Loading...I sometimes get asked what it is that professors in universities actually do. The question is usually raised when someone realizes that at a major research university, most professors teach two classes a semester. Classes tend to involve three hours of class time per week. But that means a professor is in the classroom only six hours a week. Is this a full time job? Are you serious?? And on top of that you have tenure so that you can, for all practical purposes, never get fired? Hey how can *I* get a job like that???
It’s a really good question. First let me say something about what it is professors do, maybe in a couple of posts, and then say something about tenure.
As it turns out, being a full-time professor is a boatload of work. I won’t say that it’s more than a lot of other busy and highly demanding occupations – a lot of you, I’m sure, work just as hard and long as I do. But it *is* a busy and highly demanding occupation. If teaching undergraduates six hours a week were the only thing it involved, it would indeed be a doddle after the first few years and one’s classes were set up and running smoothly. But, well, it ain’t like that.
The thing to stress is that a research university position presupposes doing research. And that’s where a lot (not nearly all) of the time goes. Research involves staying on top of one’s field by reading all the books and articles that come out on whatever one is supposed to be staying on top of; it involves doing special research on whatever one is trying to produce by way of scholarship for publication; it involves on the more mundane level – for ancient historians like me – staying on top of ancient and modern languages that need to be used in research; and it involves lots of other things (such as supervising the research of graduate students – which means knowing what they themselves are working on; and reading the work of colleagues; and writing letters of recommendation for students and colleagues; and lots of still other things)
Moreover, if one is working in a PhD program, the hours in the classroom bear very little relation to the time one spends with students, since graduate students take up a great deal of time for all sorts of reasons involving the directing of their research, and mentoring, and teaching pedagogy, and lots of other things.
Anyway, just to give you a sense of a “day in the life,” let me tell you what today was like for me. This is a completely typical Monday.
Up at 6:30. After I….
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Absolute gold, Prof. Ehrman. I have been wanting to go into academia as an historian of modernity for many years and this provides an excellent snapshot of what I should expect if I got as far as yourself one day. Thanks for compiling this.
Dr Ehrman: I think if I had a day this intense I would hang myself…..Good luck to you….
It’s not a life for everyone!
This is the second post like this I’ve read today. A Facebook friend at a research university was talking about letters of reference and peer reviews due today. I actually got an outside grant to finish the manuscript for a book based on my dissertation, and so am on research leave this semester, giving me plenty of scope to be annoying to my academic friends if I choose.
Of course, in practice, there are still some non-research tasks. Undergraduate research is a major thing these days, and so I am keeping tabs on at least one undergraduate research project for a student with ambitious but achievable grad school and career plans in Middle East Studies. This I feel compelled to do as the only Middle East person at my institution. Even in terms of the classroom teaching, I feel you really underestimate the demands of teaching-focused jobs. Grading essays takes up quite a bit of time, as can advising.
It also sounds like you do a great job mentoring Ph.D. students. Kudos to that; not everyone does, by any means.
One more reminder as to why after receiving my M.A. in philosophy I exited stage left and went to medical school (UNC). Medical school is about jumping through hoops, not independent scholarship. I teach full time and am on call a lot, and don’t get a lot of rest, but I don’t think what I do is nearly as fascinating. In fact more often than not, it is mostly repetitive.
So glad I found you in the Great Courses and now have read all your amazing books. Hope to cross paths some day.
Cordially,
Brooks
P.S.
As an Asbury College graduate I will always remain rather puzzled as to why I did not learn anything about the history of the Old and New Testaments. Unfortunately their approach was rather insular and parochial.
I know you frequently make reference to your undergrads at UNC regarding their lack of knowledge of the bible, however, I think if you were lecturing to Asbury graduates you wouldn’t be anymore impressed.
A fun read, and it reminded me of the two year period I spent living next door to a French professor at the University of California at Irvine. His name was Richard Regosin, and he was a scholar of Montaigne. We used to jog several miles a day and talk about literature. Wonderful fellow. I don’t think, however, that he worked as hard as you, and by the extent of his literary output, he didn’t. We took long runs in the morning during the summer when I was off, and had the most wonderful time reciting poetry by heart to each other. I had around 20 sonnets of Shakespeare committed to memory and he had volumes of French poetry that he recited as well. I think you are one of the hardest working professors that I have ever known. I know a few professors since I finished 268 college credits. I was a professional student for 10 years. Completed three masters degrees, but no PHD. Thanks for sharing your day. It is quite amazing what you manage to accomplish.
