Best/Worst Backdoor Brag

[auvers-sur-oise]

So quiet! Everyone busy with applications, I'm sure. But we all have time for a poll and a little fun!

What is the most ridiculous backdoor brag you have ever heard from a fellow Art Historian and/or graduate student?

This question is prompted by a girl in my MA program who just posted on Facebook:

"Today is further proof that my expert knowledge of American Art has ruined the Whitney! Missing a simpler time when I could simply visit to enjoy the art, rather than becoming infuriated with the disastrous inconsistencies on their didactic panels!!!"

Ugggghhhhh.

[Guest lefilsdhomme]

I love this topic. My favorite when any academic during a lecture prefaces a question with "in my new book I have written on [insert something tangential to the actual topic of the lecture] and I would like to hear your opinion on yadda yadda..." or "in my own research on this topic I have found that [yadda yadda]. Do you agree?"

As much as I love to chuckle at self-aggrandizement, should I spend seven years of my life earning a PhD I will most certainly toot my own horn from time to time.

[mandarin.orange]

My favorite when any academic during a lecture...

LOL. Fortunately the faculty in my department generally don't do this, but we can always tell when colloquium or a job talk is jointly sponsored with other departments because the "others" often engage in exactly this posturing. One job candidate very humbly talked about his experiences with border security in India. A woman from a dept. upstairs pointed out where he was wrong on a few minutiae, scoffing, "How can you say this? I know India."

Yes, visiting-arrogant-prof lady... I'm sure you "know" all about a subcontinent home to 1.2 billion people, in all its entirety and complexities...

Edited November 16, 2012 by mandarin.orange

[mooncake88]

My favorite was when a fellow classmate made a facebook status update "highly recommending" we all go to a certain exhibit, even going so far as to offer us a tour of it "in case we weren't familiar with the topic." ! Oh yes, please tell me more about your expertise on this obscure topic, I was just dying for a private tour from you.

[runaway]

I love this thread.

Possibly the subtlest one: tote bags! From that remote/obscure museum or art fair in another city. My favorite is seeing people carrying their bags the day after a VIP opening, just in case you were wondering if they went or not.

[losemygrip]

Name dropping. It even happens on these very forae. (Forii? Fora?)