This is interesting to me as a glimpse into the sociology/professional norms of a field I know nothing about. My understanding is that in social psych/econ/political science, if a person wants to become a public figure and work mainly on public communication -- if they want to be the extension person in their subfield —they just sort of start doing it. I suppose the difference is what you get rewarded for in the tenure process and job market (but Raj Chetty, Emily Oster, Betsy Levy Paluck, Gary King, etc. can clearly manage both). So it's just interesting that all this gets explicitly sorted out at the job description level in ag econ.
This is a great point! And there are folks who do this. Jayson Lusk is perhaps the most famous example in ag econ. He coauthored "Compassion, by the Pound" and also had best-sellers like "Unnaturally Delicious" and "The Food Police." I think he realized pretty early on in his career that being an economics communicator was something he was good at. Jayson was not an extension economist, though. Just a faculty member who figured out he had a public audience. But yes, our job descriptions (and this happens in some other departments in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) are usually split between teaching, research, and extension. Having an appointment with all three is less common but not unheard of.
This is interesting to me as a glimpse into the sociology/professional norms of a field I know nothing about. My understanding is that in social psych/econ/political science, if a person wants to become a public figure and work mainly on public communication -- if they want to be the extension person in their subfield —they just sort of start doing it. I suppose the difference is what you get rewarded for in the tenure process and job market (but Raj Chetty, Emily Oster, Betsy Levy Paluck, Gary King, etc. can clearly manage both). So it's just interesting that all this gets explicitly sorted out at the job description level in ag econ.
This is a great point! And there are folks who do this. Jayson Lusk is perhaps the most famous example in ag econ. He coauthored "Compassion, by the Pound" and also had best-sellers like "Unnaturally Delicious" and "The Food Police." I think he realized pretty early on in his career that being an economics communicator was something he was good at. Jayson was not an extension economist, though. Just a faculty member who figured out he had a public audience. But yes, our job descriptions (and this happens in some other departments in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) are usually split between teaching, research, and extension. Having an appointment with all three is less common but not unheard of.