Rituals and practice of science

I was honored to participate in two public defenses (public examinations of PhD theses) last weekend. On friday, I made my debut as an opponent (thesis examiner) for a thesis focused on the tension between continuous and planned change in a knowledge intensive organization. On saturday, my wife and I were invited to the public defense and doctoral party of my cousin Markus, a musicologist. His thesis is an examination of (the classical pianist) Glenn Gould.

I was a bit nervous about my debut as an opponent. Would I be able to rise to the occasion and present a sound and balanced critique of the thesis? As the occasion got nearer, however, I began to realize that it really was not about me rising to an occasion. A public defense is maybe the most valuable ritual in our local scientific community where the practice of science is revealed to the public. The point really is not about appearing to be smart but to re-enact the practice of science, scientific debate to the public, thus in a small way, re-establishing the very practice of science. The public defense in the end is not about anybody appearing to be smart, but letting the practice of science have the spotlight. You should be prepared and do your best, but in the end, it is not about you.


My cousin Markus did well in his defense, or so I hear. We ended up skipping the actual defense because of child care arrangement, but at his party, everybody seemed happy. It was striking to navigate from a group of business scholars to a group of ethnomusicologists and seeing the very same practice of science being re-enacted. In her speech at the doctoral party, the opponent for Markus's thesis addressed the doctoral party as an event where scientific enemies meet and reconcile their differences for the evening, bowing down to the same idol that is science. I liked that notion.