Nandkumar M. Kamat
Since February 2020, I have been working on my second Ph.D. in Philosophy at Goa University in the highly specialised interdisciplinary area of bioethics of COVID-19 pandemic management.
I have read thousands of research papers and hundreds of books since 2020 and came across an open-access book ‘Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19’ published in April 2021 by the University of Michigan (UOM) Press, USA. I was pleased to download the full book with 34 specialist chapters on comparative politics of COVID-19 management during the first wave spanning the first 10 months till September 2020 and make notes for my Ph.D. research work. At that time, I had no idea that someone at UOM had noted that I had downloaded the book and may contact me about their ‘open access’ publishing policy.
This article was written immediately after I completed a Zoom application-based online interview hosted by a doctoral candidate Ani Bezirdzhyan, English language and literature, UOM. It educated me on Ph.D.-level research’s evolving dynamics in the world’s top-most universities. UOM is among top 25 universities in the world with very high scores for their quality of teaching and research. So I didn’t want to lose the opportunity when their doctoral candidate sent this email to seek my consent. It said-“Hello. My name is Ani Bezirdzhyan and I work as a research analyst for the University of Michigan Press. I am contacting you regarding the feedback we received from you through the Free Ebook Survey that pops up on our publishing platform when a reader visits an open-access book. You indicated in the last question that you were willing to be contacted for a further conversation. I am excited to be conducting a study to understand the impact of open-access books. I am currently contacting a subset of readers who have read ‘Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19’. I’d love to schedule a 15-minute interview over Zoom to discuss your experiences with this open-access book. If you’d be interested in participating in this, please let me know, and I can send you a link to schedule a date/time that works for you. Please don’t hesitate to let me know with any questions or concerns.”
I agreed to be interviewed because it was a great learning opportunity for me as a Ph.D. research scholar and research guide and supervisor and I decided to share the experience for the young and aspiring generation of Goa and the intellectually regimented and stagnated research scholars who are following a monotonous and boring stereotyped model of Ph.D.-level
research.
Adjusting for the time difference, the half an hour interview showed me the innovative approach of the supervisor of the UOM doctoral candidate, the detailed rules and guidelines that are made compulsory for them, the freedom they give to the person they interview, and the very informal way of learning while the students constantly try to absorb points made in the conversation which may be useful for their thesis in future. I knew that from the interview record, a printed transcript would be placed before the supervisor, and a discussion might occur. But what we need to learn from UOM research dynamics is their constant yearning to learn from anyone in any part of the world. Ani went beyond a mere survey of the literature and preparation of a bibliography and caught hold of real e-book users for a remote, online-focused direct interaction. There is nothing greater in this globalised world than cross-pollination of ideas. While answering her questions on the UOM open access policy and suggestions to improve the same, I was also thinking about the role that is waiting for the university systems in these two friendly democratic countries, the U.S.A. and India, to build a new architecture of knowledge for future generations and the well-being and welfare of the planet. I could see from her reactions on the camera that she was seriously listening to my loud thinking, thoughts, and ideas. When I explained why instead of restrictive “open access,” we need to move to “global free access,” I could see her expression becoming serious. Probably, because it was something unexpected.
UOM has a very liberal culture and new ideas can thrive only under such an environment; therefore, I always recommend their “open access” e-books to several interested people. I elaborated on the challenges faced by the planet, the inequalities in knowledge, how Indian students, teachers, and research scholars can’t afford the expensive e-books or printed foreign books, and the need for a UOM free e-book access portal with the possibility of translating their most popular titles in six major official languages used by the United Nations.
The brief interaction was more important for me because of the freedom that was imparted, the questions that were asked, and the respect that was shown. We are light years behind the new-age technology and ideas-driven, innovation-driven research dynamics of top global universities like UOM. Although I was asked many personal questions, I didn’t know anything about this doctoral candidate, her background, or her original nationality. But her fluent American English showed me that irrespective of the students’ countries of origin on their campuses, the U.S.A. has created an impressive cosmopolitan, young, and dynamic scholarship.
I was sure that by the end of the interview, I could present many ideas for the consideration of this UOM doctoral candidate and her thesis supervisor. They were advised to go beyond their research hypothesis and dream of a world where knowledge is disseminated in a democratic, easily accessible, equitable, and free manner. I offered the model of their e-book on the comparative politics of COVID-19 management as an example. I was very impressed that despite the first wave of COVID-19 being at its peak UOM had assembled an expert team of editors in 2020 who could contact other experts ranging from medical professionals, political scientists, public policy analysts, etc, and persuade them to write 30 excellent chapters. The team formulated six clear hypotheses and then presented their findings under each. It was a good model of global intellectual cooperation catalysed by UOM, and they had gone a step ahead to offer this e-book priced at $45 free to any interested user with access to their e-book website. I don’t remember any such effort or a model by any public or private university in India. That clearly showed me why, as a doctoral candidate myself, even at 65 years old, I need to learn from the research dynamics of the University of Michigan.
I urge interested teachers, graduate and postgraduate students, and Ph.D. research scholars to make maximum use of UOM open-access e-books. Visit the short URL of the UOM ebook collection https://shorturl.at/gnCHP and enjoy the relevant titles. Please respond and cooperate if you get an interview call. We have so much to learn from such top universities in the world.