THE ABSURD ACADEMIC

Using the absurdist philosophy of Albert Camus as framework, I interpret academic life as absurd (i.e., a senseless career), in which academics have three options to deal with this meaninglessness: (1) a religious option, in which the search for knowledge and Science is seen as the ultimate goal of an academic; (2) the suicidal option, in which academics are disappointed with the costs of academic life and senselessness of science, and because of this, they quit academia; and (3) the acceptance of the absurd option, in which academics acknowledge the senselessness of their career, but they accept it as it is. I represent these three options using my own personal career experiences as unit of analysis, from my early days as graduate student and young academic, fully committed to the religious option, to a later role as associate professor, disappointed with academia and its personal costs, but finally accepting the absurd of academic life and my own role as an absurd academic. At the end, some open questions and recommendations are presented to deal with the absurd.