Scholarship Against Desire

"Where is your heart in this work?" I often pose this question to faculty candidates I'm interviewing after they share their scholarly agenda. A depressing proportion seems baffled by the question. One refreshingly honest candidate answered: "It's not." He had started his career writing about a topic he was passionate about, but had concluded that it hurt his marketability. So he switched, and his stock went up.

"Now I'm just solving an intellectual puzzle," he said. And in the same breath: "It's business."