Academic Trivia #1: What is "On Sabbatical"?

The credit for the idea for my newest category of posts, “Academic Trivia,” goes to Professor Ho.  The idea is to explain some aspects of academia that you, as students, likely hear about but maybe do not fully understand because no one has explained them.  So, first up, is what does “on sabbatical” mean?  You may have heard that Professor Burgess is “on sabbatical” next semester and that is why she is not teaching any classes.  No, “Sabbatical” is not the name of Royal Carribean’s latest luxury cruise ship (although Professor Burgess may wish it was!).  Instead, it is a leave from teaching to focus on research.  Most professors go on sabbatical in their seventh year at a university, after being granted tenure (and every seven years after that).  However, here at USF, professors can choose to take a sabbatical in their fourth year of employment, pre-tenure, to work on research, which is what Professor Burgess is doing.  She will not be cruising the high seas, but instead working on her book, entitled Making a Scene: Scandals of Legal Recognition.  As per the author herself, “This book performs a critique of recent international legislation that is meant to offer rights and resources to marginalized populations.  The book demonstrates, however, that recognition can be a scandalous affair when we look at the conditions law places on individuals in order to receive recognition.”  Some professors need to travel in order to conduct their research, and so they use their sabbatical to do that, such as Professor Jacquemet when he conducted fieldwork in Italy during his sabbatical a few years ago.  I’m still working on my argument for why I just must study the marital interactions of people living on islands in the tropical South Pacific (if you have any ideas, send them my way!).  Next up on a future Academic Trivia post: what is “tenure”?  If you have any questions that you would like answered in a future trivia post, send them my way!