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However, it’s not as if she’s dismissing the importance of those academics; she’s just not addressing them here.

As editor and co-founder of ProfHacker, I’m requesting that in future comments you avoid the kind of negative and sarcastic tone evident in your response. It is possible to disagree while at the same time respecting each other and avoiding what to many might feel like a personal attack. That’s an important part of what we’re about. The web is full of discussion forums where people snipe and snark: we’re trying to foster something different that involves generosity and openness.

Of all of the people who have written for us — so far — we’ve yet to have anyone who works in, say, of music, theater, painting, or print-making. As we always say, though, we’re open to new contributors!

Thanks so much for this guest post. I’ve always felt a bit guilty about my creative work — knitting and playing guitar (the latter of which I retook up recently after abandoning it in graduate school). I’m not sure how exactly it helps my scholarly work, except maybe to exercise my brain in different ways. This is one of the bits of advice I took away from Merlin Mann’s visit last spring — do things and interact with people who take you outside your comfort zone and shake your brain up a bit. I did this as an undergraduate and I guess I’m doing it now too.

Are you actually comparing rigorous artistic activity that’s on the same peer-recognized level as journal articles or papers to quilting or refinishing furniture? Really? Because it seems to me that what you’re trying to say is that by refinishing furniture, you feel more like one of those “creative” people.

What it seems like you’re really talking about is the state of flow, which can come about through many different activities, both those that are traditionally artistic and those that are not, but the language in which you’ve clothed the idea and the examples you’ve chosen imply that the activities you cite not only provide flow experiences, but in some way link you with the “creative” people on the other side of the dichotomy you mention. You do mention painting, and canvases, so do you also paint artistically, or were the words “blank canvas” meant to imply a room ready to have its walls painted or its cupboards refinished? If you do paint artistically, perhaps that would have been a better vehicle to use. An article is not comparable to a quilt, and when people think it is, it makes it incredibly difficult for those of us whose serious scholarship is creative work to be credited properly for it — everyone thinks we’re just making quilts.

Also, ProfHacker: “what creative work do you do when you aren’t writing/ publishing/ prepping for class? How does it help your scholarly production?”

Thanks for assuming that all of your readers are those “non-creative” types, and that creative work (which you are evidently taking to mean things like quilting and refinishing furniture) is separate from scholarly production. My creative work, which is not quilting or refinishing furniture, IS my scholarly production. It would be great if you could be a little more inclusive of things outside your own backyard.

Aimee, I so understand this. I’m not a painter or a craftsy person, but I do take photographs, and I’ve found that the practice of photography feeds directly into my ability/need/desire to write. If I get stuck in one of these areas, I’ll do the other. The act of doing the other action helps “unstick” the thoughts I’m trying to express.