I am on sabbatical, and this often prompts questions about what a professor truly does during this time and whether we're actually working. The reality remains that in modern-day academia, many of us conduct more research during our sabbatical than in a regular semester, because we are shielded from administrative tasks and the responsibilities associated with teaching.
So, where did the sabbatical come from?
The word sabbatical comes from the Hebrew word shabbat, meaning rest or cessation. Like its origins in Mosaic law, it translates to taking a "break" every seven years, with the modern-day option of taking a half- or full-year "leave" from the university. Unlike its use as a recruitment incentive in historical times, the modern-day sabbatical is typically a reward for seven years of productive work at a research institution. What does productivity mean? Well, that typically means you are post-tenure and have a successful track record of publications.
The purpose of today's sabbatical remains similar to that of its origins. In 1880 at Harvard University, a policy was developed to give faculty time to regain currency, write books, conduct research and fieldwork, study emerging methods and disciplines, travel to libraries, laboratories, archives, and overseas universities, and return as stronger teachers and researchers. From what I was able to find, the first formal, policy-based offer of a sabbatical was made to Charles Rockwell Lanman, a Sanskrit and comparative philology scholar, as a recruitment tool. Harvard's attempt to steal Lanman away from Johns Hopkins signaled its ambition to up its research game and its ability to compete in emerging research fields.
Under Charles W. Eliot, Harvard's president from 1869 to 1909, the university used the sabbatical as part of a broader strategy to grow its research reputation. He treated faculty as a professional scholarly workforce rather than as classroom instructors. At the same time, he introduced the "elective system" to give students more time to work in chosen fields, elevated the modern disciplines alongside Greek and Latin, established graduate education in the School of Arts and Sciences (1890), and pushed for professional education in its law and medical programs. The result was better professional conditions, and this would help make Harvard a research institution of national and international stature.
So what did Lanman do on his sabbatical?
Well, it's tough to say because many of his projects were multi-year, another benefit of having a sabbatical, but records suggest he helped assemble a major US-based collection of primary textual materials in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The shift provided opportunities for American scholars to have access to primary-source materials that would have otherwise required them to rely on European universities. It also allowed him time to create the Sanskrit Reader, which became a systematic account of Sanskrit instruction more practical for US students. Some of the 500 Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts can be found in the rare handwritten materials collection in Houghton Library's special collections at Harvard.
Why is Sanskrit important today?
It preserves traditions in the history of science, health, and humanism, including important evidence of Ayurvedic knowledge, mathematics, and astronomical methods; it is also important to linguistics, natural language processing, and the ways humans model language.
So, what am I doing on my sabbatical?
Well, I am not preserving human language or traveling to acquire a collection of ancient books, but I am doing what I consider to be important work on a few related topics. First, as a marketing professor, it would be irresponsible not to improve my understanding of AI and its impact on the industry. As much as I may have concerns about energy usage and its biases, it's revolutionizing the workday and maybe some of our decision-making processes. So, this time allows me to attend conferences with industry and academic experts, research legislative shifts, and do some of my own deep dives into building with AI.
Next, I have lots of open research projects. "Open" because they are in the journal review process or I have not had a chance to finish them up. This is the time to get those (9, yes 9) papers out the door.
I am traveling to other universities to meet and learn from other researchers in areas of interest. Visits to ESSEC in Singapore and the University of Arizona are in the works for this semester.
Finally, I get to read and research new topics. The beauty of a sabbatical is I have freedom (YAY!) to learn about new phenomena that I care about as well as to read for fun. The picture above gives you a sense of my list. So, what am I interested in learning about now? Well, I have become very interested in the impact of influencers, professional people with significant expertise, versus the "lifestyle" creators, and how they shape our ideas about health and well-being.
Am I writing about this research? Yes. Will it take a while to see it in print? Yes, and that's the way it should be.
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