’Write fewer papers, take more risks’: researchers call for ’rebellion’

Student performing on rigging at the University of Stockholm's 'Department of Circus', which explores different disciplines through circus arts. Credit: Joakim Björklund A group of education specialists are urging researchers to challenge the -structures and regulations- which define academic scholarship, arguing that different approaches are needed in an age of climate change, COVID-19 and rising populism. -Nobody is claiming that academic writing is pointless, but why is it the norm? If we want research to address the biggest challenges facing society, we need academics to have the confidence - in a sense the permission - to depart radically from it. We need to be braver and take more risks with what we do. Pamela Burnard The appeal is the starting point for a new book which questions prevailing orthodoxies in academia. Its editors, who are four academics based in Britain and Australia, invite university staff to -rise up and rebel- against these conventions. They attack the assumption that the main output of research should be papers for scholarly journals, describing this as the -boring stuff- of their profession, which often undermines its quality and public value.