There’s a longstanding tradition at New Zealand universities for academics to give an “Inaugural Professorial Lecture” upon being promoted to the rank of Full Professor. It’s a quaint ritual. Down here, the career pathway is Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Prof, and, finally, Full Prof, and they make a big deal if you don’t burn out or drop dead before you get to that last step. The “IPL,” as they call it, is usually a sort of navel-gazing exercise, in which the person—typically a middle-aged cynic by then, devoid of all youthful illusions about the Academy—shares the tale of their journey as a researcher or scholar. Sometimes, like a trained mule, a nervous professor forgets the assignment, drifting off into somnambulant lecture mode. Other times, the stories can get a little too personal. Anyway, the point is, many of us uptight academics dread giving our public IPLs for precisely these reasons. In my case, writing about myself is one thing—you’ve seen the embarrassing stuff I share—but speaking about myself in public is another. I prefer a little distance from other minds.
So, for my IPL at the University of Otago last year, I bucked convention and spoke about someone else’s academic career instead. It’s that old saw, two birds, one stone. Because as luck would have it—well, and a bit of tactical timing—I was just finishing up my latest book, The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson. It’s the mind-bending true story of the late psychiatrist turned parapsychologist Ian Stevenson. That’s the thing about writing a biography. Your work is someone else’s life.
On the more personal side, what became apparent to me in working on this book was how much my own life was mirroring his. By this I mean the stress of university life, personal relationships, doing marginalized research, and so on. We were about the same age when many of the events in the book take place. In some sense, although I never met him, it felt like I had a real friendship with Ian, bringing him back to life in his own words and conversing with him throughout the pages... a sort of survival of his consciousness that added an unexpected layer to the literal “afterlife” question he so desperately sought.
The IPL seemed to go over well, at least judging by the blank stares and stunned silence. (That’s what that means, right?) If you’re keen to dig deeper—and I hope you are! I could barely scratch the surface in this talk—the book comes out April 22.
The book! Available for pre-order now.
This was an amazing lecture. Can't wait for the book!