Kirsti Niskanen - Gender, Embodiment, and the History of the Scholarly Persona Incarnations and Contestations

Cover image: courtesy of Helsinki University Museum

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A book by scholars about scholarly identities , past and present, is most welcome. Such a rich project prompts many responses, some autobiographical, others historiographical, but all reflective, and productively so. As the essays in this volume indicate, there are myriad possibilities for deepening our research into knowledge production so as to take account of the complex psychological and cultural factors at play . We have the chance to generate more sophisticated understanding of what it means to produce knowledge, both for those who are makers and all the other groups that have an investment in the process. The potential sources are close to infinite, and, in addition to those contained in libraries and archives, they include portraits, films, medals, clothing and accessories, hairstyles, indeed any phenomenon that is eloquent about the forms of decorum that scholarly environments promote, take for granted and police. Historians will also want to reflect upon the ways in which poetry, plays , and novels express common understandings of scholarly life while actively contributing to such views. All aspects of professional settings are of potential relevance. Just over my own career I have witnessed marked changes in the dress deemed appropriate for academic women from a setting in the early 1980s where I was advised to wear a skirt or dress, especially for meetings, through power dressing to what I take to have been a more laissez-faire mood in the 2010s where jeans are common attire. These are far from trivial matters. As the contributors suggest there is much work that is being done by modes of self-presentation, forms of sociability, and the defining features of working relationships.

But it may be wise to put the brakes on for a moment and consider the many resonances of scholar and its cognates. The term can suggest someone who is academic, that is, interested in and committed to the production of reliable knowledge. Scholars, typically, are studious beings, dedicated to learning, often in a bookish sort of way. The very word bookish alerts us to the potential for scholar to be used in a pejorative way, just as much as it can be a term of description or approbation. As a result of its bookish connotations, scholar is often associated with the humanities, more than other domains, and can hint at dryness, seclusion, the worlds of libraries and archives, rather than laboratories, clinics, or the outdoors. These are mobile, historically wrought associations. Isaac Newton was certainly a scholar, those undertaking experimental work in the twenty-first century less obviously so. In practice, knowledge-making takes many forms that defy stereotypes. Charles Lyell, the influential geologist, had worked as a lawyer and undertook extensive fieldwork; he came from a wealthy family, studied classics at Oxford, was well-read and capable of writing eloquently. The notion of fieldwork is important here since it suggests forms of dynamism, adventurousness, and energy that can easily be construed as in tension with scholarly ideals and with gender norms. Some of those who undertook extensive work in the field did not have Lyells advantages; they might earn a living from practical activities such as surveying. Hence to probe scholarly identities is to raise questions about changing conceptions and experiences of both class and gender. In a number of settings (public lectures, for instance) such peopleprivileged men and women , those of both sexes from more humble backgroundsinteracted with one another. As a result, identities were shaped in a dynamic fashion. There is much evidence, especially for the nineteenth century onwards, about the ways in which people managed themselves and others perceptions of them. Persona is one of the concepts that helps us to think about such matters. As these essays show, there are instances where individuals and groups are fully aware of what they are doingthe fabrication of the mathematician Nicolas Bourbaki is an obvious example (Chapter ).