Honoring danah boyd. You know it makes sense.
Mar 1st 2008NiaLLLarkinUncategorized & danah boyd & honorary doctorate
What no, danah boyd?
danah boyd will not be at SXSW, ETech and CHI this year.
What could possibly be keeping her away?
Is it a family thing? Something personal? No. She has to write up her dissertation.
Emperor’s new clothes
It’s a kind of absurdity. A kind of reverse ‘emperor’s new clothes’. We all know that danah has achieved natural social rank for her outstanding contributions to the field. We know that rank is admired by many ‘more qualified’ academics who regularly cite her work.
When an honor is a curse…
It IS a good idea to honor people for their work. But when doing so we have to consider the most appropriate way to do it. At its most basic, its counterproductive to interrupt someone’s work flow when they are doing a good job.
But this case is exceptional…
Encouraging danah to stop doing her work in the most effective way she knows how and to change tack to using a less effective process (ie writing a dissertation) doesn’t make sense.
It’s like saying
‘We want to recognize your exceptional effectiveness. But in order for us to do so we first insist you drop you existing work practices. In their stead we want you to adopt work practices that are anything but exceptional. Its true that this will prevent you from making effective contribution to the community for quite some time. Ehhmm…but that’s the way we work. (And possibly why you have been more effective than us in the first place) I know that may seem absurd and it probably is but… ehhhmm… that’s just the way we do things’
What to do about it…
Of course, danah’s case is exceptional and universities can’t make new rules for every new and exceptional case. But that’s okay. The universities already have a mechanism for overcoming such absurdities. The honorary doctorate.
I wonder is there a dynamic, progressive university looking at this disconnect right now?
What better way to mark your university out than to show that you recognize outstanding merit. Do the community a favor. Confer danah boyd with the honorary doctorate she deserves. ASAP.