I think I am not alone in saying that it is frustrating to be young academic at a university in a third world. Thanks to the Internet, we know that there are so many exciting studies and researches being done elsewhere. The reality that we are lagging behind has just become even clearer.

Even in the humanities, institutions elsewhere are factoring in technologies in their studies, even acknowledging the convergence, intersections and overlaps with the other fields. They have long employed trans-disciplinary researches.

But here are, continuing to dwell in Ivory Towers. We continue to claim exclusivity and authority while the rest of the world is thriving in collaboration. Some of us still even justify our pursuance of the field with our personal abhorrence for numbers and formulas.

It is 2010. And it is a damn shame if we still stick to 20th century thinking.

Check out Bennington president Liz Coleman on her call for a cross-disciplinary approach and the reinvention of liberal arts education.

Check out these other posts:

1. The English Studies Forum
2. The originality of thought
3. The Web 2.0 versus authority
4. Why bother with Internet Data?
5. No strike-outs