I grew up on a subsistence farm in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies near Sundre, Alberta. That's right, west of the 22, for the Albertans reading this. Cue the banjo music. Myron Thompson taught me high school science. You know, the former MP who resembles Boss Hog with his cowboy hat and infamous quote: "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve". Not so scientific there Myron. My family has a trapline and none of them have been to university. I often get asked how the heck I ended up as an academic.
In fact, friends and family discouraged me from going to university: "Them university types have no common sense and just become professional students".
My former creative writing professor Birk Sproxton captured this sentiment well:
"..that spring we moved the outhouse and Allen carved an inscription on the inside of the door: 'This hole dug by' and then my name and university degrees. The English professor finally does something useful."
However, there are some benefits to being an Academ-Hick:
You get the best of both worlds. World travel, live music, art shows, good books AND picking berries and going fishing? Perfect harmony.
Being in the "field" isn't really being in the field. If doing research means being on the land, riding horses, harvesting food, building a fire, getting dirty, not having running water, and sleeping on the ground, then...that's what Academ-Hicks grow up doing and still do for fun.
Why do we anthropologists call research locations "the field" anyway? Where I go isn't a field, it's the boreal forest, home to a lot of lovely people. The only person I know who is going to the field to do research is my friend, Katie Strand, who is working with farmers in Saskatchewan.
How cool is that? She's going to the field.
You know where good food comes from and how to get it. The locavore and canning trend in the hipster scene in the city is great, but it cracks me up. People walking around with mason jars, really now? Having music events about growing food in the city but not actually growing food? Silliness.
My family doesn't garden, hunt, and have chickens because it's cool -- they do it because that's where their food comes from and always has. Academ-Hicks know how to garden, shovel manure and store food because those were their chores, not because they attend weekend workshops on it.
As an Academ-Hick you have affordable (often free), healthy meals in the city and while doing research you know how to help people prepare meals instead of just sitting there taking notes or filming people while they prepare meals.
You have manners. Not because Academ-Hicks are good people, but because it was beaten into them. When you grow up in a place where your parents know what you've done before you get home, you learn to be respectful. There's just no swearing at strangers or being randomly rude.
Academ-Hicks help elderly people without thinking about it. This transfers well to all places, but is especially important while doing research in other people's homes and communities. Meanwhile, the university setting is always in need of a good dose of manners.
You can fix things. Fences, pull out porcupine quills, open a stuck choke, mend that hole in your pants, darn a sock, dig an outhouse hole. Self-reliance. Life is more affordable when you can do things yourself and you can help other people fix things. Academ-Hicks can be useful and write about how other people do things, which is useful.
You're grateful. Really? I get money to sit on my butt and read about things that interest me!? Amazing! I can sleep in and don't have to check the cows at 2 am and 30 below in February? So easy I feel guilty! When I started my MA and got paid to work as a TA and RA I thought I'd won the lottery. Being a grad student is a wonderful luxury. It's an opportunity for you to contribute to the world. Academ-Hicks skip the entitlement generation.
You find each other. Academ-Hicks just look at each other and know. There's a glean in their eyes and next thing you know they're sneaking out of some uptight event to go drink beer together. My Academ-Hick friends are hilarious, calm, respectful people who know how to live well and if anyone gets stressed, we just go out for a rip.