The most surprising thing about being an academic has been how much of the job is evaluating other people’s work. This week’s work has involved
- grading for an undergraduate class,
- reading two minor field exams for graduate students,
- editing/reviewing nine essays for one of our publications,
- peer reviewing a journal article,
- evaluating 50+ proposals for a special issue of a journal, and
- writing a book review.
An unusual week, to be sure, but I imagine that evaluating other people’s work only takes up more time the longer one stays in the business.
That sounds like a complaint, but the redeeming feature is helping other people get their work out into the world.
