“What a Shame You Don't Publish”: Crossing the Boundaries as a Public Intellectual Activist

Twice I sought promotion to full professor at Tufts University, Massachusetts, first in 1992 and then, a year later, in 1993. Both times, as an intellectual activist working in the public sphere, I challenged existing definitions and conceptions of merit. The second time I succeeded, but the first time I failed. It is the first time that I write about here, and the deep shame I experienced as I traversed the contested terrain of the faculty merit process.