SCHOLARSHIP SELF-EVALUATION



SCHOLARSHIP SELF-EVALUATION

(Spring 2007)

Ronald F. White, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

College of Mount St. Joseph

I am certainly honored to have been nominated for the Mount St. Joseph Established Scholar Award. I asked Rich Haubner, Ed Sankowski, and James Fetzer to write on my behalf. Although I am not exactly sure how to go about self-evaluating my “scholarship,” I’ll do my best.

First of all, I have never thought of scholarship as something that I have to do in order to get promoted. I read journals and books, write essays, and participate in conferences because I enjoy it! If there was no scholarship requirement for tenure and promotion at MSJ, my vitae would look the same as it does today. If I had unlimited faculty development resources and less onerous teaching responsibilities, I’d probably attend 4-5 conferences a year. I’ve been invited to attend several conferences in Europe, but alas . . . economic reality tends to trump self-interest.

In terms of self-evaluation, I don’t know where to begin, so how about some crass quantitative analysis? I’ll go back about 20 years. Since then, I’ve accumulated about 25 refereed essays that appear in scholarly journals and books. The vast majority are between 25 and 50 pages long. Almost all of them address complex issues in science and medicine and all of them are interdisciplinary and probably controversial. It is fair to say that I was an interdisciplinary scholar long before it became fashionable. I also have about 75 short book reviews published in Choice Magazine; where I serve 2 different editors: one in philosophy and one in science. I also have 2 book reviews in other top journals. I am also a peer reviewer for a few top flight journals and textbook publishing companies. Over the years I’ve also published 4 encyclopedia articles, most recently the entry on “libertarianism,” for the Encyclopedia of Business, Ethics, and Society. My two most recent publications appear in an economics journal. Check out the diversity of my publications on my vitae at .

In terms of a qualitative self-assessment, I guess it’s fair to say that most of my peers respect what I do (whatever it is?), and a few do not. That’s probably because I routinely take on controversial and divisive topics such as euthanasia, assassination, stem cell research, anti-aging medicine, drug advertising, and institutional review boards. My propensity to cross disciplines also tends to irritate some traditional scholars. Admittedly I know just barely enough about philosophy, history, political science, medicine, economics, and evolutionary biology to engage in scholarly debate, but not enough to be a real expert. I am, however, an expert at breaking down artificial borderlines between disciplines and staking out common ground. Many of my staunchest critics are my best friends. Finally, even my critics will admit that I’m an especially clear and logical thinker and writer and that I’m good at penetrating obscurantism. A couple of years ago I was asked to referee an impenetrable article on semiotics for a communications journal. It was not only a bad article, but I also discovered that it had already been published in another journal: one that the author edited.

Every year, I present one or two papers and/or organize research sessions at national or international conferences. Lots of variety here too, conferences on: history, philosophy, political science, Alzheimer’s, medicine, etc. Since 1999, I have been an active member of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. It’s a great group of interdisciplinary scholars comprised of political scientists, evolutionary psychologists, philosophers, and policy wonks. After 911, our many of conference participants were called to Washington, especially our resident experts on bioterrorism. Our meetings include sessions that address a wide variety of topics such as: the evolutionary foundations of politics, environmentalism, war and violence, biopolicy (stem cell research etc.) and bioethics. At our 2006 meeting, the APLS president asked me if I could arrange to have our 2007 meeting in Cincinnati. Rich Haubner, Mike Sontag, and I are working on that now.

In terms of qualitative assessment, I would say that I’ve organized some outstanding research panels for the APLS, and most of what I’ve presented has been published. A couple of years ago, I organized two sessions on anti-aging medicine that was acknowledged on the website for the prestigious journal Science, and the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine published my summary of those sessions.

Admittedly, I’m not a particularly gifted orator, but I am an extremely intuitive scholar, a well-organized presenter, and I always get my point across. Thanks to my penchant for book reviewing, I think I am extraordinarily well-read on a variety of esoteric topics. Some of my friends, however, would probably say that I’m a highly skilled “bullshit artist.”

If there is an obvious weakness in my scholarship, it is the fact that I haven’t published a full-length book since I arrived at MSJ. I do have three rough drafts that I’ve been working on. I’ve been using them (piecemeal) in my classes: an introduction to philosophy textbook, an ethics textbook, and a business ethics textbook. This summer I hope to finish one or two of these. But right now I’m finishing up a 50 page chapter for a book on assassination that’s due in February.

As for the future, I intend to focus on promoting libertarianism as a philosophical and moral doctrine. I do believe that human beings and other primates are programmed for both communal relationships and self-direction. Coercive social and political institutions that undermine our personal decision-making and our ability to voluntarily enter and/or exit from relationships with other humans pose an immediate threat to all of us. I’m one of the very few scholars that write on the relationship between liberty and science.

In conclusion, I think I’ve been a pretty productive scholar over the years, and a good academic citizen: especially in light of my typically onerous teaching load. Every semester, I teach 4-5 different undergraduate courses, all with different preps. I also teach in two different MSJ graduate programs. I teach Health Care Policy for the MSN program and Ethical Issues in Organizations for the MSOL program. That explains why most of my research has been produced on the weekends, holidays, and during the summer: usually early in the morning.

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