Learning to discuss

“When I was a doctoral student, we had one doctoral seminar, which was likely the most painful seminar I took as a student. There were five of us, and we were assigned one paper at the very top of our field. Each week, we would meet and one of us would be assigned a paper to discuss, peel open, critique—but the expectation was that we would also read all the other four papers. So that we could discuss, contribute, ask questions that the person who was assigned to do it had missed and ask his understanding of what they thought about it. It was painful because these papers did not often open themselves on first sight. It required a bit of time to get into it—and you had to be able to discuss the merits and critique it. But that course has given me so much. There was only limited time, so you had to be efficient. The most valuable skill I took away was that I can read an academic text and on the first read get to the guts of it and comment on it. When I supervise, when I referee, when I do any of these tasks, this has been a huge time-saver. It was painful while it lasted, but it really paid dividends. When we get into academic jobs, a big part of that is reading other people’s work and provide feedback on it.”

(Timo Korkeamäki)