Crackpots! A Meditation
Professor Carberry is always considerate in keeping us posted as to his
travels. Cards from Tasmania and El Paso,Texas, which reached the Friends
office over the Christmas holidays, attest to his thoughtfulness as well
as to the ever increasing range of this inveterate traveler.
This brings to mind the problem of his exact academic affiliation here at
Brown. Carberry's affiliation, as we understand it, is not with the Center
for Old World Archaeology and Art, although I am aware that my distinguished
predecessor as head of the Friends, Associate Professor Martha Sharpe Joukowsky,
regards him with the greatest affection and has the highest respect for
his work. Nor is his position part of the Anthropology Department chaired
by Professor Philip Leis. Professor Leis recently said that Carberry's "reputation
is such that, despite our best efforts to get him into the Department, he
has always eluded us."
Martha Mitchell, distinguished author of the Encyclopedia Brunoniana,
lists Carberry as the Professor of Cracked Pots (sic), with no departmental
affiliation given. (The wording "cracked pots" is maybe the result
of the only editorial or proofing oversight in the entire Encyclopedia.
Surely, Carberry as the Distinguished Professor of Psychoceramics, must
be Professor of Crackpots!) The possibility that Carberry is at home in
the Psychology Department has been ruled out completely on behavioral grounds.
What is Professor Carberry's departmental affiliation? It would, at first,
appear that it falls somewhere between...a little to the left of the one
and a tad to the right of the other. Or is he the focus of a center? Considering
the omnium gatherum nature of his talents and activities, any such center
would have to be trans-disciplinary. Of course, the Professor may have stolen
a march on us and already achieved Departmental status.
Would it be appropriate for the matter to be brought to the Provost for
clarification? So distinguished a contributor to the fabric, function and
future of Brown University as Professor Josiah S. Carberry deserves his
own home!
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