Virtue and the Quiet Art of Scholarship : Reclaiming the University

1 Going home

2 Untimely meditations

3 Icarus falling

4 Locked out

5 Travelling light

6 Looking sideways

7 Pulling strings

8 Closing time
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"How can the still, small voice of scholarship be heard above the clamour of the corporate university? Are those for whom curiosity means treading delicately over the fabric of the world destined to be crushed by the heavy armour of disciplinary oppression? Anne Pirrie has written a manual for the perplexed scholar who, shut out from the academy, would fain find a way back in. Hers is a counsel not of despair but of hope. We can prevail not by fighting back but by maintaining our scholarly integrity and continuing to do good work well. This book is for everyone who believes in higher education for the common good."


Professor Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen.


"In her new book, Virtue and the Quiet Art of Scholarship, Pirrie draws upon an eclectic range of source material playfully to suggest that quiet, embodied, virtues of diffidence, modesty and scholarship ought to be reclaimed by those who work and learn in universities. The chapter on the life and writings of Nan Shepherd is particularly strong. I would recommend the book to anyone concerned by the cultures of boastfulness increasingly evident in academia. Pirrie has crafted a light and engaging read."


James MacAllister, Lecturer in Philosophy of Education, The University of Edinburgh


"What is lightness? It is characterised by the flexible, the nimble, the quick: qualities that have become increasingly marginalised in an academic world obsessed by what can be weighed –financial targets, evidence of ‘impact’, performance indicators. This is a wonderfully light book. Anne Pirrie writes with wit and grace, recovering a vision of the university where the virtues of modesty replace self-promotion, good teaching is no longer reduced to customer satisfaction, and the gods of Management flee before lecturers and professors gleefully reclaiming their academic and spiritual independence. It is a book to read and re-read: wine for the thirsty soul."


Professor Richard Smith, Professor in the School of Education, Durham University.
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"How can the still, small voice of scholarship be heard above the clamour of the corporate university? Are those for whom curiosity means treading delicately over the fabric of the world destined to be crushed by the heavy armour of disciplinary oppression? Anne Pirrie has written a manual for the perplexed scholar who, shut out from the academy, would fain find a way back in. Hers is a counsel not of despair but of hope. We can prevail not by fighting back but by maintaining our scholarly integrity and continuing to do good work well. This book is for everyone who believes in higher education for the common good."

Professor Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen.

"In her new book, Virtue and the Quiet Art of Scholarship, Pirrie draws upon an eclectic range of source material playfully to suggest that quiet, embodied, virtues of diffidence, modesty and scholarship ought to be reclaimed by those who work and learn in universities. The chapter on the life and writings of Nan Shepherd is particularly strong. I would recommend the book to anyone concerned by the cultures of boastfulness increasingly evident in academia. Pirrie has crafted a light and engaging read."

James MacAllister, Lecturer in Philosophy of Education, The University of Edinburgh

"What is lightness? It is characterised by the flexible, the nimble, the quick: qualities that have become increasingly marginalised in an academic world obsessed by what can be weighed -financial targets, evidence of 'impact', performance indicators. This is a wonderfully light book. Anne Pirrie writes with wit and grace, recovering a vision of the university where the virtues of modesty replace self-promotion, good teaching is no longer reduced to customer satisfaction, and the gods of Management flee before lecturers and professors gleefully reclaiming their academic and spiritual independence. It is a book to read and re-read: wine for the thirsty soul."

Professor Richard Smith, Professor in the School of Education, Durham University.
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Anne Pirrie is Reader in Education at the University of the West of Scotland.
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