Wolfe, Michael and Pryor, Carolyn (Eds). (2002). The Mission of the Scholar—Research and Practice: A Tribute to Nelson Haggerson

	Wolfe, Michael and Pryor, Carolyn (Eds). (2002). The Mission of the Scholar—Research and Practice: A Tribute to Nelson Haggerson. New York: Peter Lang. Pp. xi + 251 $29.95     ISBN 0-8204-5237-8 Reviewed by Greg Dubrow Florida International University August 15, 2003 Assembled as a tribute to Nelson Haggerson, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, The Mission of the Scholar reads as sort of a Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer, 1990) written for the post-modern crowd. The similarity to Ernest Boyer’s work rests in the book’s purpose of considering what it is that we call scholarly work. However, whereas Boyer’s book was one man reflecting on the different facets of and outlets for a professor’s talents and was located in the cultural framework of the traditional American university, The Mission of the Scholar is a collection of essays written from a variety of viewpoints and styles. Its purpose is to stimulate reflection on various ways to produce knowledge in a manner meaningful to the concerns of the post-modern world. Haggerson is described as sort of a renaissance man, a “cowboy, seaman, and poet as well as scholar” (p. vii) whose scholarship is as eclectic as his character. The book, by surveying multiple forms of scholarship and lauding scholars who make an effort to challenge the norms and authority of traditional ways of knowing, pays testament to Haggerson’s eclecticism and individual approach to academic life. The book is organized by approach to scholarship. Individual chapters describe the work of the critical scholar, action research scholar, heuristic scholar, hermeneutic scholar, and so forth. It is apparent that contributors to the book were selected because they were in some way affected by the work of and/or association with Dr. Haggrerson. Further, it seems that they were asked to locate the specifics of their own work within the context of Haggerson’s mytho-poetic scholar. The mytho-poetic scholar, as described in Haggerson’s essay is one who challenges the “dysfunctional myths through the process of demythologizing” and then “plants the seeds for more functional myths of our day” (p. 76). The mytho-poetic scholar is not limited to traditional forms of scholarly dissemination to get her message across – poetry, narrative, theatre or any number of creative means are as worthy of a scholar’s time as a journal article, according to Haggrson. The overriding theme of the essays, then, is of challenging the notion that scholarship is best accomplished by objective and dispassionate observation. A scholar in the paradigm developed by Haggerson is supposed to get close to the material, make it personal, locate the analysis in the current human tradition, and not be limited by traditional form when it is time to publish the findings. Edited books have both promise and perils, and The Mission of the Scholar is no different. The promise lies in its use of a kaleidoscope of approaches to describe the life of the mind. One comes away from the book with at least a basic appreciation if not a solid understanding of what might be to the reader alien approaches to the creation of knowledge. A potential peril of an edited work is unevenness of quality, and sadly a couple of the chapters in this book do not measure up to the overall quality and thoughtfulness of the majority of the contributions. The best essays are the ones in which the authors accomplish the mission of locating their work in the spirit of Haggerson’s scholarly ethos. The authors explain how they work, why they work as they do, and how their work connects to the spirit of the mytho-poetic scholar. The less fulfilling essays seem no more than a biographical sketch of the author, with little connection to the over-arching theme of the collection. A stronger hand from the editors would have been of immeasurable benefit to the finished product, not only thematically but in terms of form as well. There are a few too many typographical errors, and at one point, John Silber, the long-serving and well-known leader of Boston University is identified as “John Silver”. Thankfully the stronger contributions greatly outnumber the weaker pieces. The stand-out essays include contributions from David Geoffrey Smith, Barbara Thiering, Louis M. Smith, Lee Bach and Zeno M. Johnson. Haggerson’s chapter on being a mytho-poetic scholar was excellent, but should have been at the front of the book, so as to serve as a contextual set-up for the remainder of the essays. For the first five chapters the uninitiated reader is left to wonder what exactly is meant by the term “mytho-poetic scholar”. While the reader is certainly free to jump from chapter-to-chapter at random, there is no reason that an edited volume cannot have the same flow and purpose of a single-authored book. David Smith’s contribution places the history of hermeneutic scholarship in the context of Haggerson’s assertion that the researcher should engage his topic in close discussion. Taking us from the ancients in Alexandria and Greece, to the modern school launched by Freidrich Schleiermacher and given weight thanks to Dilthey, Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer, Smith argues that the task of the hermeneutic scholar is to determine “what makes life Life, what makes living living” (p. 184). In connecting hermeneutics to the mytho-poetic scholar, Smith notes that the German philosophers at the vanguard of the modern hermeneutic tradition were looking for a means by which to challenge the assumptions of Kant’s über-rationalism. Bach’s explanation of the heuristic scholar lays out the major concepts and stages of heuristic analysis during which the concepts are applied. The concepts of indwelling, tacit knowing and intuition resonate with Haggerson’s personal and instinctive approach to scholarship. Louis Smith personalizes the work of a biographic scholar. His story of the intersection of personal interests and professional pursuit is a remarkable example of a scholar taking on a project that transcends the idea of “work”. Barbara Thiering explains how the life of a theological scholar centers on the deconstructing of myths, in this case the deep and abiding religious myths of the Judeo-Christian world. Her essay works well because of her tacit and implicit connections to the ideas central to Haggerson’s work. Zeno Johnson’s chapter surveys Haggerson’s work across thematic constructs, under the rubric of describing what it means to be a bibliographic scholar. It works very well as the end-piece of the collection. The Mission of the Scholar is not so much scholarship reconsidered as it is scholarship alternatively considered. For the hard-core quantitative researcher who does not quite understand the nature of qualitative analysis, the book provides a window to that world. For the nascent scholar who has heard about hermeneutics but is perhaps fuzzy as to its tradition and nuances, Smith’s chapter will be of immeasurable use. For the functionalist who seeks some insight into the world of critical theory, the book’s overarching theme of the mytho-poetic scholar will be useful in understanding what it means to challenge the assumptions that underlay both the work of the scholar and society itself. Reference Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. About the Reviewer Greg Dubrow is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Florida International University, in Miami, FL. His primary research interests are curriculum reform, institutional culture and issues of college access and choice.