Academy

Did You Know?

• The word academy derives from the Athenian hero Akademos.
• The sacred space of Akademia was an olive grove, giving rise to the expression 'the groves of Academe'.
• In the 17th century, British, Italian and French scholars used the term academy to describe types of institutions of higher learning.

History

Before becoming a school, the site of Akademia contained a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated to Athena, outside the walls of ancient Athens. The archaic name Hekademia evolved into Akademia by classical times, linked to the legendary hero Akademos. Plato's successors as scholarch included Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemon, Crates, and Arcesilaus, among others. Notable members included Aristotle, Heraclides Ponticus, and Eudoxus of Cnidus. After a lapse during early Roman occupation, the Academy was refounded by late antique Platonists who called themselves successors, though there was no geographical, institutional, economic or personal continuity with the original. The last Greek philosophers of this revived Academy in the 6th century came from various parts of the Hellenistic world, with five of seven mentioned by Agathias being of Syriac origin.

Modern use of the term academy

The word "academy" now applies to a broad range of institutions, including schools, learned societies, funding organizations, and trade groups. National academies, typically state-funded, support scientists, artists, or writers and often manage government research money. Some, like the British Royal Society, use different titles. Their members are usually distinguished experts chosen by peers or appointed by officials.

The Académie Française set the standard for such bodies. Finland has two: the Academy of Finland, a state funding agency, and Suomalainen tiedeakatemia, a learned society. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which runs the Oscars, is an industry group. Specialized college-type academies include the Royal Academy of Music, the United States Military Academy, and the United States Naval Academy.

American police train at police academies. In the early 1800s, "academy" came to mean a school between elementary and college level, as seen at Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter academies. Mozart used "academies" for his paid subscription concerts in 1780s and 1790s Vienna. This musical usage survives in the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra and the Brixton Academy concert hall.

Academic publishing

Among the earliest research journals were the Proceedings of Meetings of the Royal Society in the 17th century. At that time, publishing academic inquiry was controversial and ridiculed; new discoveries were often announced as anagrams to reserve priority. Robert K. Merton found that 92 percent of simultaneous discoveries in the 17th century ended in dispute, dropping to 72 percent in the 18th, 59 percent by the late 19th, and 33 percent by the early 20th century.

The decline is credited to the increasing acceptance of publication in modern academic journals. The Royal Society believed science could advance only through transparent exchange of ideas backed by experimental evidence. For example, when the Duke of Buckingham presented a vial of powdered unicorn horn in 1661, Robert Hooke tested the claim that a circle of unicorn horn would cage a spider; the spider walked out, demonstrating cutting-edge research for its time.

Academic dress

Gowns have been associated with academia since the 14th and 15th centuries, possibly because early scholars were priests or church officials. Gown styles have become standardized to some extent, though traditions vary by country and institution. At Oxford and Cambridge, undergraduates may wear gowns on formal occasions and graduation, typically a shortened bachelor's gown. At other universities, the custom is absent.

In the US and UK, bachelor's degree recipients wear a simple full-length robe and a mortarboard cap with a tassel, and may wear a ceremonial hood, though bachelor's hoods are rare in the US. Master's degree recipients wear a similar cap and gown with closed sleeves and slits, and a hood hanging down the back, edged with disciplinary color and lined with university colors. The American Council on Education specifies that six-year specialist degrees may have hoods intermediate in length between master's and doctor's hoods, with a four-inch velvet border, and cap tassels should be uniformly black.