Monday, January 6
The Droves of Academe But as Mr. Greenblatt tried to demonstrate the warm fuzzy openness of a field long written off for its remote, abstract self-absorption, fear still rumbled under the surface of the convention. Much of it stemmed from the fact that academic presses, the profession?s organ for self-expression?and for anointing the next generation?are in serious danger. Funding cutbacks have taken their predictable toll. Inter-library loan systems now mean that libraries buy single copies of academic books, while professors routinely Xerox course pack materials rather than asking their students to buy expensive volumes. And after decades of steadily increasing expectations about scholarly productivity, there?s a glut of books about the narrowest and most specialized of subjects?books that might professionally appeal to only a small handful of an author?s colleagues. Some presses are cutting their humanities lines, leaving fewer and fewer spots for which prospective scholars must compete.
