Comments on: It’s not all downhill: On becoming an older scholar

By: Laura Miller

Laura Miller — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:20:28 +0000

Also, we have some ex-academics who give advice for a fee, and they have very specific roadmaps. It adds to the sense that there is a certain defined right path.

By: Laura Miller

Laura Miller — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 23:58:38 +0000

Thanks Paul! I’m glad for you. Maybe starting later in life is one way to value it more? When we are young we are sometimes drifting.

By: Laura Miller

Laura Miller — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 23:57:18 +0000

In reply to DJ. Thanks DJ. I know, it isn’t an easy path. The training and specialization into disciplines is valuable yet it also provides what appears to be firm borders (but often isn’t, we just think so). And rather than seeing this training as a set of guidelines we take it as rigid rules we need to adhere to in order to succeed.

By: Laura Miller

Laura Miller — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 23:46:14 +0000

In reply to Rebecca Copeland. Thank you Rebecca Copeland! Yes, that feeling of liberation is pretty nice.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 21:45:56 +0000

I love this post as well. I am just starting my work for an MA in anthropology at SFSU; it an be a little off-putting at times being 3x older than others in my cohort or refraining from gleefully raising my zoom hand too often so as not to be that annoying old guy, it is hard to contain myself at times because anthropology, cultural anthropology that is, is so fascinating and intellectually enjoyable

By: DJ

DJ — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 04:52:59 +0000

Laura, good to see this post. I think that you point out a kind of freedom that we get not just as the benefit of age, perhaps, but also when we let ourselves do work outside of the expectations we place on ourselves because “well that’s the way we must do things in anthropology.” But of course as you note this is a freedom that comes from a kind of privilege many anthropologists, particularly younger scholars don’t have. One wonders if it has to be so…

By: Rebecca Copeland

Rebecca Copeland — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:38:46 +0000

I LOVE this post. And I agree with the freedom that age allows. I used to dread being older, but now I love it! We are no longer held to rigid expectations. Or, maybe we are, we just don’t give it the kind of attention we did in the past. Thank you for writing this wonderful salute to aging.