Scholar: a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines
An essential element, for career Foreign Service officers (FSOs) who seek to practice public diplomacy on behalf of their government overseas as best they can, is modesty.
An FSO does not expect to become an ambassador* after two years of service, the time usually spent acquiring an MA degree at US institutions of higher learning.
Similarly, at serious universities, graduate students pursuing MA degrees don't assume they'll become "scholars" unless they prove their credentials through many additional years of research and publications.
It is somewhat striking, therefore, that the nation's "first student-run organization in the field of public diplomacy" calls itself The USC Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars (APDS).
And I thought only old geezers were pretentious.
P.S. I can just see a no-nonsense employeer looking at an APDS member's résumé and wondering, "What the hell is a 'public diplomacy scholar'?'
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*Of course, incompetent political appointees make such "standards" irrelevant.
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8 comments:
Actually, the etymology of the term scholar--and scholarship--is quite different.
"[T]he word scholarship has an interesting derivation and history, and at one time was intricately intertwined with the concepts of leisure and having time available. The Greek feminine noun scolh (transliterated as schole), a root word of scholarship, means leisure, rest, ease as well as learned discussion whereas the neuter noun scolasthrion (transliterated as scholasterion), means devoting one’s leisure to learning, academic, theoretical." [Via: outreach.uconn.edu/info/definitions.doc]
In Old English, the term was scolere, meaning "student," and in Medieval and Late Latin, it was scholaris, meaning "of a school." [Via http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=scholar]
Even the definition offered here by Dr. Brown, if cited in total, would include several references to the word's natural association with the term "student."
In addition to modesty, I suppose accuracy and thoroughness are helpful for FSOs who seek to practice public diplomacy as best they can, no?
Shawn Powers
USC
Way to shake your cane, o' old PD curmudgeon.
-Paul Rockower
Communications Czar, APDS
I invite you to our serious university anytime to speak or sit in on a class. You'd be surprised what a bunch of motivated,young pretentious scholars can produce.
Congratulations Mr. Brown for being the grumpy old man who doesn't like the new neighbors who moved next door.
Mike Hallquist
USC - MPD
APDS Member
Ah, the power of new social media to enable users to hurl insults at others from the safety of their keyboards. The reasoning for making a mockery of the "first student-run organization in the field of public diplomacy" is beyond me. I'm simply unable to see how material like this helps to advance the field of public diplomacy, something that I assume we are all interested in promoting.
U.S. public diplomacy is in poor shape, as I'm sure we all recognize. But rather than mocking a group of serious students at a serious university, perhaps you should use the powers of your almighty keyboard to help promote the efforts of students who will become practioners in this field.
Who knows, perhaps these students hold the key to making public diplomacy a priority, as oppposed to the "old geezers" who've allowed the system to disintigrate into the under-funded bureaucratic joke it is today. Seems to me a bit more intellectually inspiring than pointless and counterproductive rants by elitists on the internet.
We may not be "scholars" in your eyes, but at least we understand the concept of civility and respect.
M. Wallin.
APDS Member
Master of Public Diplomacy Candidate
Serious University of Southern California
In fact, when no-nonsense employers look at the resumes of APDS members, they will see that many of us have already been published. Pretentious or not, our credentials speak for themselves.
Erin Kamler
APDS Member
Ladies & Gentlemen,
For the record, I was initially skeptical when the group was named, because I was told politely that as a post-doc studying PD (!), I was not welcome to be a member of this community - it was for the masters students. Go figure.
But let's try for a bit of perspective here. While John Brown's "serious university" may be a bit of institutional ad hominem, my read on Mr. Brown's short note strikes me as more 'amused' than a critical attack on the supposed pretentiousness of the APDS.
And there is a note of self-criticism directed at the more "established" PD community towards the end of his note.
This scholar/student definitional debate is about as useful here as the "what is/isn't PD" debate. Let's get over this, shall we? PD scholar Jan Melissen, at ISA last year in NYC, welcomed an ecumenical attitude towards PD from his students because as we all know, the stakeholders and practices of diplomacy itself are changing. This stance assumes the ability of students to be *scholars* - to creatively and attentively grapple with enduring questions about PD in new contexts. This is the right attitude towards PD education, and encourages those considering this field as a professional or scholarly endeavor to take ownership and invest in the subject.
John Brown serves a vital purpose in sustaining the dialogue, issues, and yes, controversies surrounding PD, at a time when public attention IS necessary. At the same time, the U.S. is in serious need of creative thinking on PD, requiring a fresh perspective from groups like the APDS and yes, a *serious* university like USC.
This community is small enough as it is. Let's not subdivide any further with pointless arguments that diminish the real issues.
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