Momentum and Inertia in Academia

                So I have failed to live up to my previous promise of blogging more regularly. Instead of making a good excuse for it (there is one which will become clear by the end of this post) I decided to take that energy, if you will, and pour it into a long overdue blog post.

                I was texting with a colleague and dear friend of mine about two weeks ago and she mentioned how emotion is so much part of the grad student experience. I had to agree but it got me thinking of what else makes up this academic soup we wade through on a regular basis. How this emotional aspect doesn’t end at grad school, how it seemingly continues throughout the academic experience (sorry to burst bubbles for those of you who are still in grad school). I started thinking about the concept of (e)motion (I apologize for getting Derridean for a moment).  You see my lack of blogging in over a month and a half is a lack of (e)motion.  In that space of time I did not advance my work effectively via the many electronic means of networking at my disposal. 

                At a time when conflicting “the sky is falling” reports on the humanities are making the rounds and how there seems to be an emphasis on how/if a humanistic education can translate into “hard” marketable skills, let me get a bit STEM-y but only for a moment. Academia is about momentum and inertia, plain and simple. Everything else gets subsumed under that umbrella. Why do we have such trouble picking up and writing after a long period of stoppage – momentum! A body in motion tends to stay in motion, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Newton at his finest. 

                I lost momentum over the past few months; life happens and sadly that part of the equation is forgotten or deemed inconsequential. Not simply the moving of house, that’s one part, but the ultimate inertia creator – not getting your dream tenure job due to forces of momentum at an institution. Yes there is momentum at all levels. Institutions don’t like inertia, they like movement, momentum, new blood pumping in the veins. 

               Slowly one must shake off the shackles of inertia and give yourself that push in a certain direction. You have to be your own force (oh this post has a random Star Wars reference) because if you don’t then you will always be Sisyphus (and classical references as well!). 

               Sometimes the best way to get towards that academic momentum, pattern, and productivity is through actively working on your (e)motion. We are lucky as scholars to have at our disposal great means to network and build our learning communities. It is not a judgement-free zone to be sure, but it is one that is slowly becoming more accessible to all scholars, at all levels. I could easily segue here into one of the topics I hold near and dear as a continuing education instructor, which is accessibility and information literacy for adult learners, but this post is not about that.

                This post is about how momentum is rewarded and inertia is not. This post is about how momentum is a very necessary, essential part of what we do every day. As an academic who is very invested in ethical pedagogical strategies I always maintain my teaching momentum, even when everything else is seemingly inert. What needs more work, and I know I am not the only one here, is to continue that momentum to all aspects of our lives (academic, personal, etc.).  In physics the equation for work is:

  W=Fd

(Work=Force * displacement in the direction the force is applied)

               

Lucky for us we are also filled with Potential Energy. This Potential Energy can also be expressed in relation to work where:

W=-ΔU

(Work= - Change in potential energy)

See who says the humanities does not have STEM applications. It is very easy to fall into that inertia, especially in the summer when there are so many things to distract us – the weather, holidays, festivals. We let our potential energy stagnate, we do not do any work.  

             So I propose that anyone who finds themselves in this inertia – take baby steps, maybe start with your (e)motion. Put something out there, discuss with a colleague on Twitter, read that article that has been collection e-dust on your hard drive.   Any force can break the inertia and bring on work. You just have to push in the right direction. 

             And oh, don’t be so hard on yourself either. We have all been there, just have to remember why you are doing this in the first place, and why it matters – because it does!