How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment

Michele Lamont's ethnographic study takes readers inside the evaluation process used by academic funding panels to award fellowships and grants. Through direct observation and interviews with panelists across multiple disciplines, she documents how scholars make decisions about excellence and merit in academia. The book examines the complex dynamics between different academic fields and how disciplinary cultures influence judgment. Lamont analyzes how panels navigate disagreements, manage diversity considerations, and attempt to reach consensus despite varying standards of evaluation across humanities and social science disciplines. Emotional aspects of evaluation emerge alongside cognitive ones, as panel members wrestle with questions of fairness, inclusion, and their own potential biases. The research reveals the human factors and social dimensions that shape supposedly objective assessments of scholarly merit. This examination of academic gatekeeping provides insight into how knowledge hierarchies are constructed and maintained within universities. The work raises fundamental questions about objectivity, merit, and power in intellectual communities.

Readers note this book offers unique insights into how academic panels evaluate research proposals and make funding decisions. Many appreciate the detailed examination of how reviewers define concepts like "originality" and "excellence" across different disciplines. Specific praise focuses on Lamont's insider access to panel deliberations and her analysis of how personal, institutional, and disciplinary biases affect funding outcomes. Multiple reviewers highlighted the value for early-career academics in understanding these evaluation processes. Common criticisms include: limited scope (focuses mainly on humanities/social sciences), overemphasis on methodology details, and dense academic writing style. Some readers wanted more practical advice for grant applicants. Ratings: Goodreads: 3.8/5 (48 ratings) Amazon: 4.1/5 (22 ratings) JSTOR: 4/5 (12 reviews) Sample review: "Valuable behind-the-scenes look at peer review, but gets bogged down in sociological jargon at times. Most useful for academics seeking grants." - Goodreads reviewer

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📚 Author Michele Lamont conducted 81 in-depth interviews with professors serving on fellowship selection panels, offering unprecedented access to how scholarly decisions are actually made. 🎓 The book reveals that humanities professors tend to value creativity and originality more highly than social science professors, who place greater emphasis on methodology and clarity. 🌟 Despite being about academic judgment, the book itself won multiple awards, including the 2010 C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. 🔍 Lamont uncovered that personal chemistry between panel members can significantly influence funding decisions, sometimes even more than the merit of proposals being evaluated. 🌍 The research spans five prestigious fellowship competitions and six disciplines (humanities, social sciences, and history), providing insights into how different academic fields define and evaluate excellence differently.