What Is a Scholarly Persona? Ten Theses on Virtues, Skills, and Desires

Abstract

What is the problem that “epistemic virtues” seek to solve? This article argues that virtues, epistemic and otherwise, are the key characteristics of “scholarly personae,” that is, of ideal‐typical models of what it takes to be a scholar. Different scholarly personae are characterized by different constellations of virtues and skills or, more precisely, by different constellations of commitments to goods (epistemic, moral, political, and so forth), the pursuit of which requires the exercise of certain virtues and skills. Expanding Hayden White's notion of “historiographical styles” so as to encompass not only historians' writings, but also their nontextual “doings,” the article argues that different styles of “being a historian”—a meticulous archival researcher, an inspired feminist scholar, or an outstanding undergraduate teacher—can be analyzed productively in terms of virtues and skills. Finally, the article claims that virtues and skills, in turn, are rooted in desires, which are shaped by the examples of others as well as by promises of reward. This makes the scholarly persona not merely a useful concept for distinguishing among different types of historians, but also a critical tool for analyzing why certain models of “being a historian” gain in popularity, whereas others become “old‐fashioned.”

The Virtue of a Historian: A Dialogue Between Herman Paul and Chinese Theorists of History

“…In this way, scholarly personae form professional role identities ("mold the self"). 55 Therefore, historians are entangled in different "I-positions," a complicated network of instances and multiple relations with the past-not only epistemic, but also moral and aesthetic. 56 The multidimensionality of scholarly personae, in turn, runs the risk of blurring the border between domains of the epistemic and the moral.…”

Constructing the persona of a Professional Historian. On Eileen Power's early career persona formation and her year in Paris, 1910-1911

“…In the introduction, they discuss the concept of persona as collective, ideal-type repertoires of scientific being, and consider the role of personas as intermediaries between the personal and institutional (Daston & Sibum 2003). Since then, the Dutch historian Herman Paul has further contributed to the study of persona by analysing the scholarly and epistemic virtues of historians (Paul 2014).…”

Cartesianos o hermeneúticos: El memorial académico como forma de autobiografía docente en Brasil.

“…Esa tensión, según Waizbort (1998, p. 77-78), sería el resultado de las condiciones constitutivas del conocimiento cartesiano en la búsqueda de la diferenciación del saber científico (en el cual prevalece la regla de la doctrina primus, stilus ultimus), en relación a la narrativa literaria (moldeada por la regla stilus primus, doctrina ultimus), y que en las ciencias sociales es reivindicada por la distinción entre "tratado" y "ensayo". Las inquietudes sobre las fronteras entre saber científico y narrativa literaria han sido punto de inflexión en diversos autores de diferentes áreas, como en que ofrecen ideas prometedoras sobre el desempeño del investigador como performance en el interior de la ciencia (Daston y Sibum (2003), que problematizan de manera bastante original las determinaciones del campo histórico sobre el desarrollo de habilidades y perspectivas intelectuales de los historiadores (Paul, 2014), que buscan caracterizar modelos de escritura autobiográfica entre historiadores (Aurell, 2008). En el ámbito específico de la Antropología, se ha consolidado el concepto de "autoetnografía", mediante la explicitación de la dimensión autobiográfica en la actividad etnográfica (James, y James, 1986;Fischer y Marcus, 2003).…”