A friend wonders if this is part of a long goodbye to science…

_{Denyse O'Leary

March 4, 2015

Culture, News, Science}

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The professor of media studies, José van Dijck, has been appointed president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Academy. Van Dijck follows Hans Clevers on.

Van Dyck is a representative of the humanities again headed the association of outstanding scientists. The appointment of the Academy Clevers had previously broken with the tradition that the presidency rotates between social sciences, humanities and natural sciences. Clevers well as its predecessor Robbert Dijkgraaf are scientists. (Google Translate)

…

It is the first time that a woman in charge is at the Academy.

O’Leary for News, an arts grad and double X, is going to sit this one out.

But the rest of you, please, readers, your thoughts!

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Comments

... social media, media technologies and digital culture … journalism ...
Using the same measures this implicates that News could be part of a long goodbye to science. If only anything at UD had ever been about science.sparc_{March 5, 2015
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They have a Royal Academy of Sciences. That fine institution has a tradition of having rotating presidents from Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences. The two previous heads were Natural Scientists so her appointment was a return to the norm. I think News equates Social Sciences, Humanities with bad scholarship, or unprofessional academia. Any ideas about inclusiveness, or alternatives to what she equates as normal appear obviously wrong. (I think she is genuinely surprised when people strongly disagree with her.) These biases come up constantly in her writings. In Nth Europe there is also a tradition of the Industrial Committee. Roughly, the committee consists of equal numbers of members from Management, Design, and Workers. They agree output, safety, remuneration etc. BMW, Phillips, Siemens, Airbus, etc all have these. Would News describe this as socialist capitalism I wonder?rvb8_{March 4, 2015
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Dijck-van-José(born in 1960) researches social media, media technologies and digital culture ... She was an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Groningen and an associate professor of media and visual culture at Maastricht University.
Researching social media ... it's difficult just keeping up with Kim Kardashian's Instagram account.Silver Asiatic_{March 4, 2015
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@News:
A friend wonders if this is part of a long goodbye to science...
Tell your friend: No, it's not.JWTruthInLove_{March 4, 2015
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A female humanities professor is the Dean of my faculty, and it doesn't trouble me at all. She's a fine scholar and I'm very happy to be her deputy. I fail to see what News is driving at.Piotr_{March 4, 2015
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Just in case some one thinks José van Dijck doesn't deserve this posting:
Dijck-van-José(born in 1960) researches social media, media technologies and digital culture. She studied at Utrecht University and gained her PhD at the University of California, San Diego. She was an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Groningen and an associate professor of media and visual culture at Maastricht University. In 2001, Van Dijck became a professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She chaired the department from 2002 to 2007 and became the Dean of Humanities in 2008, a position she held until 2011. José van Dijck played a key role in the founding of CLARIAH, a consortium of humanities research institutes that includes four Academy institutes. Last year the consortium received twelve million euros from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to develop a digital infrastructure that will facilitate cross-disciplinary data mining and, eventually, data linking in support of research on major multidisciplinary issues concerning culture and social change. Van Dijck has been a visiting professor and visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Technology in Sidney, and the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Her most recent book, The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media, was published in 2013 by Oxford University Press.
Me_Think_{March 4, 2015
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I don't think you're understanding me. You ask a vague question: "is this a long goodbye to science?" and link to a story about someone becoming head of an organisation. But why should we even think that this would be a long goodbye? And a long goodbye for whom? I don't mind you not giving an answer, but would appreciate it if you at least explained the question.Bob O'H_{March 4, 2015
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What fight? What vote?wd400_{March 4, 2015
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Bob O'H: You seem not to understand. I am sitting out the vote because I have cats in the fight. I will say what I think later.News_{March 4, 2015
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Science is definitely not as cool as it was in the 90s & 00s. Losing its panache. Used to be saying "I'm a Physicist" made you a trendy nerd. These days not so much. Getting Humanities back into the rotation of leadership at the Academy is good. Maybe they will do two leadership stints in row as Science recently did. But I see it as an "ebb and flow" as opposed to a "long goodbye".ppolish_{March 4, 2015
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I'd rather not guess at your meaning: if I'm wrong I'll end up wrongly accusing you of something and I'd rather not do that. So can you explain what you intended to suggest?Bob O'H_{March 4, 2015
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Nope, Bob O'H at 1. I am going to let readers unpack it if THEY think it is troubling.News_{March 4, 2015
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It's not clear how the title relates to the article - can you explain what aspect of appointing a female humanities professor as president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is troubling?Bob O'H_{March 4, 2015
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