Tom Scheinfeldt
Somehow scientists are able to support their endless diversity in three or four departments (physics, chemistry, biology) while we (no-less-diverse but much less numerous) humanists seem intent on breaking ourselves up into a hundred pieces. This is no way to assert our importance in the university and culture. You’d think people who spend so much time thinking about power would get this.
Nov 21, 2022 at 12:00pmWeb
Show threadAndromeda YeltonNov 21, 2022

@foundhistory I think MIT and its 19 departments (not counting Sloan or SHASS) would be surprised to hear this

(My STEM undergrad only had 6 departments -- plus one more for the entirety of humanities and social sciences -- but we were very tiny.)

Show threadTom ScheinfeldtNov 21, 2022
@thatandromeda I’d probably argue that STEM schools are an exception that proves the rule. I’ll also concede that it’s not universal even in “comprehensive” universities. But it’s more common than not.
Show threadAndromeda YeltonNov 21, 2022

@foundhistory I don't think so. I think it's a matter of size; when there are enough people to split, disciplines split; when there aren't, they lump (again, my tiny STEM undergrad had only one department for the whole of the humanities!)

But I also think people retain more-split disciplinary identities even when they are in a lumped population. My math professors were also topologists or bioinformaticians, you know?

And heck, my father-in-law belonged to a bio department that schismed in two.

Show threadAndromeda YeltonNov 21, 2022
@foundhistory (UConn has *four* departments which one might call "biology"!)
Show threadTom ScheinfeldtNov 21, 2022
@thatandromeda Fair point. And you can find exceptions at any university. And size most certainly matters if you’re talking about political power. Of course there are good intellectual reasons for splitting.
Show threadTom ScheinfeldtNov 21, 2022
@thatandromeda Also, at UConn, the biologists can split without consequence because they have the might of the medical school to fall back on
Show threadThanasis KiniasNov 21, 2022
@foundhistory @thatandromeda
Interestingly, my undergrad uni forced the mergers of many depts against the faculty’s protests—and this happened across the liberal arts and sciences. I’m not sure they felt that the new megadepartments gave them more power.
Show threadTeddy RolandNov 21, 2022
@foundhistory Please. Our university’s Philology Department has been throwing its weight around, and it’s making our other two Humanities departments (Philosophy and Musicology) jealous.