Inside the life of a Durham professor: We spoke to Durfess legend, Dr Sara Uckelman

Last Friday afternoon, I had the privilege of spending an hour and a half in conversation with philosophy academic Dr Sara Uckelman, otherwise well-known for her Durfess fame – we conversed about subjects ranging from her educational background, the importance of logic, to what the realities of being an academic truly looks like.

On behalf of every student ever, there is definitely a tendency to sometimes forget that our lecturers, seminar leaders, and academics have individual stories and lives of their own, outside the image forged in our minds.

For me, this was really important in the interview, in order to help discover Dr Uckelman’s own story. In Sara’s case, her academic journey adopted an international trajectory. Contrary to popular belief, while studying her undergraduate degree at Wisconsin University, Dr Uckelman was not initially studying a philosophy degree, and was instead reading English Literature. It was only when completing more-and-more logic classes she earnt enough credits to receive a double honours degree – it’s funny how things work out like that.

From this, Sara later relocated to the University of Amsterdam, having had to start over her PHD course, alongside her later-to-be husband, and referred to this move as “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made”. From there, she earnt a short-term research position, worked in Germany for two years, and later settled into Durham, where she has now lived for the past ten years. Throughout the interview I was really intrigued by the cultural differences between the United States and England, and how she has managed to navigate that. We laughed at the fact she still finds British humour difficult to grasp with – is it a “Sara problem” or are our jokes problematic…

Having just celebrated ten years in Durham thus far, Sara discussed how lucky and grateful she is to have a permanent position in academia, acknowledging how difficult they are to come by. This is her first full-time and balanced job, being able to both research and teach. I used this interview as an opportunity to understand and reveal the reality of being an academic – an inside look into the behind the scene actions of academia. Sara described her occupation as incredibly multifaceted, with the “huge amount of bureaucracy and paperwork” she regularly manages, and stating that as students we in fact observe “maybe 30% of what we (academics) do” on a day-to-day basis.

Sara in Brazil

A lecturer’s job, in any department, is more than simply PowerPoint slides, emails, and office hours, but actually entails research leave, worldwide conferences, and heavy integration with the wider university system. On this note, Sara revealed her travels across the globe, which were all characteristic of her job, having been to roughly fifteen different places this past year alone while on research leave, ranging from Brazil to the Czech Republic. With this comes another side of academia, which is very much concealed from a student’s eyesight: professors are granted the opportunity to seek the globe all in the name of their occupation! From these travels, global connections are forged between lecturers, universities, and even help forge new friendships. It was truly fascinating to hear Dr Uckelman’s stories from across the world, as this new image of academia revealed there truly is a complete side that we, as a student cohort, are unaware of.

Due to this, one point I expressed was how academia should have greater visibility within the university to thus encourage it as a career path or inspire better communication and integration with students. As there is so much to the job which we fail to see, Sara agreed with me that there are many “opportunities for students not known about”. We stressed the importance of utilising the resources available to make the absolute most of our university experience (especially when the majority of us will be in a mortifying state of debt, we may as well had made use of anything and everything). In this vein, Sara and I agreed upon the fact it really proves a “shame that students develop their own ideas and questions at the very end” of their degree. It is not until now, as a finalist, I have the jurisdiction to write a twelve-thousand-word dissertation on a topic I choose freely. Perhaps, if there was greater communication between those who represent academia alongside the student cohort then opportunities and the realities of academia, for example, would be more visible and accessible for individuals to interact with and benefit from.

Moreover, I was also intrigued to discuss both Dr Uckelman’s philosophical stances and where such beliefs stemmed from. Sara was dedicated in giving credit to her father for his high-level precision and accuracy to anything he did, which she herself is glad to have inherited. Sara’s love for logic began when she attended logic classes in her youth and she gradually became a fanatic for the details, direction, and rules involved with it. In her words, logic is a “verified method”, and out of all the methods “the most method-y”.

Her love for logic has also marked great achievements within the philosophy department, which deserves to be recognised across the whole university: Dr Uckelman successfully convinced the department to allow her Introduction to logic module open to everyone across the university system, not solely for single honours philosophy undergraduates. This is a momentous success and one which deserves great recognition. I myself asked Sara why everyone should have a basic understanding of philosophy, and she answered by stating the primary focus is how things are asked.

From this, the methodological aspects help us view the world in a very multi-dimensional manner; as, with logic, we should be able to divide everything into two categories of belonging. Essentially, she throughout honed in the idea that we should have regular contact with logic. Whether this contact be reading philosophical texts, attending Dr Uckelman’s “Introduction to logic” lectures, or watching her incredibly enthusiastic YouTube videos on the channel “Dr Logic awkwardly does logic”, it now feels necessary that we all immerse ourselves within the logic-sphere.

Now, Dr Uckelman returns to the lecture room and is raring to immerse herself back into teaching. Despite her love for her research leave, she spoke about how much she has missed interacting with students in the lecture hall, organising reading groups, and meeting students in office hours. Whether you know Sara from her notorious activity on Durham Facebook groups, or have been lucky enough to been a student of her class, we can all agree she is a great testament to the university. She has managed to balance completing her research books, meeting deadlines, and attending global conferences with her return back to the teaching side of academia. As I now finish this article, I shall leave you with Sara’s top tips:

1. Find out who your academic advisor is.

2. Talk to your module leaders.

3. Attend your office hours.

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