Academia needs public academics
Many academics get annoyed by their colleagues who engage with the public. This could be writing op-eds, doing TED talks, advising think tanks, doing media interviews, and writing books that are accessible to the public.
Before diving into analysis, let鈥檚 define some terms. We can call academics who聽诲辞苍鈥檛聽engage with the public, 鈥渢raditional academics鈥� and academics who听诲辞聽engage with the public, 鈥減ublic academics.鈥� I use the term 鈥減ublic academic鈥� instead of 鈥減ublic intellectual鈥� because public intellectuals can be聽outside聽of academia. For example, public intellectuals can be journalists, podcasters, writers, etc., with an intellectual approach. I want to focus on the distinction inside of academia.
Traditional academics get annoyed by public academics for three main reasons: for selling out, wasting time or doing work that isn鈥檛 serious. Here鈥檚 why none of these reasons make sense:
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