Showing what your working life is like puts flesh to the otherwise vague term “research professor”. Thanks for sharing.
I can’t help wondering whether graduate students who study under an agnostic, non-theistic (but expert!) professor are more likely than others to drift away from Christianity themselves. If only because they’ve seen the *possibility* of someone’s caring enough about this to make it his life’s work, and excel at it, without accepting the doctrines.
I really don’t know. So far as I know, all of my Christian students have stayed Christian and all my agnostic/atheist students have stayed atheist and agnostic.
This may sound a little strange but in the several years since I’ve begun studying early Christianity from an historical point of view, beginning with a set of some of your courses I’ve become more religious, although not in an orthodox Christian way. Several years ago I would have said I was a curious agnostic or atheist depending upon one’s definition but now I would say that I am a very liberal Christian, one that has a good grip on the what the bible is and is not and how early Christianity developed the traditions that make up most of that we call “Christianity” today. So I’m becoming a Jesus-the-teacher fan and my idea of god lurks somewhere in physics and cosmology and not a personal deity that saves little kids from cancer.
Oh I suspect .. when I interviewed for graduate school admission at Berkeley as ONLY a Research Assistant to a professor in my field … well, I was dizzy by the end of the litany of tasks waiting to be performed AS AN ASSISTANT. Is there still a lot of pressure to publish and thus “advertise” the Univ??
There’s LOTS of pressure to publish, but it’s not so much to promote the university as to ensure that the faculty are active research scholars in their fields.
I’m exhausted Dr. just reading about your day.
“But we cannot compete with wealthier schools when it comes to providing salaries and perks to our graduate students (perks such as funding to allow them to go to academic conferences, or to undertake travel necessary for their research, and so on). Dr. B.
You have beautiful weather. Over 2 billion in endowments. (It ain’t Harvard’s 32 + but it ain’t bad!) Outstanding basketball.
And guess what else? Somebody that goes by the name Dr. Bart Ehrman figures in to the equation, majorly. Trust me on this one Dr., you are worth a lot of money to UNC’s religion and liberal arts schools. They know it, too.
Well, the basketball doesn’t hurt! (I’m a bit fan…)
Wow that is very inspirational Sir. It makes me want to finish up all my school. I’m right in the middle of being here, nor there in my major of religious studies. Haha. I’m a type A personality and I get board real quick. So I worked the streets for about 10 years as a peace officer and before that 7 years on a emergency ambulance. I got hurt very bad not too long ago- shattered my spine. Basically, I now have the chance, on the good side of life, to get finished up in school and take things as far as I can down the road. I’ve been an avid follower of your work for about 7 years and it has provided me with a solid foundation. Thanks for everything you do in the field of study. It’s just an amazing time to be alive personally for one simple reason and that is for folks like me to be able to learn from all the hard work you have put into the field. I love working up investigations (as a cop I did a *lot* of them). Studying ancient historical and textual criticisms of the past has provided me with a much needed element in my life for the future. Thanks for all you do! Cheers and have a good day
Kevin Buchanan
It is interesting and varied.
Going beyond a typical day, do you need to write grants, say for supporting your students?
No, not in the humanities usually. Students do apply for scholarships and grants, and I write letters in support; but the only things I actually have to write for myself are rare fellowship applications (maybe once every three or four years, to get an additional semester or year sabbatical) (it’s very hard to get these — it’s not like the sciences where people are expected to get them, and do get them.)
That’s what I thought. Research without grants – that sounds wonderful. Another difference between the physical sciences and the humanities might be that science faculty only teach one course per semester, whereas it sounds like you teach two. I know you said you didn’t get any research done for this day, but you did spend about 2 hours on your own professional development studying the literature. I count that as part of research. Also, it was good how your teaching was spent working with your students “in combat” instead of simply you working at the board. I’m trying to change how I teach to do more of the same.
Best regards,
Douglass Schumacher.
Dear Ehrman,
How do you manage your family and social life?
How many hours do you regularly put into work every month?
This is an inspiration.
//Andreas
It’s very difficult. There are 168 hours in a week and I spend about 190 of them on work, it seems. I’m “working” (!) to cut it way back.