theorist

scholar

Learned, studious person

• researcherOne who studies systematically
• professorSenior university teacher
• intellectualConcerning thought and reason

thinker · academician · lecturer · expert · doctorate · dissertation · thesis · publication · seminar · faculty

metaphysics

Philosophy of existence's nature

• ontologyStudy of existence's nature
• epistemologyTheory of knowledge
• ethicsStudy of right conduct

aesthetics · logic · existentialism · phenomenology · empiricism · rationalism · idealism · realism · skepticism · stoicism

methodology

Formal procedural framework

• frameworkUnderlying support system
• modelRepresentation or paradigm
• evidenceFacts supporting truth

deductive · inductive · empirical · quantitative · qualitative · variables · analysis · inference · validation · correlation

visionary

Imaginative planner of futures

• groundbreakingIntroducing radical new ideas
• revolutionarySeeking fundamental systemic change
• trailblazerFirst to forge ahead

original · influential · seminal · transformative · avant-garde · unconventional · provocative · controversial · radical · iconoclast

critic

One who judges merit

• formalismPrivileging structure over substance
• structuralismAnalysis through underlying systems
• post-structuralismTheory rejecting stable meaning

deconstruction · semiotics · hermeneutics · intertextuality · postmodernism · post-colonialism · feminism · Marxist · aestheticism · canon

• Literary Criticsbook reviewer, essayist, scholar, analyst, commentator
• literary scholarsscholar, critic, literary critics, professor, philologists
• Pioneerspioneer, pioneers, forerunner, trailblazer, innovator
• fandomfandom, fandoms, fan club, fan base, fanbase
• intellectualsscholar, intellectual, academic, thinker, philosopher
• Nerdsnerd, geek, dork, dweeb, brainiac