At first, I thought that this blog post might be a bit shallow, but realized that on the contrary, it is related to a topic that has been written about a lot in the academic blogosphere. FSP has a series of posts related to academic dressing tagged under the label "What to wear".
It is a topic on which my father and I have a lot of argument. My father is a retired army officer with a very sophisticated approach to dressing up. He is almost always dressed up formally, for example, here's him making tea: (pardon the crease on his coat- he had just arrived at N1 after a long flight and a jittery road journey!)[1]
He has a lot of trouble accepting the casual and extremely informal manner in which academics dress (especially those in my STEM field!)
I, on the other hand, am the exact opposite. I don't particularly try to dress formally and am fairly comfortable in a "casual dress" atmosphere.
During one of my job talks two years ago, my father graciously agreed to give me a ride to the institute. I thought it would also be good for him to experience the atmosphere at a research institute. However, as we set out to leave, he was "very concerned" to see me dress up in jeans. Despite his repeated remonstrances, I refused to change. He was not too pleased, but relaxed a little after arriving at the institute and realizing that he was the only formally dressed up person in the whole building.
My father strongly believes that one must dress appropriately for all occasions and cannot imagine how a professor can teach wearing shorts/jeans and T-shirts and still earn the respect of his/her students [2]. I have tried hard to convince him that most students don't care about how their profs dress and are more concerned about how and what they teach, but to no avail.
Recently, Doordarshan aired a small documentary on N1. I informed him about the timing and he sat down to watch it very eagerly. Though it is not the best documentary ever made, I personally enjoyed watching my favourite colleagues talking about the academic programmes at N1, their research equipments and labs, performance of students, N1's place in the scientific landscape of India etc. My father likes to read and talk about science and I expected that he might ask me more questions about these things when we talked later.
Later that evening, when I asked my father how he found the documentary, he said that although he found it very informative, he felt that it would have had a "higher impact" if the people shown in the documentary had dressed better. I argued with him once again and said that the documentary served its purpose by showcasing honestly what a typically normal day at N1 is like. Faculty members dressing up formally for one day just to shoot a documentary would have been superficial and unreal. But, he emphasised that dressing up and presenting oneself appropriately for a programme shown on National TV was very important. I tried very hard, but failed to convince him that "appropriate dressing" has different connotations in a military cantonment and an academic establishment.
Finally, to change the topic, he asked me why I was not in the documentary. I am very glad that I was not in the documentary. On the day it was being shot, I was very "inappropriately" dressed. I am not sure how he would have reacted to see his daughter on National TV wearing a black T-shirt and blue capris!
[1] The reason he is in the kitchen making tea and not me is because he is also very particular about how he likes his evening tea.
[2] I once introduced him to a colleague who was heading towards the institute one morning. My father later asked me if this person was the PT instructor!
It is a topic on which my father and I have a lot of argument. My father is a retired army officer with a very sophisticated approach to dressing up. He is almost always dressed up formally, for example, here's him making tea: (pardon the crease on his coat- he had just arrived at N1 after a long flight and a jittery road journey!)[1]
He has a lot of trouble accepting the casual and extremely informal manner in which academics dress (especially those in my STEM field!)
I, on the other hand, am the exact opposite. I don't particularly try to dress formally and am fairly comfortable in a "casual dress" atmosphere.
During one of my job talks two years ago, my father graciously agreed to give me a ride to the institute. I thought it would also be good for him to experience the atmosphere at a research institute. However, as we set out to leave, he was "very concerned" to see me dress up in jeans. Despite his repeated remonstrances, I refused to change. He was not too pleased, but relaxed a little after arriving at the institute and realizing that he was the only formally dressed up person in the whole building.
My father strongly believes that one must dress appropriately for all occasions and cannot imagine how a professor can teach wearing shorts/jeans and T-shirts and still earn the respect of his/her students [2]. I have tried hard to convince him that most students don't care about how their profs dress and are more concerned about how and what they teach, but to no avail.
Recently, Doordarshan aired a small documentary on N1. I informed him about the timing and he sat down to watch it very eagerly. Though it is not the best documentary ever made, I personally enjoyed watching my favourite colleagues talking about the academic programmes at N1, their research equipments and labs, performance of students, N1's place in the scientific landscape of India etc. My father likes to read and talk about science and I expected that he might ask me more questions about these things when we talked later.
Later that evening, when I asked my father how he found the documentary, he said that although he found it very informative, he felt that it would have had a "higher impact" if the people shown in the documentary had dressed better. I argued with him once again and said that the documentary served its purpose by showcasing honestly what a typically normal day at N1 is like. Faculty members dressing up formally for one day just to shoot a documentary would have been superficial and unreal. But, he emphasised that dressing up and presenting oneself appropriately for a programme shown on National TV was very important. I tried very hard, but failed to convince him that "appropriate dressing" has different connotations in a military cantonment and an academic establishment.
Finally, to change the topic, he asked me why I was not in the documentary. I am very glad that I was not in the documentary. On the day it was being shot, I was very "inappropriately" dressed. I am not sure how he would have reacted to see his daughter on National TV wearing a black T-shirt and blue capris!
[1] The reason he is in the kitchen making tea and not me is because he is also very particular about how he likes his evening tea.
[2] I once introduced him to a colleague who was heading towards the institute one morning. My father later asked me if this person was the PT instructor!
4 comments:
Its great that Doordarshan wants to highlight institutes of type N1. Is it possible to put clips of such documentaries on the institute websites for all to see?
Can’t help but to agree with your father, even though I live in midwest. You probbaly didn’t notice that your professors, specially women, were dressed if there was a seminar or some special occasion in the department (although students can take liberty and come as they please). I see our chair dressed up all the time (I am in engineering department). Having good dress sense and presenting yourself is equally important to how the other person listens to you, including your students. The outcome of conversation will be more effective for you if the other person pays more attention to what you are saying and your dressing can add some points to it specially in the beginning of the conversation. The Einstein image of scientist is flawed.
New Prof, it is only mean if the song actually passed your lips. What you think and keep to yourself and fail to use to pass judgement is your own business.
I think I have to have to agree with Anonymous @9:04 to a certain extent. In the States, there is definitely a progression from undergrads, who come to class in their PJs (aren't they cute), to grad students who can be seen in ripped jeans, Tshirts, and the occaisional spiked collar/chain, to post docs who wear collared shirts and full sleeves to hide their tatoos, and wear a polo shirt and nice jeans or better (or the female equivalent of) at least on teaching and seminar days. I've seen professors who are usually business casual put on a suit for important school wide meetings, and if I see my chair unusually dressed up, there's a high probability that he's meeting with a dean.
On the other hand, I've seen people give interview talks (and get the position) in jeans. It is always the men who have the courage to do this, and not the women. Academia has made a lot of headway into breaking the "you have to look professional to be taken seriously," but the custom is not completely gone, and it has been broken more for men, than for women.
From my perspective, at least in Indian academia (IIXs, not state universities), casual dress code is acceptable.
Specially when you are doing "pure" sciences and Mathematics, it is totally fine. People in applied sciences and engineering may, however, want to wear business casuals when there is an important meeting with their funding agencies :)
Attitudes may be different in North America and Europe.
@Anonymous Oct 15, 9:04 PM: Einstein image of a scientist is not flawed. I did my undergrad from IIT Kanpur and have seen dozens of brilliant professors with weird clothes and hair undone. And yes, they were taken seriously, always.
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