The Trench

By trench I don't mean a coat. I mean the researcher trench (or boffin trench). 

The researcher trench is what happens to people who pursue an academic career. You start with a PhD, which usually represents the first stage of researching a phenomenon you’re interested in. Then you go on to do further research on your area of interest, become an expert in it, favour certain research methods over others and settle in to your comfortable and academically exciting (to you) niche –voila, you have just dug yourself a trench.   

What then happens when academics get together is that each of them peers over the side of their own trench at the others and is critical and sceptical about the relevance, importance and reliability of the other scientists’ research.

I witnessed the academic trench syndrome first-hand the other day and watched in amazement. We have a reading group in which each week, a selected paper or some interesting research is presented by one of the attendees and then discussed by the group. This week we presented the article that we are publishing (the one related to my dissertation and PhD). Now, I raised a number of questions in the process of doing the research for this article, but after discussing them, I felt I may have misunderstood things as I am still taking my first unsteady steps in academia. To my surprise, most of these questions were also raised by other researchers at this presentation. Then they went on to raise a couple of other points as well. At the end of it all, my supervisor asked me if I thought the research had not been well received. I explained my trench theory:

Researcher 1 conducts research in his trench. It is specific, related to a specific topic, including only specific terminology and concepts and excluding everything else. All in all, very specific. He presents this research to his colleagues.

Researcher 2 looks up from his trench and wonders why the study didn’t use a methodology that he always uses. It is so useful and reliable. Also, he points out all possible limitations of the methodology that was used. His methodologies would also provide some interesting data for examining other aspects of the topic.

Researcher 3 peers over the side of his trench and questions the relevance of the study in general. Surely it should take into account a number of other concepts that are clearly related to the topic in question. For instance, this thing he has just researched is certainly something that would factor in to the study.

Each researcher thinks that the other researchers do not understand, are too narrow minded and cannot think beyond the perimeters of their own research.

And this continues in academic circles. Pun intended.

It is worth nothing that trenches occur in other contexts as well. A good example is politics. Each politician sits in their own trench and enthusiastically defends it by throwing verbal grenades at the other party’s trenches. Trenches may also occur with highly idealistic people, such as environmentalists, hipsters, health enthusiasts, and the religious.

I ambitiously intend to avoid digging myself into a researcher trench any time soon. I hope to retain a perhaps naive (I prefer “child-like”) ability to question and consider other factors, angles and also strive to make my research accessible and relatable to researchers and laymen who do not share my research interests. Here’s to hoping.