Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You can ignore the grading This post refers to the break between the first and second semesters of an academic year, which in the Northern Hemisphere tends to incorporate the Christmas holidays. Often the exams and assignments that come in at the end of the semester need to be […]
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Writing for the people who will like your work
It strikes me that many academics spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the people who will hate their work. Even before you’ve written the article, you are imagining someone criticizing it, probably in a particularly mean and hurtful way. No wonder you have trouble writing. Write for the people who are eager […]
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Start thinking about your post-doc early
Are you within 12 – 18 months of finishing your dissertation? I know that’s a hard question. And you can’t really know with any certainty. Do you feel like you are approaching the end of this process? Have you considered a post-doctoral fellowship? Even if you are closer to finished or have already defended your dissertation, […]
Read More »What is “research”?
In early 2012, Rohan Maitzen published a few very thoughtful posts about what counts are research, the apparent conflict between research and teaching, and related issues. One of these, “When is Reading Research?“, really highlights some of the underlying issues. When we talk about “doing research,” I think we conventionally mean reading in service of a […]
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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 »What happened to the Life of the Mind?
For many people what’s attractive about an academic career is the opportunity to be intellectually engaged: with students, with books, with colleagues, etc. Popular cultural representations of academia twist this into an image of the professor with his mind on higher things and detached from reality. Either way what gets called “the life of the mind” […]
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 […]
Read More »It’s fine to only want to reach other academics
I know Knowledge Mobilization, Relevance, Knowledge Transfer and all that are hot topics right now. And if you are doing work that has immediate relevance to particular non-academic audiences, you really need to work out the best way to reach those audiences. Which is one reason that I wrote that earlier post. But that doesn’t […]
Read More »Two Solitudes? Knowledge mobilization/transfer & the PhD problem
This post might be a bit random but there are some thoughts mulling in the back of my head and I figure if I get them out of my head where other people can engage with them, they might grow into something more coherent. Please treat what follows as preliminary thinking. Thinking aloud. An invitation […]
Read More »Starting to think about working in teams
Are you thinking it’s time to hire a research assistant or collaborate with a colleague or hire an editor? Whether you feel pushed by external pressures or by the internal recognition that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things you want to do, this transition is hard. In addition to the practical […]
Read More »Impact, Interdisicplinarity, and Publication Strategies
In May 2009 I did a talk in the Career Corner at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The nice people from University Affairs videoed it and have now posted the video, nicely edited into short chunks, on their website. I thought you might like to see me in action. This section is […]
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