One of the coveted prizes of an academic life is the visiting fellowship/professorship, that plump offer of a time and space away from the routine of one’s regular job, away from the politics and pressures of administration, teaching and advising. This is given in the assumption that it stimulates reflection in an environment that allows for varied intellectual discussions and possibly (for the Indian academic, particularly) access to resources and people who can help fill the gaps of one’s research. These ‘visitorships’ come in different forms. Some require that you contribute to some teaching or even teach an entire course, but the attraction of this is the opportunity to try out your skills and ideas in a foreign environment and thus learn something new about pedagogy. Others might relate to an ongoing research project or collaboration and specify goals and outcomes for the visit. But there are also those that simply offer a protected stint, with access to all the pos...
making sense of the everyday