KM

It is not every day that I get to meet one of my favourite writers, so I took much pleasure in attending the English department’s Munro Beattie lecture last week, delivered by Adam Gopnik.  There are some authors for whom writing is truly an art, with every word perfectly chosen to maximize impact, and I would place Gopnik on that very short list: a treat to read, and truly also a treat to hear.  Appropriately, his theme was the power of language.

As academics, we too have enormous power to use language, both oral and written, to influence how our audience experiences and interprets the larger world … and here of course I am thinking primarily about our students, although our reach is by no means limited to them.  Increasingly, organizations that sponsor research – SSHRC, for example – are looking for evidence of what they refer to by the code phrase “KM” – “knowledge mobilization” – in other words the impact of what academics do, not only on their own narrow field of scholarship but also on the broader world.  Of course this may be easier to accomplish in the social sciences than in the humanities, but the days of scholars in any field writing only for a small handful of their colleagues are long gone, as will be clear to anyone who has recently filled out a research grant application. 

This shift has led to some interesting discussions by committees evaluating candidates for promotion and tenure.  How do we assess what might be termed “applied research”: in other words, reports written on commission for specific patrons, often government agencies or NGOs, as opposed to the more time-honoured venues of academic presses and peer-reviewed journals?  What is the value of the work of what we might call a “public intellectual”, someone who writes for large audiences that are primarily non-academic?  There is certainly a change taking place, but I think it would be fair also to say that it is being resisted stoutly in some quarters – and this became evident at the recent meeting of the FASS Promotions Committee, where it was the only major subject of contention and hence debate. I suppose that the ideal situation is some combination of both.

Among our many Faculty colleagues whose words have exerted a profound influence on the larger world, none perhaps commanded as broad a global reach as Herb Stovel, the foundation on which the School of Canadian Studies has built an enormously successful heritage conservation program.  Although a very quiet presence on campus, Herb was in the thick of both national and international efforts to promote the conservation of the human heritage on the planet, and in particular the built heritage.  He was very frequently employed by UNESCO to lead teams of consultants in the assessment of specific sites, and he also played an important role in efforts to lobby governments on heritage issues.  Sadly, Herb passed away last week, taken from us far too early.  But his memory will burn brightly in the minds and hearts of his many devoted friends, and above all of his students, for whom he was always willing to find time and to lend a helping hand.  Requiescat in pace.