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Reducing Oneself to a Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Reducing Oneself to a Curriculum Vitae (CV)

It recently occurred to me that the academic Curriculum Vitae (CV) is not only an instrument through which a scholar presents the scholarly self to the scholarly world, but also an instrument through which the scholar presents the self to the self. In other words, the CV functions like a (highly skewed) window through which the world can see evidence of one’s scholarly activity, AND a (highly skewed) mirror by which one develops a sense of one’s own scholarly identity.

The CV has now become a staple of a scholar’s online identity. In becoming public in this way, the CV’s mediation of the self to others and self to self is intensified. It is therefore worth considering whether/how the CV—the reduction of one’s scholarly self to educational attainment, lists of publications and achievements, and memberships in various groups—may negatively and positively influence one’s own scholarly activities, sense of self (worth), etc.

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