Penny Gold: For three people thrown together by chance, it’s interesting that we all have spent part of our lives at the Univers

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问题 Penny Gold: For three people thrown together by chance, it’s interesting that we all have spent part of our lives at the University of Chicago—me as an undergraduate student, John Komlos as a graduate student, and John Goldsmith as a professor. And the three of us are close in age and in the types of disciplines chosen—I am also a historian, with additional graduate training in literature and art history. A large difference among us, however, is that my teaching career has been primarily at a small liberal arts college(Knox College), an institution that puts its strongest emphasis on teaching, even while research is encouraged and expected. I’m also female and began my career during a period of time in which women were just beginning to enter academia in significant numbers; this has been a formative influence on my life in the academy and in my attitudes toward it.
I entered graduate school without a clear commitment to professional training. In the fall term of my senior year, I was suddenly caught up in my studies by a serendipitous concatenation of courses in medieval studies and cultural history, and I just wanted to keep learning. It happened that Stanford, where I chose to go, was giving full funding for four years to all entering history graduate students at that time(thanks to generous funding from the Ford Foundation, which was—unsuccessfully, it turns out—-trying to speed completion of Ph. D. s), so I paid nothing for my graduate education, nor did I have to go into debt. The first year of graduate school was quite a shock, and if I had been spending thousands of dollars of my own money, I’m not sure I would have stayed in school. But in the end, I was very glad the financial support enticed me to stay, helping me through a rough transition. While Stanford then gave its graduate students no instruction in teaching(a situation now changed), I had the good fortune to experience excellent mentoring while I was there, and unlike John Komlos and John Goldsmith, I learned a great deal during graduate school about how the academy works. My advisor was beginning his first job as a professor in the same year I began graduate school, and I learned much from him about the demands, pleasures, and precariousness of academic life. Another professor I worked closely with was denied tenure while I was in my third year; I contributed a letter to her successful appeal and learned a good deal about academic values and processes along the way. I was at Stanford in the early years of the women’s movement(1969—1974), and my involvement in the History Graduate Students Women’s Caucus was also a crucial learning experience. The department at Stanford had only one female professor at the time, a Harvard Ph. P. who, because of nepotism rules(her husband had a position in another department), was limited to a non-tenure-track adjunct appointment. When this woman resigned, the Women’s Caucus organized an effort to persuade the department to hire a woman for a tenure-track appointment. We talked, we wrote letters, and we succeeded. Another student and I were members of the search committee that resulted. I think I learned more about how the academy works, and how one can work to change it, in that one year than in many of the rest. Also, within this early cohort of women in the academy, there was a strong sense of solidarity, amongst both graduate students and faculty, within and across institutions. We knew we needed to figure out all we could about academic institutions and procedures in order to make it as newcomers, and we helped each other out as best we could. Often without access to the "old boy" networks, we founded "new girl" networks, and these have been a crucial source of support, comfort, and help to me over the years.
From Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career

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答案 我没有经过任何专业的培训,就进入了研究生院。在大四的秋季学期,由于中世纪研究和文化历史课程的一些机缘巧合,我突然沉迷于我的一些研究之中,我只想一直学习下去。正好那时我选择的斯坦福大学给所有考入历史专业的研究生以四年的全额资助,(福特基金给予慷慨的资助以加快读完士学位——虽然并不成功),所以读研究生我没花什么钱,也没有不得已去背负债务。读研究生的第一年给了我很大的打击,要是我花的是自己的数千美元,我可能在学校早就待不下去了。但到最后,很高兴的是学校财政上的支持诱使我留了下来,度过了那个艰难的过渡期。那时候斯坦福不给研究生提供任何教学上的指导(现在情况已经变了),不过我在学校的时候,很幸运接受了出色的指导。而且与约翰?孔洛斯以及约翰?戈德史密斯不一样,在研究院期间,我学到了很多学院运作的东西。我的导师第一次接受教授的工作和我读研究生是在同一年,我从他那里了解到了很多关于学术生活的繁琐要求、欢笑喜悦以及波澜曲折。在第三年的时候,另一个和我紧密合作的导师申请终身教职被拒,我给她去了一封信,感谢这一路来给我的启发,让我学了很多关于学术价值以及学术过程的东西。在斯坦福的那几年,正好是妇女运动发展的初期,我参与到了历史研究生女性小组,这也是一个很重要的学习体验。那时,斯坦福大学的部门中只有一个女性教授,她是哈佛大学的博士生,由于裙带关系的规定(她丈夫在另一个部门任职),她只能担任非长期的附属职位。她辞职后,女性小组就努力劝说那个部门雇佣一个长期任职的女性职员。我们找他们谈话,给他们写信,最后我们成功了。我和另一个学生成了后来成立的招聘委员会成员。在那一年,我知道了学院是怎样运作的以及一个人怎么可以对它产生改变,这比我任何其他的时间学到的都要多。在研究生院早期的这群女性中,不管是研究生和职员之间,学院内部之间还是和其他学院之间,大家都是团结一致。我们知道我们需要弄清楚学院的规程,目的是将它当作新生者来看待,我们尽最大努力互相帮助脱离困境。经常在没有“老男孩儿”人际网的情况下,我们找到了“新女孩儿”人际网,这些都是赢得支持的重要资源,帮助我顺利度过了这一年。 选自《芝加哥学术生活导航》

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