1 definition by Wichita.Downspout
Noun. A societal or employment position that exists solely because funds from a money-cloud (such as tax money, tuition, endowments, and non-profit organizations) was used to create it. It's title, usually having several multi-syllabic words, is an example of the "inverse law of word length and importance". It is usually a useless position that someone with several higher-education degrees holds (and perhaps even invented themselves). The purpose for its existence is to virtue-signal on both the make-work-er and make-work-ee's parts. It is meant to persuade people based on their appeal to authority.
"Margaret's make-work position is that of a biology education researcher whose research focuses on making undergraduate science learning environments more inclusive. Trained as a Ph.D. neuroscientist, she transitioned to discipline-based education research and is an expert on course-based undergraduate research experiences and making undergraduate science learning experiences, specifically active learning courses and undergraduate research experiences, more inclusive. Her research focuses on students with concealable stigmatized identities such as religious students, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities, as well as the impact on students of instructors revealing these identities in the context of the classroom. Her research in biology education has been internationally recognized and featured in Science Magazine, as well as in numerous news outlets, including the NY Times, CNN, and Scientific American."
by Wichita.Downspout June 2, 2023