Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How scholarship is evaluated The quality and impact/significance of your research is usually evaluated based on where you publish. The advent of new outlets for your scholarly work has raised some interesting issues about how this is done. A blog exchange about Melville scholarship (read the comments, and also […]
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How I help with writing
A hadn’t been publishing. He wrote regularly despite a full teaching load. But he wasn’t getting things finished. And he wasn’t submitting them. Writing was an intellectually satisfying process for A. In thinking about why he didn’t finish he realized that he wasn’t motivated by the product — an article or a book — but […]
Read More »Learning to use images
Moving from knowing that images do things words can do to actually using images well in presentations and other work is hard. I’ve learned a lot about that in the past year. For example, finding representational images after you’ve written the content is probably the hardest way to go about it.
I’m now figuring how to use images to help you be a better academic. If you want to help me test a new tool …
Read More »Permission to think big thoughts, write …
If you don’t make and protect time for thinking big thoughts, writing, and other research tasks no one else will.
Research doesn’t always look like real work, especially to outsiders, but it is. In this post, I give you some tips on valuing that work for yourself and on finding time to do it regularly.
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Permission to refuse service/admin requests
One difference between an academic career and other forms of employment is that you are often left to manage your workload yourself. The basics are decided by someone else, but you are always “free” to take on more.
Saying “no” is hard. Are you saying yes just to avoid the discomfort?
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Are you waiting for permission?
One of the attractions of an academic career is the autonomy it affords. That means no one is going to give you permission. Or, perhaps more accurately, they already have.
Trusting your judgement is hard. You risk criticism. Disapproval. Perhaps even attack. Even though criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, many academics struggle with it.
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You can take your time
Your dissertation is not an end. It is a beginning.
Getting a tenure track job (or equivalent academic appointment) is not an end. It is a beginning.
And even if your ultimate goal is “Be a full-professor, with an international reputation in my field.” (and it’s okay if that isn’t your goal), you aren’t going to get there in 3-5 years.
Read More »Ever wonder about publishing for a broader audience?
One of the people I’ve met on Twitter is Holly Tucker, a historian at Vanderbilt University. She’s written a history of blood transfusion called Blood Work. In the run up to it’s release she is writing about the process of promoting the book. But there is something about the transition between a manuscript to a real […]
Read More »Classmates bring content
Now that so much information is available on the internet, this question arises more and more frequently. Why go to university? Why pay all that money to learn things you could learn on your own using resources available on the internet and in public libraries. Or, on a smaller scale, why take a class like […]
Read More »Diagnosing student feedback
Students think the textbook is boring. They come to class unprepared. They haven’t done the reading and/or they don’t have anything meaningful to add to discussion. Then they complain about their grades. It’s easy to complain about the state of young people today and how they seem to think that what you assume are basic […]
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A class provides structure
Now that so much information is available on the internet, this question arises more and more frequently. Why go to university? Why pay all that money to learn things you could learn on your own using resources available on the internet and in public libraries. Couldn’t you just do this stuff yourself? Perhaps with the […]
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So, what do you do next…
Julie Clarenbach and I wrote the Myths & Mismatches series because we know that a lot of people are feeling unhappy with some aspect of their academic career. We also know that a lot of people are blaming themselves. When you feel like you’re being battered by a constant storm, it’s pretty hard to start […]
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