Professing to Learn

Neumann has written a passionate text. She asks us to think about what matters to us—and what should matter. She contends that academic work is a calling, or a vocation... Any text that is so elegantly written on such an important topic deserves a careful reading even if we end up disagreeing with one or another point.

A new perspective on the faculty career... Neumann provides the reader with an elegant and reverent understanding of this often misunderstood time in the career lives of faculty members while at the same time reminding us why we do what we do.

By exploring the lives of newly tenured professors, Anna Neumann provides a compelling picture of the modern university itself. Animating her work and adding to its value is her belief that scholarly learning, or passionate thought, is nothing less than the 'heart of the university enterprise.' Professing to Learn is wise, humane, and sensible, and it will guide all of us who believe in the necessary and profound attractions of learning.

An unusually nuanced, textured look at this special group of faculty who have recently ‘passed the test’ and been awarded tenure.

Neumann’s insightful analysis of early post-tenure faculty explores critical uncharted territory, debunking myths about tenured faculty. In framing faculty as learners she underscores our need to cultivate this core intellectual resource. Neumann's work reveals what animates professors, as they seek, over time, to learn. A must read for scholars and policymakers.

This book should be read by all university leaders, policy makers, and professors because it sheds light on one of the most important aspects of higher education.