<p>What are some of their main daily tasks?</p>
<p>Is it more of an inside, paperwork, deskjob or out in Africa helping and doing odd jobs, etc.?</p>
<p>you read, you read, you read, and you read more.
You research in the library, go to conferences, write more papers, publish em, teach and read more.
Sometimes, you would get nice fundings, and that would enable you to travel to countries of your area of specialty where you will do some participatory observation, which should confirm your research and help you write your next paper/monograph/book.
and hell no, you don’t help out kids in Africa, your job is to observe how they suffer, not to interfere their sufferings. Those people who help out african kids are called imperialists, neocolonists, or hippies.</p>
<p>haha, my professor got a nice grant to do work in the middle east, and the research was fun, but we never helped anyone in Jordan where there was extreme poverty. Your goals are to write books, and teach college classes and do fun research. Just don’t expect a high salary.</p>