OK, OK, after being here for 25 years I'm not actually new. I got a new job title, though! Doesn't that count for something? Well, to be honest, even the title isn't new. It became official four years ago last month. But for very complicated reasons, I never got around to announcing it... until now.
When I introduce myself as a "Creative Generalist" in a professional context, I always feel compelled to add that, yes, that's my official job title. In part, that's because it was a long time coming. It took years of advocacy to get my job title changed. But mainly it's because I relish the title itself, and what it means. I feel it's just about the perfect descriptor for who I am and what I do.
Actually, there is one title that might be even better: Player-Arounder. But I doubt the good folks at HR would go for that. I'm sticking with Creative Generalist for now.
I swear I cooked up the title all on my own, but of course I wasn't the first. In fact, a little cursory research indicates this term first came into currency in the late 1960s, around the time I was born. A guy named Steve Hardy played a role in promoting the concept with his blog, Creative Generalist, which he launched in early 2002 as "an outpost for curious divergent thinkers."
Here's what it means to me. Though I was originally hired as a specialist, that label never sat right with me. I've always had a broad array of interests and skills. In fact, for much of my life, my seeming inability to commit to one narrow domain or subject area felt like a detriment. As an undergraduate, I never did manage to choose a major, and so ended up with a Bachelor of General Studies. At age 25 I groused in my journal about the plethora of projects which occupied me. "Always hopping from one thing to the next. Feel like a jack of all trades. Don't forget the second half of that title: master of none." (Some wiseacre expanded this to include "but oftentimes better than a master of one" which is nice, but please don't tell me that's a quote from Shakespeare.) When I returned to school for my graduate education, I found myself in the first cohort of a new program which was extremely fluid, and I thrived in that milieu. Yes, we were housed in a traditional department (Telecommunications) but essentially I spent two years playing around with what we called "new media" in the 1990s. And so it was that I secured my master's degree without a well-formed disciplinary identity. I do have a facility for working with computer technology in general, but that's kind of ubiquitous these days. I do have an orientation toward media in particular, but that's spanned many forms and genres.
In short, I've always been a generalist. I'm still a generalist. I will always be a generalist.
It's the creative part that really gets my juices flowing. Sure, in all modesty, I'm a creative individual, a media artist if you will, but it's more than that. In this context, it's not just about my own energy but about the process itself. I hope it's evident that I'm here to help others, particularly our faculty, realize their own creative visions. I encourage faculty to see both their teaching and their research as creative acts. In service of that, I've dedicated much of my personal and professional energy to creativity itself. To me, it's not just a job but a way of life.
As the emphasis on process suggests, I'm not a done deal or a finished product. My job title urges me on to continue making new and unexpected connections. I get involved in various projects for various purposes, never knowing where they may lead. After all, as I wrote in an abandoned preface to my master's thesis, any specific project is only part of "my larger work-in-progress, a project which I call My Life."
So that's what being a Creative Generalist means to me. But it's always good to look at the evidence, which in this case just means what other people are saying. I officially adopted this title in January of 2021, almost two years before OpenAI shocked the world with ChatGPT. But a quick web search reveals that since then the idea of the Creative Generalist may be gaining ground. In fact, people like Ashok Krish and Brendt Petersen are writing about the rise of the Creative Generalist.
Petersen writes that this "symbolizes a transformative shift in our approach to creativity and problem-solving [...] a transition from specialization to a holistic, adaptive approach." (published 2 Feb. 2024 on LinkedIn) Krish actually writes that "the creative generalist is a necessary evolution for the survival of our species." I'm not making this up! He asserts that the Creative Generalist "is uniquely positioned to not only weather the storm of AI-assisted automation but indeed, to thrive in its wake." And I love that he posits that "the Creative Generalist is not simply a reaction to the rise of generative AI, but rather, a necessary counterweight." (published 14 April 2023 on LinkedIn)
That suggests to me that perhaps we should be teaching our students how to be Creative Generalists.
Possibly the foremost exponent of the term is Murielle Marie Ungricht, a career coach, author, and self-described "Autistic Entrepreneur" based in Antwerp. I like what she's laying down. She writes that "creative generalists [...] could be teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, engineers, mathematicians, scientists, or any combination. Anyone could be a creative generalist, it simply depends on how their creative brain is wired and the way they choose to use it." (published 23 January 2024 on her podcast)
So, come to think of it, maybe some of you are creative generalists as well. Maybe you should reach out and get in touch. Who knows what we might discover together.
And if you are a specialist, please don't feel left out. I have great admiration for your ability to focus. I look forward to collaborating with you as well.
Get in touch! And don't miss our upcoming workshop, Nourishing Your Own Creativity.