Last week, I received the news that from 1 August 2019, I will be promoted to Professor of Economic Law at the University of Bristol Law School. These news have now sunk in and I am slowly getting used to the idea—as my grandma used to say, it is easy to get used to the nice things, getting used to the tough things takes some more character…
This promotion is the result of a very long administrative/HR process, which has given me some time to think about what a promotion to (full) professorship would mean and what I would like to make of my new position. It has also made me reflect on my academic career so far and on how I got here. These are some of my raw thoughts. Not sure if they will be of any interest, but I needed to spit them out.
How I got here
The short answer is that I got here by chance, with a lot of luck and even more help from mentors, colleagues, friends and students along the way. And, of course, thanks to the motivation that those interested in my scholarship have provided, particularly through this blog. I am indebted to all of them (you) and it would be impossible for me to come up with a list that covered even 10% of those generous individuals that lent me a helping hand, stimulated or challenged me intellectually, gave me platforms and opportunities to grow and, perhaps most important, made it all very enjoyable along the way.
There are a couple of other aspects of how I got here on which I have been thinking with particular intensity. The first one is that I got here as a privileged, middle-class, white, male academic with no family responsibilities. The second one is that I got here thanks to the brilliant mentoring offered by experienced female colleagues. Let me unpack this.
I enjoyed all privileges of someone that could study without having to work at the same time until I got to my PhD studies. I had a supportive family that really focused on my education from the get go and they not only put me through good schools, but also helped financially with the parts of my undergraduate studies not covered by my scholarship. I then had the privilege of working for big firms and my family’s support allowed me to save enough to self-fund my PhD. I did have to work during parts of my PhD, but mainly carrying out consultancy work to which I had access through contacts. So, all in all, I got to be a doctor (not a real one, a PhD in Law, I mean) and access academic posts thanks to the privileges I enjoyed from the day I was born, out of sheer luck. Sure, I did put in my 10,000 hours of dedication, but I did not have to overcome any significant obstacles.
I accessed academia in September of 2009 in Madrid and, despite the fact that the crisis had hit hard and there were not those many jobs, I was lucky enough to land a Lectureship at a private university—thanks, in no small part, to the contacts I had made during my time at the law firm and during my doctoral studies. I did not like the working conditions, though, so I took the gamble of moving to the UK—which I could do, in large part, thanks to the possibility of having studied languages since age 7 and having completed a European Doctorate, which saw me move to Copenhagen, Washington DC and Oxford during my doctoral studies (on my personal and family funds, which is certainly not the situation of most PhD students, either then or now).
I took my first UK lectureship in May 2012 and, just over 7 years later, I have been promoted three times and moved across three higher education institutions. This has required hard work and dedication, of course, but I have also been immensely helped by the continued enjoyment of my privileges as a middle-class, white, male academic with no family responsibilities. The last issue is the one giving me more to ponder.
Even if I am now an ‘academic dad’, my promotion application included information only until the early fall of 2018, so only just after my child was born. Thus, all work reflected in that application was done by someone without caring responsibilities. I was also extremely lucky to have a partner that understood my obsession with academia and my research and was willing to give me as much time and space as I needed to work very long hours, to travel (way too much, which I really regret and which I am seriously committed to change) and to get involved in all those extra citizenship and staff-student activities that are nigh impossible to coordinate with childcare or other types of care responsibilities.
I thought I needed to say all this because, in the right context, the fact that I got promoted at just under 40 years of age and at just under 10 years from having taken up my first lectureship, certainly does not look as impressive as comparable promotions of colleagues with very different backgrounds and personal circumstances. All of them, and all those facing difficult circumstances and discrimination in higher education (and elsewhere) have my deepest admiration and respect.
The second aspect of how I got here, which is somehow ironically related to the previous one, is that I have had the most amazing formal and informal mentors since I got to the UK and they were all experienced female colleagues. At every step of the way, but particularly since I joined the University of Bristol Law School, I have been enormously lucky to have the support and encouragement of truly great academics and generous colleagues that have helped me prioritise my work, present it in the best possible way, and constantly made me feel like I was worthy of whichever promotion or recognition I was seeking. I have also had some great male colleagues, but their commitment to nurture others, to help them grow and to enjoy doing so pales by comparison.
Interestingly enough, my mentors took me at face value and cared not about my being a privileged, middle-class, white, male academic with no family responsibilities. They were solely interested in my potential and by believing in it and making me exploit it, they have had a transformative impact in me as a scholar and as a person.
So, what type of professor do I want to be?
Needless to say, I want to continue carrying out research that I believe can have a positive social impact, and I want to remain committed to my open-access efforts to try to make my scholarship freely available to anyone interested in it. I also want to help my students learn and grow, and venture into the world with a critical perspective and a strong set of values. I want to be a good colleague and peer, and to treat those with whom I work with respect and with a sincere appreciation of their contribution to higher education.
Overall, however, I want to be a professor that enables other academics (including postgraduate students) to be the best version of themselves they can be, and a professor that does everything in their power to make higher education a better place. Again, let me unpack this, perhaps more concisely.
I want to emulate my female mentors. I want to be able to support willing and committed colleagues to blossom, regardless of their background and characteristics. I want to be committed to equality and fairness and to be able to set aside any prejudices and biases (conscious or unconscious). I want to put my seniority and whichever power or influence comes with it to the service of others, including where necessary to curb the unjustified privileges enjoyed by some at the expense of others. I do not want to shy away from difficult or conflict situations where I see an injustice being done.
I also want to make higher education a more enjoyable, more sustainable and more diverse environment for all of us working and studying in it. I want to contribute to an environment of non-instrumental intellectual curiosity and exchange. I want to make the best use of the ever-growing networking and connectivity opportunities we are offered to expand the reach of higher education and make it more accessible than ever. This is the part I still need to figure out, so I will welcome any suggestions on what needs to be done—either urgently, or in the longer run. For now, I will concentrate on sustainability issues and seek to influence others into adopting no/less-fly policies. It may not amount to much, but it is a start (for me).