I’ve had a couple of articles open in my browser for a while now and I thought I should share them. In all the policy debate about education, there are some persistent underlying political assumptions. Being aware of these can help you engage with them directly, and address how those assumptions are driving some of […]
Read More »The research you want to make happen
Research produces more questions than answers. (Liz Gloyn calls these “academic otters“. Her strategies reflect her position as an early career research in the humanities.) The successful researchers I know have far more questions and projects they could be working on than they could possibly pursue in their lifetimes, even if they had fewer service […]
Read More »Work-Life Balance in academic careers
I read a thought provoking piece on Work-Life Balance recently. Thinking about this in relation to academic careers, I realize that the choice you face is actually more complex. And that that complexity might make it easier to address the problem (if there is one).
The issue for you might not be a work-life balance issue, it might be a work-work balance issue.
Read More »Being the scholar you want to be
Following a link from Twitter the other day (sorry, I forget who sent me here) I found this fantastic blog post on the Scientific American website: Three things I learned at the Purdue Conference for Pre-Tenure Women: on being a radical scholar. This resonates strongly with my own views about managing your academic career. I […]
Read More »October plans
I’ve got a lot going on this month. First up, the next session of Conscious Careers starts Thursday October 6. I’m looking forward to working with a new group of students. We’re still in touch with some of the alumni and they have found it really helpful. In fact, one of them wrote about it […]
Read More »Post-PhD precarity
We know that to get an academic position you need to publish from your dissertation. It would be helpful to at least have a good idea of where your research program is going to go next. If you can get started on that next project, even better. Competition is stiff. Even institutions that don’t have […]
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Dealing with email is NOT a task
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Email is not a task Are you treating dealing with your email as one task on your to-do list? Do you get frustrated at how many hours a day you spend on it? Is your measure of success dealing with all of it? Do you then chastise yourself […]
Read More »On Intellectual Property
I wanted to share this post with you, from a lawyer friend of mine. An Intellectual Property Primer Although written for creative small business folks, the basic principles apply. Ownership of intellectual property (in the form of a trademark, a copyright or a patent—more about those in posts to come) is the jar of markers. […]
Read More »Open Access & Knowledge Mobilization
I fear that for some in the academic community, Open Access publishing is acting as a crutch, albeit one they don’t have yet. Open Access publishing is a good thing. We should have more of it. There are lots of reasons for this, all of which are well known. But … How many of you […]
Read More »Approach the CV/resumé actively
My friend and colleague Julie Clarenbach has written an excellent post on building your resumé. Think about the job you’d really love to have. Think about what skills and qualifications you would need in order to land that job. … what would your resume (not someone else’s, or your resume from a different, parallel life, […]
Read More »An interesting tactic for managing ideas
We all know that research produces more questions than answers. You can quickly get overwhelmed with those questions and lose the focus necessary to finish work on one of those questions. The best advice I got as a newish PhD student (some time ago), was to make a file for all the things I would […]
Read More »Interesting post on impact of research
This post on measuring impact (within and beyond academia) has some interesting elements. Impact zones and the role of publishers: changing the way academic research makes wider impact | Impact of Social Sciences. I find the middle section, with the green chart, particularly interesting as a way of imagining the potential impact of a piece […]
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