Academic Snobbery

[rhythmaning]

I was talking to my friend A. last week, and she mentioned that she was now attached to All Souls College, rather than Catz, where she used to be based.

Catz is a comparatively new institution, founded in 1962; All Souls is over five hundred years older, and occupies an esteemed position in British academia.

When A. told me this, I couldn’t help thinking, and saying, “You know, this may sound snobby, but being a fellow of All Souls sounds a lot better than being a fellow of Catz.”

And she replied, “That’s because it is!”

It was only afterwards that I realised I wasn’t sure if she meant All Souls or my snobbery.

And two other thoughts: if the fellows of All Souls are so smart, how come they forgot to use an apostrophe?

And whilst Catz may not be as good, it did seem appropriate for A.: her cat has had another litter of kittens, and she seemed surrounded by the animals!

Comments

[liadnan]

Well, being a Fellow of All Souls, certainly a Proper Fellow but even one of the seven year fellowships, is one of the most prestigious academic positions in the country (also significantly better remunerated, though there's a bit of a cause and effect thing there), so I suspect she did mean that.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty certain that was what she meant - but the ambiguity was there!

I was more than a little surprised at my reaction, though - which is why I wrote the post: I know quite a few academics, I was following an academic career path and I used to work with an FRS and an FRSE - and I know my friend pretty well: it was therefore a bit annoying that I thought "ooh!" when she said she'd moved!