The Exclusive Or

One of my favourite aspects of academia in the UK is the final oral examination for the PhD — formally called a viva voce, which everyone seems to call a viva (VEYE-vah). The viva is an oral examination that typically consists of the student and two examiners, one from within the University (the internal examiner), and one from outwith the university (the external examiner).

Just before I went to my first conference, I thought, “Hey, I guess I should be professional now!” and printed out business cards on the best card stock that I could find at Staples. Apparently, of the hundreds of people who attended NIPS that year, I was the only one who had done this. I handed out one card, received none, and assumed that everyone must just Google each other after the conference.

The US and the UK both have a series of ranks for academics, but the names of the job titles are somewhat different.

“Don’t talk about academic politics”? Ha! I wish. Academic politics is nothing but talking. I guess that’s true for most all kinds of politics, really.