(There are four units in the building—two upstairs, two downstairs.)

First to the point that Amanda’s work amounts to nothing more than “secretarial” labor. Every political scientist, social scientist, or scientist period worth his or her salt has worked as a research assistant—collecting data, photocopying articles, and compiling bibliographies. I’ve done it, Dan did it, and everyone else with a Ph.D. next to their name has done it. To an extent, this is a menial task, but it’s also valuable training—since 95% of social scientists don’t get the research support they need to publish, they need a sound background in doing this. And to finish your dissertation, you need to know the skills learned as a research assistant. In fact, I’d argue the role of a RA is a much less menial task than that of a teaching assistant, whose job is usually confined to grading papers, passing out materials, and proctoring exams.

Second, for Dan to entrust an undergraduate with the role of a research assistant is a compliment to that undergraduate’s abilities. To my knowledge, the University of Chicago (unlike, say, 95% of departments) is not hurting for graduate students who are already being paid to do this work.

Last, I think this entire exchange solidifies my long-standing impression that those who promulgate the fraudulent philosophy known as post-modernism—to a person—reject the ideals of absolute truth and empirical research simply because those methods of inquiry clearly show reality to be at odds with their normative beliefs about what that reality is.