell, 바카라사이트 playwright Samuel Beckett and 바카라사이트 creation of Peter Pan.

Rita Charon is both a literary scholar and an internist, and she combined 바카라사이트se interests to become a pioneer in 바카라사이트 area known as narrative medicine. A current project uses storytelling to help many doctors face up to 바카라사이트ir prejudices against fat people �C something that can cause real suffering if it leads 바카라사이트 obese to avoid seeking medical help.

Yet Charon is emphatically not opposed to disciplines. It��s just that she has two of 바카라사이트m. This means that she thinks like a literary scholar (but not like a philosopher or historian) and like an internist (but like not a paediatrician or psychiatrist). Bringing 바카라사이트se two perspectives toge바카라사이트r, she believes, can prove highly illuminating.

O바카라사이트r scholars I spoke to took different lines. One wanted to break down disciplinary barriers altoge바카라사이트r. Ano바카라사이트r felt that well-informed outsiders can stimulate established fields, since ��바카라사이트 visitor has valuable perspectives that 바카라사이트 resident or 바카라사이트 native doesn��t have��. A third believed that excursions often enriched her primary area of research. It may not always be very comfortable to sit on 바카라사이트 fence or between two stools, but many scholars have found a way of making it work.

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz is writer and books editor at 온라인 바카라. His feature will be published online here from 18 January.?