[dissidents]

This is ridiculous. This journalist doesn't even have a PhD or any publications.

To those who are downvoting this because of the misleading comment below, note that she claimed on Twitter to be joining the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, not the Harvard Extension School. Nobody becomes an Associate Professor at the Harvard FAS without a PhD.

Source: https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1271705895437651968

[michaericalribo]

Posted elsewhere, this is categorically false:

I’m not here to debate this specific claim of phishing, but this is just factually false, _especially_ for applied / practiced humanities. Here are two examples of well respected authors / journalists who are more senior than associate prof at Harvard’s FAS...and this was on just the first link in my first search:

Teju* Cole, Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing (an endowed professorship, no less! With only an MA and mphil!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/teju-cole

Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction (also a professor of journalism at Berkeley! With only an MA!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/michael-pollan

HBS likewise has business practitioners without phds on faculty. Their expertise is of value regardless of on-paper credentials.

These are two very well respected writers. Often, in more research oriented disciplines, the “experts” have phds, by necessity. But especially for applied humanities like creative writing and journalism, the experts w the most experience quite often _do not_ have doctorates, and that does nothing to diminish their expertise or professional credentials.

[ghaff]

This was Harvard Extension School. You're not talking a tenured Harvard professor position. One of my mentors undergrad was a former Newsweek editor who lectured a couple days a week and also didn't have a PhD or academic publications. (He had written books.)

[dissidents]

This is just misleading. Razdan claimed on Twitter that she was joining the Harvard Faculty of Arts, not the Harvard Extension School. Harvard FAS does not have any journalism professors or offer degrees in journalism, and if it did, you would certainly need a PhD.

[michaericalribo]

Posted elsewhere, this is categorically false:

I’m not here to debate this specific claim of phishing, but this is just factually false, _especially_ for applied / practiced humanities. Here are two examples of well respected authors / journalists who are more senior than associate prof at Harvard’s FAS...and this was on just the first link in my first search:

Teju* Cole, Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing (an endowed professorship, no less! With only an MA and mphil!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/teju-cole

Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction (also a professor of journalism at Berkeley! With only an MA!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/michael-pollan

HBS likewise has business practitioners without phds on faculty. Their expertise is of value regardless of on-paper credentials.

These are two very well respected writers. Often, in more research oriented disciplines, the “experts” have phds, by necessity. But especially for applied humanities like creative writing and journalism, the experts w the most experience quite often _do not_ have doctorates, and that does nothing to diminish their expertise or professional credentials.

[ghaff]

All I know is what she wrote in the post: "Contrary to what many are tweeting, Harvard has a school called the Extension School offering a Journalism Degree Programme. The actual programme is called the Master of Liberal Arts, Journalism degree. The Extension School lists 500 faculty of whom 17 are categorised as journalism faculty. A number of these people are working journalists. I believed I fit this profile."

ADDED: It certainly seems as if the story has changed from something implausible to something vaguely understandable.

[dissidents]

I know, and it is irrelevant and misleading. This is what she tweeted in the first place:

"After 21 years at NDTV, I am changing direction and moving on. Later this year, I start as an Associate Professor teaching journalism as part of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences."

Nobody is joining Harvard's FAS as as an Associate Professor without a PhD.

[michaericalribo]

I’m not here to debate this specific claim of phishing, but this is just factually false, _especially_ for applied / practiced humanities. Here are two examples of well respected authors / journalists who are more senior than associate prof at Harvard’s FAS...and this was on just the first link in my first search:

Teju* Cole, Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing (an endowed professorship, no less! With only an MA and mphil!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/teju-cole

Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction (also a professor of journalism at Berkeley! With only an MA!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/michael-pollan

HBS likewise has business practitioners without phds on faculty. Their expertise is of value regardless of on-paper credentials.

These are two very well respected writers. Often, in more research oriented disciplines, the “experts” have phds, by necessity. But especially for applied humanities like creative writing and journalism, the experts w the most experience quite often _do not_ have doctorates, and that does nothing to diminish their expertise or professional credentials.

[LordAtlas]

I believe GP is referring to her original announcement here: https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1271705895437651968

[LordAtlas]

Though she did originally say she was joining "Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences" - https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1271705895437651968

[pge]

For those not familiar with Harvard’s Extension School, it provides classes to the general public (you have to register and pay but they are open to anyone)

https://www.extension.harvard.edu/registration-admissions

[evanelias]

I realize this is uselessly pedantic, but Harvard's Division of Continuing Education (Extension School + Summer School) is technically under the FAS umbrella, alongside Harvard College (undergrad) and GSAS (graduate arts + sciences). ~15 years ago I worked for FAS as a web developer, and the software my org developed was used by all 3 of these schools. Wikipedia confirms FAS is still organized in this way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Faculty_of_Arts_and_Sc...

That said, yes it's extremely misleading for a DCE instructor to call themselves an FAS professor. This sort of thing does happen at all top tier schools' extension programs, though far more often it's done by students rather than instructors.