ACADEMIA Letters

Research in the speed of light? A brief reflection on

contemporary academic production
Clarissa Campos, UFSJ - Federal University of São João Del-Rei

I was recently introduced to a very inspiring podcast telling the history of Charles Dar-
win in his path until he finally came to writing On the Origin of Species.1 Among several
curiosities and a thorough historical account, as I frenetically listened to their captivating list
of episodes, it was Darwin’s path as a researcher that intrigued me the most. As a researcher
myself, and after having just defended my PhD dissertation, I could not help but wonder how
things must have been different in a time when time itself, and people’s relationship with time,
were so different than today. Of course, Darwin had access to his family’s abundant resources,
so having plenty of time to dedicate to one’s interest activities was already a privilege back in
the 19th century. In Darwin’s case, who was highly educated but not a professional scientist
in a formal institution, initially a passion for collecting beetles, rocks, and other specimens,
although he had no intention of establishing a new theory yet.
Even so, during his journey accompanying the ship’s captain Robert FitzRoy, Darwin
continuously registered every discovery he made while observing exotic sites in every oppor-
tunity he had. By the time he finally reached the Galapagos Islands, Darwin already had long
years collecting specimens and detailing his observations in notes, drawings, and memories.
He eventually shared these with other researchers in different countries, including important
academics at the time. As someone who always had a considerable degree of difficulty coping
with the tons of information we receive on a daily basis, while listening to how Darwin came
to write his seminal work, it was how time was a key factor for his achievements that provoked
me the most. The time to observe, investigate, and reflect; and the time to essentially enjoy
1
For those interested in listening to a podcast in Portuguese, it is called Vinte Mil Léguas (Twenty Thousand
Leagues) and can be found here http://bit.ly/2MzAaFi

Academia Letters, February 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Clarissa Campos, clarissaarquiteta@gmail.com

Citation: Campos, C. (2021). Research in the speed of light? A brief reflection on contemporary academic
production. Academia Letters, Article 357. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL357.

1
what he was doing and enjoy life while he was doing it.
This illustrates well why, in my opinion, it is worth questioning whether the possibilities
offered by recent technologies to produce more have deprived us of precious time to produce
better. The idea here is not to turn back time, nor that it is bad that we are all connected in
real-time. Advances in communication technologies and the possibilities contained in being
able to easily reach and exchange information with people around the globe, as we know, have
innumerable advantages. My question refers to how we have been producing, to what ends,
and at what costs. Under constant pressure to produce more and publish faster, there is a risk
that a significant part of the work in academia becomes a hectic process of repetition, rewrit-
ing, publishing slightly different papers, and attending as many conferences as one possibly
can, in an exhausting effort to achieve the higher curricular scores. In order to accomplish all
this, of course, there is also the need to filter all that was uploaded by other authors as well,
so your new publication levels up to the most informed competitors.
Surprisingly (or not so much), shortly after the COVID-19 crisis officially acquired the
status of a pandemic, and as the most fortuned of us uncomfortably adjusted to social distanc-
ing and home-officing, more and more ‘how to’ essays on being productive at home started
popping up online. Meanwhile, life as we know it could be ending outside our backyards.
There were undoubtedly other points of view as well, though, in my opinion, not as impact-
ing. In Brazil, to cite the case I am most familiar with, some universities almost immediately
informed their employees about our new tasks and duties as distance workers, remote teaching
included. If less favoured students would be excluded from this model due to lack of access
to adequate infrastructure in their homes, because they needed to work in support of family
members who might have lost their (already precarious) jobs, or for any other reason, this was
a problem for later. If most of us were experiencing mental health issues due to personal loss
or simply feeling overwhelmed and unsafe, this was also a problem for later. Our immediate
tasks seemed to imply the same urgency as the one imposed by the greatest sanitary crisis of
our time. My point is: when we engage and reinforce this type of frantic dynamics, aren’t we
reproducing some of the oppressive logics that many of us, myself included, strongly refute?
Imagine a scene from Star Trek. The moment the spacecraft reaches speeds faster than
light. A second before, characters inside were able to observe part of the universe surrounding
them from afar. From a window, they were able to contemplate celestial bodies, their instru-
ments allowing them to estimate and calculate all kinds of data. With the spacecraft at full
speed, though, the outside is transformed into an indistinguishable set of luminous lines. Not a
possibility to make meaning of the universe surrounding them. One might argue, though: but
how could they reach those celestial bodies, visit, test, experiment, without reaching speeds
faster than light? They certainly could not. But we must remember that in the case of the

Academia Letters, February 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Clarissa Campos, clarissaarquiteta@gmail.com

Citation: Campos, C. (2021). Research in the speed of light? A brief reflection on contemporary academic
production. Academia Letters, Article 357. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL357.

2
spacecraft, the ability to go faster and faster was used as a tool in their favour, as a means,
when necessary—and not as an exigency, as an end, only to go faster.
Note should be made, however, that the emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
has also provided us with at least one outstanding example of our capability too of using
global connections, high speed, and extraordinary rates of production in our favour, allowing
effective vaccines to be produced in record time. But we should not forget all the previous
experiences and timely, carefully conceived scientific discoveries that eventually allowed us to
get this far. Groundbreaking ideas and scientific progress still take time and collective effort.
For Darwin, it was millions and millions of years of evolution on Earth, of non-linear time, of
slow and gradual transformations, and sudden breaks added to the work of other researchers
who also thoroughly worked on their theories before him. In fact, his theory is mainly about
changes brought about in the course of long periods of time. As for me, like many others eager
to build a consistent path in academia, I intend to follow deciphering the puzzle proposed by
the ancient Latin oxymoron: make haste slowly2 , hurry up but take your time.

2
Festina lente, as also mentioned in episode one of Vinte Mil Léguas.

Academia Letters, February 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Clarissa Campos, clarissaarquiteta@gmail.com

Citation: Campos, C. (2021). Research in the speed of light? A brief reflection on contemporary academic
production. Academia Letters, Article 357. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL357.