Call me an unreformed social constructionist but I think language has power. Calling these really cool new types of conferences things like “unconferences” “camps” and whatever just cedes the definition of “conference” to people whose primary goal seems to be to bore us to death. What is the purpose of the conference? There is plenty […]
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misunderstanding copyright
Copyright has been in the news recently thanks to an incident in which a profit-making magazine reprinted an article they found on the internet without the authors permission. (No, I’m not linking. They’ve had enough publicity for their nefarious deeds.) When the author challenged the editor, the response included what seems to be a common […]
Read More »Giving presentations: slides, visual, and handouts
It seems to me that a lot of bad PowerPoint results from the desire to have the slides work as presentations after the fact. Even worse is when the slides need to stand alone without the speaker.
I’m sorry, but if you can get what you need from the slides, you don’t need me standing up in front of you. Why waste my time and yours going through the motions?
Read More »What if teaching really is your thing?
As I’ve said before, not all academic jobs are the same. Some people really value teaching. They do it well. They figure out how to do it better. Seeing students get it is what motivates them. They are, as Chris Atherton noted recently, “exactly the kind of person you’d want teaching your kids when they […]
Read More »On advice about publishing before securing an academic job
Your doctoral supervisor (and indeed the entire department) has an interest in you getting a tenure-track job. It is in their interests to give you good advice.
That said, sometimes their knowledge of the labour market is limited. Assume that they have good intentions, but don’t treat their advice as gospel. Things have been changing fast.
Read More »Maybe I’m not crazy
Sometimes I think that you will all just think I’ve lost my mind. (cue Robbie Williams “…It was mine to give away…”) The academic labour market, heck the entire labour market, is going to hell in a handbasket and I’m telling you to think about your passion and your best contribution. I’m suggesting that you […]
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What is your best contribution?
Instead of asking yourself: what you are going to do with all this education you have … Instead of wondering: what you have to do to get someone to hire you … Instead of focusing on all the external expectations, constraints, etc … Why not ask yourself this question? What is my best contribution? How […]
Read More »Also found at …
Just a quickie to say that I wrote an article about considering post-doctoral fellowships for University Affairs. It’s in the most recent issue on the back page. Or find it online here. University Affairs is about to relaunch their careers blog, too. And I’m one of the regular writers for it. It’ll be called Careers […]
Read More »The value of education
Trying to articulate the value of your PhD is complicated by the fact that debates about the value of education (at any level) are dominated by an instrumentalist, employment preparation discourse. I recall having a conversation with a friend back in the early 1990s in which she told me that her 6 year old son’s […]
Read More »Useful answers for “What are you going to do with that?”
It’s all well and good for me to say it isn’t the right question. People still ask it. People you care about. People you have trouble ignoring or being snarky to. So what do you say? Assume the best intentions Whenever you are faced with a stomach cramp inducing question like this, it is always […]
Read More »What are you going to do with that?
How many people have asked you this question? I bet you’ve lost count. It is such a common question, someone used it as the title of a book. About non-academic careers for PhDs, of course. (It’s a good book. Well worth it.) And it’s probably your number one source of anxiety while working towards your PhD and […]
Read More »Believe it or not, I do this for a living
I never would have imagined it were possible. Given that there was no internet when I was a teenager, running my own business over the internet is obviously not something I’ve wanted to do forever. In fact, running my own business at all only came to me as an option fairly late in the game. […]
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