| Title | Brought to You by Your Friendly Campus Medievalist |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Lee Templeton (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.21983/P3.0205.1.25 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-ballad-of-the-lone-medievalist/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Templeton, Lee |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2018-08-23 |
| Long abstract | I have been a lone medievalist for eight years — longer than some, but not nearly as long as many in our profession. Some-times, when I am introducing myself to new faculty members or participating in one of the countless academic rituals that require an introduction and declaration of specialty, I am tempted to ac-knowledge my lone medievalist status after stating my name. As a way of giving an account of myself, I think this would be highly effective. Not only does it provide the necessary identifying in-formation, but its similarity to the ritualized language of some twelve-step programs would alert my colleagues to the nature of my situation. “Ah,” they would whisper to each other. “That ex-plains quite a bit. At least he can admit he needs help.” Of course, being a lone medievalist is not a condition for which one needs to seek treatment, despite what our colleagues may sometimes think. Yet, many of us who are lone medievalists have, at one time in our career or another, felt as if we are suffering from some sort of affliction that isolates us from the rest of our col-leagues and causes us to be misunderstood by those with whom we share our academic lives. Such was certainly my experience as I began my tenure-track position at a small, private, liberal arts college, and, I must say, it initially threw me for quite a loop. |
| Page range | pp. 281–288 |
| Print length | 8 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |