🍎your Scholarly Digest 10th April, 2025

Academia essentials hand-picked fortnightly for the mindful scholar

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Hi Scholar,

The 10th of April is the 100th day of the year and, historically, has been quite a busy day. In 1912, the Titanic set sail. In 2001 the Netherlands became the first country in the world to permit euthanasia. In 2019 two major scientific events happened: a new species of human was discovered and the first ever image of a black hole was announced. And today, April 10th 2025, you get the latest version of the Digest. Enjoy.

BRAIN FOOD

On Committing Methodolatry

Our research training starts with methodology. That is, before our phenomenon of inquiry is even defined, we become well-versed in existing methodologies. We are made proficient in the steps, protocols, and rules that one must follow to ‘do’ research. But this training arrives before we even know what we are going to research. 

This in itself – that method comes to us before our research phenomenon – is not problematic. I’m by no means suggesting that there is a strict linear sequence to learning how to do research.

The problem, however, arises when method captures our phenomenon. And in doing so, it limits not just how we know, but also what becomes possible as knowledge. That is, as soon as we begin to form an idea of what it is we want to research, that idea is instantly captured by the chains of our previous methodological training. We bend and force our phenomena, subjecting it to existing methods, protocols, and logics. In doing so, we commit methodolatry: allowing method to dictate the terms of our inquiry instead of letting the phenomenon guide how it might best be approached.

Long before our investigation begins, our imagination of the phenomenon is already restrained. We seldom think of the possibility that different phenomena might require their examination and investigation through different methodologies. Methodologies which we have perhaps not yet been trained in. Or for that matter, by methodologies not yet invented. We do not stop to question, as Paul Feyerabend suggested in Against Method, the possibility that:

Could our world be so uniform and predictable that every phenomenon we seek to study can be adequately investigated using a handful of pre-existing methodologies? And even if we managed to unify and homogenise our world through the strict rules of the scientific tradition, is it desirable to smooth out the inconsistencies, tensions, and variations? Should the boundaries of the phenomena we investigate be defined in such narrow terms - terms which operate from the onset through exclusion?

Given that research deals with things largely unknown, perhaps we should not restrict ourselves too early. Perhaps we should resist the urge to over-determine our approach in advance. We might even benefit from recalling the playfulness with which we once learned about and came to understand the world as children. Even as adults attempting to understand complex and uncertain realities, our phenomena may benefit from a similarly open, exploratory posture: one that remains naïve to strict rules and protocols, and that resists the urge to determine too quickly what is allowed and what is possible.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Welcome to McUni, Can I Take Your Order?

Thirteen foreign universities have submitted applications to the Greek Ministry of Education after a policy change that allows international universities to form branch campuses in the country. This is the latest example of Transnational Education, or TNE, which is all the rage in the higher education business model these days. Highly ranked universities from “developed” nations are building up their overseas presence and educating students from Rio de Janeiro to Lahore, from Shanghai to Mumbai.

Through a mix of satellite campuses, online learning, and franchising to partner organisations, universities are able to award degrees and collect tuition fees from students across national borders. Supporters of TNE are quick to celebrate its ability to meet the increasing demand for high-quality education in countries around the world and reduce brain drain as talented students can study in their home countries (no visa required).

Critics (and Tatlers) might say the McDonaldization of university education is entering a newer, more efficient phase: just like one can eat (pretty much) the same Big Mac (nearly) all over the world, now, too, one can be awarded a degree from a prestigious university wherever you are. While TNE enables students to achieve foreign qualifications often seen as more desirable in their home countries, this practice also undermines the development of local universities reducing diversity of thought in the process.

In addition to educational qualifications, TNE also exports the practices of commercialization and marketization. Through the lens of TNE, a country may be described as a “growing yet price-sensitive market [that] opens exciting opportunities”; to be successful, initiatives must adopt a “sophisticated market research strategy.” If TNE has a goal, it was summed up nicely by the boss of NCUK, a pathway provider that collaborates with universities on TNE programs:

Of course, this doesn’t mean that barriers to what is broadly considered “quality university” education should be kept as they are. It's a fine line to balance: if TNE does bring quality education to students who want it, then who can say that is a bad thing? There is something to be said, however, against the corporatization of universities and the persistent belief that degrees from Western universities are the silver bullet countries welcoming in TNE wish them to be.

RESOURCE

For Thinkers Who Write

Dear Scholar, if you ever find yourself struggling to write about your research, it might be because your ideas haven’t yet fully formed. As German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) writes in his essay On Style (found in The Essays of Schopenhauer): 

In other words, clarity of writing begins with clarity of thought. Alongside this diagnosis of why writing can be hard, the essay provides advice on how to communicate ideas clearly and purposefully. 

Also, it’s a great read in its own right: Schopenhauer doesn’t just preach clarity and precision, he practices it himself. On Style is an easy-to-understand, no-nonsense piece of writing we highly recommend for thinkers who write. 

OPPORTUNITIES

Funded PhDs, Postdocs and Academic Job Openings

• Postdoctoral, Research, and Faculty Positions @ University of Bristol, UK: click here

• PhD Positions @ University of Twente, Netherlands: click here

• Postdoctoral Fellowships @ University of Southern California, USA: click here

• Research and Academic Positions @ Nanyang Technological University, Singapore: click here

KEEPING IT REAL

A Visit to Karl Marx’s Apartment in 1849

The above is taken from a report written by Prussian police who were keeping an eye on Karl Marx while he lived in London. The description of the routine - procrastination followed by periods of intense work, staying up all night - is strangely relatable, at least to us, despite being more than 175 years old.

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