there’s too much arrogance in academia... I always find restraint
and modesty marvelous qualities in a first-rate scholar.”
Authenticity,which often goes hand in hand with audacity, is also
singled out as a valued trait. Panelists appreciate applicants who are
true to themselves, even if that means pursuing less popular paths.
For instance, a sociologist says of his favorite applicant, “I appreci-
ated her willingness to take on a very risky project, but [one] that
potentially had a huge payoff in terms of reshaping or fundamentally
challenging the received view on Japanese politics, and hence on
comparative politics about advanced industrial societies.” He com-
pares her to those who succumb to the pressures to reproduce the
work of their advisers and are slaves to “what is hot.” A well-known
and highly regarded historian speaks regretfully of the “very clear vi-
sion of career” that he sees as animating “the current generation.”
Similarly, referring to the “sterility of professionalization,” an English
professor explains:
Students very much begin to pick up early in their career how
they have to signal to different interest groups that they are of
their persuasion...Thestudents that I’ve been most excited
about and whose work I learn the most from are those who really
are passionately attached to an author, to a subject, to a problem.
And it shows, it shows in their writing, it shows in how ultimately
fearless they are in pursuing a track...SowhenI’monpanels,
those are [some] of the things I immediately [look for]...sortof
originality and a distinct sense of engagement. [Others] make me
feel that I’m kind of in an echo chamber, that there’s no original
sound that I feel that I’ve experienced.Authenticity is especially central in the accounts of the Society of
Fellows panelists. One philosopher, pointing to the sincerity of a
winner’s intellectual engagement, notes that this applicant had “a
Recognizing Various Kinds of Excellence / 197