Following on from Ted's job news, as of today I'm officially Visiting Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at the University of Essex, England. The main consequence of this as far as I'm concerned is that I can use the job title Professor.
Readers from the USA and elsewhere may be thinking "so what?" here, but in the UK the title of professor is reserved for people at the top of the academic tree, and (in line with our wonderful class system) is accorded some degree of respect by members of the general public. When professors make statements concerning their field of expertise, the default is for people to believe them merely because they're
professors.
How long this situation of trust will last in today's world of increasingly diluted academia is anyone's guess, except in my case I know it's for one year only: "visiting" means I'm on a part-time, yearly contract, and if it isn't renewed in August 2005 then I'm back to being plain old Dr Bartle again.
Until then, though, I'm Professor Bartle (but hey, you can call me Richard).
Richard
This is brilliant!
Cheers Richard, or shall I say "Proffesor"? ;-))
Good luck, mate.
Posted by: Yarden Yaroshevski | Aug 01, 2004 at 11:08
Sorry about the spelling, I am far too distracted by DOOM3!! ;_))
Posted by: YY | Aug 01, 2004 at 11:25
Congratulations, Professor Bartle!
To keep the "new title" posts at a minimum, I'll just piggyback on this to announce I'll be joining the law faculty at Rutgers School of Law. I'll be teaching cyberlaw starting this month as an "assistant professor."
(Maybe the title will get me some inordinate respect at Edinburgh!)
Posted by: greglas | Aug 01, 2004 at 11:56
Congratulations. Next stop – Sir Bartle!
Ren
Posted by: ren | Aug 01, 2004 at 14:06
To echo the sentiment, congratulations, Professor! Let us know when you're knighted, as Ren foretells. ;)
Posted by: Michael Chui | Aug 01, 2004 at 17:24
Congrats to both of you!
Posted by: Cory Ondrejka | Aug 01, 2004 at 20:33
Or, as the Wizard put it, "I, your Wizard par ardua ad alta, am about to embark upon a hazardous and technically unexplainable journey into the outer stratosphere, to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards..."
CONGRATULATIONS. There are many with the title and not 1/100th of Bartle's merit for it. Such a heartening development. Huzzah!
Posted by: Edward Castronova | Aug 01, 2004 at 22:24
Break a leg!
Posted by: Daniel Harvey | Aug 02, 2004 at 01:56
Michael Chui>Let us know when you're knighted, as Ren foretells.
I don't think there's much danger of that happening...
What pleases me most about this is that it's partial recognition that computer games are worthy of academic research. The job title had to be approved by a senior university committee of other professors, and it was for a department that already has more than its quota of professors.
I'll discover whether anyone else in the university takes computer games seriously when I approach the departments of Computer Science, Psychology, Law and Literature with a view to finding research matches there...
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Aug 02, 2004 at 02:54
greglas>To keep the "new title" posts at a minimum
Now you're being modest... Rutgers isn't exactly a backwater!
>(Maybe the title will get me some inordinate respect at Edinburgh!)
I would expect that that to be the case, yes, although not to the extent that you can expect to get away with mimicking Scottish accents and disparaging the whisky!
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Aug 02, 2004 at 04:07
Richard> Rutgers isn't exactly a backwater!
It's a fantastic law school and I couldn't have wished for a better position. It's absolutely ideal for me and I'm really really really really happy. My reticence to do a new post was due to the fact that I haven't got much to add that summation--no anti-economics rants or titular meditations. :-)
Richard> ...disparaging the whisky!
Perish the thought! And I'm a Silly Wizard and Andy Stewart fan -- I dig the accents...
Posted by: greglas | Aug 02, 2004 at 07:46
Congratulations, Professor Bartle.
Is your field of study limited to massive multiplayer computer games, or will you be looking at computer games in general? Because computer/console games in general are already a major cultural influence, well worth studying. While massive multiplayer games are still a comparatively tiny niche, and I would be surprised if an established university had the vision to see them as major social influence of the future.
Posted by: Tobold | Aug 02, 2004 at 08:13
Congratz! Richard and Greg. Sirs, all.
Posted by: Nathan Combs | Aug 02, 2004 at 09:22
Congratulations to both of you.
Posted by: Tom Hunter | Aug 02, 2004 at 10:03
Tobold>Is your field of study limited to massive multiplayer computer games, or will you be looking at computer games in general?
My research it's mainly virtual worlds, although I'm also interested in computer game design in general, and I do teach other aspects of computer game research.
>Because computer/console games in general are already a major cultural influence, well worth studying.
From that perspective, they should be being studied by sociologists. I'm not a sociologist, but I'm interested (OK, and sometimes appalled!) to hear what sociologists have to say about them. Personally, though, I'm primarily concerned with computer games for their own sakes; it demeans them if they are only ever researched through the eyes of some other discipline. They deserve to be looked at from within, not just from without.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Aug 02, 2004 at 12:08
It's always great to hear when people level up!
Congratz!
-bruce
Posted by: Bruce Boston | Aug 02, 2004 at 14:27
Congrats!
Posted by: magicback | Aug 03, 2004 at 01:33
Congrats to Profs. Bartle and Lastowka! Something tells me it's going to be an interesting and fruitful 2004/2005 in the field of vw studies. I'm fastening my virtual seatbelt.
Posted by: Betsy Book | Aug 03, 2004 at 21:56
When start a next concert of Andy M.Stuart in 2005, England, Scottland or Germany??? I need the Date If jou can send me.Or other informations about him, where can I find it?
Thanks a lot. Almut Tenge
Almut Tenge
Unterlimpurgerstrasse 79
74523 Schwäbisch Hall
Germany
Posted by: Mrs.Tenge, Almut | Dec 16, 2004 at 06:25
When start a next concert of Andy M.Stuart in 2005, England, Scottland or Germany??? I need the Date If jou can send me.Or other informations about him, where can I find it?
Thanks a lot. Almut Tenge
Almut Tenge
Unterlimpurgerstrasse 79
74523 Schwäbisch Hall
Germany
Posted by: Mrs.Tenge, Almut | Dec 16, 2004 at 06:26