• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Coaching
  • Academic Writing Studio
  • Library
  • About
  • Contact
  • Books

Jo VanEvery

You are here: Home / Archives for Context

Academic Context

How things work in academic institutions, academic disciplines, and other spaces where you find yourself. The unwritten rules, assumptions, and ways of being that make the difference in everyday academic life.

This category has been somewhat neglected. Older posts in this category will be edited and possibly recategorized beginning in July 2015.

Viewed from above, a printed calendar page for January on a shabby chic white painted wooden surface. There is a pot plant placed on the top left corner of the page and a blue compass on the bottom right.

This is *not* your new year, new start

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · This is *not* your new year, new start The beginning of the calendar year is accompanied by a lot of cultural pressure to reflect on the year just ended and make some big decisions about the year ahead. Reflection and planning are both practices I encourage. However, if you […]

Read More »
A busy scene of people walking in different directions through an urban square. Some are blurred from the long-exposure effect of the photography.

Planning in uncertain times

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Planning in Uncertain Times None of us are any good at predicting the future. On one level we are always planning for uncertainty. The level of uncertainty varies though and has been very high for the past year or so, both generally and in relation to your academic work […]

Read More »
A white mug of a presumably hot drink with a teaspoon sticking out of it is positioned next to an orange striped box of tissues with some of the scrunched up tissues next to it. A pair of up-turned glasses also sit nearby suggesting a dishevelled, ill-health situation.

Yes, you should take sick leave.

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Yes, you should take sick leave Note: I currently live in the UK and have previously lived in Canada. My statements are based in the general employment situation that pertains in those countries and countries like them, where there is significant employment protection in law, and significant levels of […]

Read More »
An americano coffee in a white cup and saucer sit on top of a calendar notebook diary, with a wicker basket of baked treats to accompany them.

Spotlight On: Cycles of the Academic Year

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Jo VanEvery

What if I told you rethinking your academic year to align with your goals and values could help you manage your workload more confidently? Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Cycles of the Academic Year Cycles of the academic year & intensity of work is where I first started thinking about the broader shape of […]

Read More »
An orange fuel light illuminates a dark vehicle dashboard.

Managing your energy.

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Managing your energy The academic year varies in intensity. The typical structure of an academic year has 2 teaching semesters, or 3 teaching terms with shorter breaks between them and then a long break in the summer. Everyone involved needs time to recover and recharge, and to integrate knowledge. […]

Read More »
Mortar board graduation hats are wired to form pendant lights hanging from the ceiling

The value of intellectual engagement

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Valuing Intellectual Engagement Burnout and stress are not just about the quantity of work you have to do. Lack of control and a sense of meaninglessness are major contributors to burnout. It has become very clear that your difficulty managing your workload is not a personal failing. You are […]

Read More »
Close up of the corner of a MacBook laptop screen with Gmail window open

Email overwhelm as a collective problem

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Email Overwhelm as a Collective Problem. This post was prompted by the renowned classicist, Mary Beard, stoking up the embers of email stress recently over on Twitter. for all you guys (women and men) recommending 'delay delivery',. do you know what that means? It means that at 9.00 my […]

Read More »
A sad half deflated bright yellow baloon with a black smiley face that is trailing on the floor in an urban street

Optimism in the face of uncertainty

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Jo VanEvery

There is a difference between optimism and positivity, or at least the kind of positivity that tries to pretend that bad things never happen, or never happen to good people. I am an optimist. I read something recently that helped me clarify what that looks like for me. It’s a bit like “It’ll be okay […]

Read More »

Peer review supports academic writing!

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Jo VanEvery

The 4th book in my Short Guides series, Peer Review (A Short Guide), was published on 15 November 2019. I occasionally offer a class, Dealing With Reviewer Comments, based on the principles elaborated in this book. The main thing I want this Short Guide to do is transform your view of peer review. Too often […]

Read More »

The value of voluntary peer review labour

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Jo VanEvery

What follows is a draft of one section of my next Short Guide, Peer Review. I approach peer review as primarily editorial labour with the goal of improving scholarship. I question the use of “gate keeping” as a metaphor for the role of peer reviewers in making recommendations to editors regarding publishing decisions while recognising […]

Read More »

Accountability vs Community

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Jo VanEvery

I’ve been reading Rowena Murray’s Writing in Social Spaces, and it has helped me articulate something that underpins a lot of my work. Community is important to your ability to do this work. This got long, if what you really want are suggestions for creating writing community, jump here. When I talk about A Meeting […]

Read More »

Thoughts on “Untangling Academic Publishing”

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Jo VanEvery

I have written before about communication and validation in your publishing decisions and encouraged you to prioritize communication in your decision making process. In this post, I want to extend that argument using a recently published scholarly report as a jumping off point. (you can go read it and come back) Fyfe, A., et al. […]

Read More »
Older Posts
  • Home
  • Coaching
  • Academic Writing Studio
  • Library
  • About
  • Contact
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy

Footer

Search the site

© 2022 Jo VanEvery | Privacy Policy

Proudly powered by WordPress