In 2009 James Kalmakoff retired from the Department and Immunology, University of Otago after 40 years as an academic. He had collected stories and photos of the staff with a view to writing a history of the department. Some 10 years later he completed writing his memoir in which he attempted to capture the esprit de corps of the department. It provides a window into the day-to-day triumphs, the social events and the academic activities that were the heart-beat of the staff of the department. This memoir has been written as an ebook, a hard-copy print and an online web version.
Although The Inside Story is about the life and times at a particular department at a specific university, it is indicative of the cultural and systemic changes that have taken place at universities around the world. Those market-driven ideologies have led to a top-down management structure resulting in the centralisation and commercialisation of the university ethos.
The Inside Story begins with a department founded in the patriarchal traditions of the past and tells the stories of those who had lived through these changes.