Academic Prima Donnas

Yesterday afternoon, I went to Princeton to take in part of a one-day conference. It turned out that the conference had been organized by a fellow graduate student who submitted an essay to a collection of articles on sexuality that I co-edited. I thought it wuld be appropriate to go up and meet the guy. But when I introduced myself to this person, though, he seemed rather bashful and proceeded to tell me that he was not going to put that essay on his cv for a couple of years so as not to offend potentially conservative members of job-search committees. It's his right to construct his cv as he wishes and to do what he can to find a job. But his sense of audience was clearly out of whack. Moreover, he then seemed somehow to crow about the fact that he was on a first name basis with one of the more prominent scholars on sexuality, who also has an essay in our collection. I got the distinct sense that he could perform shame or pride in having been part of our collection depending on whom he was addressing. What a piece of work.