No matter how much faculty members prepare for another semester of virtual instruction this fall, we will not satisfy students who made a deliberate choice to attend a physical campus.
A professor of library science offers advice on how to locate high-quality digital course materials for instructors planning more remote instruction.
For campus administrators feeling torn by doubt amid Covid-19, here are some ideas on how to move your decision-making forward in uncertain times.
Administrators who were offered new positions in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis talk about the personal aspects of making that career choice.
With “mild” symptoms that didn’t feel all that mild, a professor found a good distraction in his remote teaching.
A professor reflects on what she’s learned from the tumult of the spring semester and what she plans to do differently in the fall.
Five steps a department took to adapt its usual search process amid Covid-19 and hire a new faculty member remotely.
Why academics must resist the urge to use the pandemic to judge the value of online teaching.
No, faculty introverts actually have not “been training our whole lives” for remote work amid Covid-19. Imposed social distancing at home is not the same thing as solitude.
Scholarly reading and writing require long hours of solitary work. So how do you get any of it done in the Covid-19 crisis, when you’re surrounded by kids 24/7?
It’s time — right now — for better communication from administrators about the pandemic fallout on campuses at this very moment, for the summer, and in preparation for the fall.
Nine tips for administrative job candidates on how to avoid the many minefields of interviewing by video from home.
Job candidates with the misfortune to be searching for tenure-track positions this year or next will need as many career options as they can get.
Editors and leaders of scholarly presses talk about the impact of Covid-19 on publishing in the months ahead.
Here are three ways to get yourself unstuck on those particularly bad pandemic days.
A look at what the Covid-19 crisis might mean for untenured faculty members on and off the tenure track, and for new and returning doctoral students.
Many faculty members are already exhausted by “live” teaching online. It’s time to embrace asynchronous instruction.
Leonard Cassuto,
April 20
Amid the uncertainties created by the global pandemic, what our doctoral students may need more than usual is structure.
How to find new insights and unexpected joy amid a global pandemic.
The possibility is becoming more likely. Colleges should have a plan.
Thanks to Covid-19, a lot of us are leading virtual class discussions for the first time, and finding it’s all too easy to lose some students in the process.
Plenty of untenured faculty members are worried about how their teaching during the Covid-19 crisis will be judged and ranked in the months and years to come.
Although we are in the midst of the pandemic, we can’t delay looking ahead.
A professor is trying to do his best for his students in the Covid-19 crisis, even though remote teaching feels like the end of a way of life.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
April 2
For HR administrators and staff, the new coronavirus has meant long, crazed hours — but the real work is just beginning.
Two simple exercises — assigned before and after classes were disrupted by Covid-19 — have helped a professor keep his passion for teaching alive.
David D. Perlmutter,
April 1
The Covid-19 crisis is forcing academic administrators to pivot from their usual reliance on face-to-face engagement with donors.
In the early weeks of a global catastrophe like Covid-19, it’s best to accept that the world has changed and reimagine yourself and your work within it.
You learned a lot about social distancing when you wrote a dissertation. That experience can help you get through this pandemic crisis.
It’s only natural to feel a letdown once the initial frenzy of moving courses into a virtual classroom passes.
Why search committees and boards should give embattled ex-presidents a second look, instead of running from them.
Just as institutions have asked professors to quickly move their teaching online, they can use technology to adapt the executive-hiring process and keep it moving forward.
Yes, it’s possible to shift your lab classes online, using technology, lab kits, and virtual simulations. Here’s how.
David D. Perlmutter,
March 24
As an academic leader, your style of asking for things must fit what works — politically, culturally — at your institution.
What’s it like for an academic to see his book turn into a movie starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?
Telling students and professors to work remotely, while demanding that all academic staff members come in, sends a clear message about whose health matters.
It’s not a matter of if, but rather when, you will need to rethink things like grading, due dates, assignments, and your definition of “rigor.”
David D. Perlmutter,
March 24
You won’t be the one deciding to close down the campus, but you do have a key role to play as leader of your department, program, or college.
Six steps for quickly (and realistically) moving your teaching online, with the goal of maintaining as much continuity as possible.
Four tips on how to have healthy, productive, rewarding interactions with your doctoral students.
Three things you shouldn’t say to a community-college hiring committee and four other remarks best avoided at any type of campus interview.
After five years as a TA, the last thing I wanted to do was provide any institution with free labor. Here’s why I did it anyway.
Instead of forcing Ph.D.s to relocate for a new postdoc, consider allowing them to work from their chosen hometown.
Leonard Cassuto,
February 24
As soon as they walk in the door, doctoral students need a workshop on their job prospects — and not just the ones in academe.
Why is it so rare to find "diversity initiatives" that have anything to do with teaching?
Manya Whitaker,
February 19
A newly tenured faculty member decides it’s not too early to start planning for her next promotion.
Repeat this mantra if you are struggling with revisions: We all need editors, all the time.
Katie Rose Guest Pryal,
February 12
How to decide which mainstream publications to pitch your essay to, and how to ask about the money.
"Remember, you chose to come here," the faculty adviser admonished. "It was your choice."
The college classroom, it turns out, can be the ideal playground for those of us who identify as introverts.
David D. Perlmutter,
February 7
Administrators who conflate alumni outreach with fund raising do so at the risk of their own programs and careers.
Could we produce an academic gathering that exploited everything good about conference-going without reproducing any of the bad aspects?
A look at ways to build a professional-support network that will help you feel a little less alone on the job.
Sure, a first-year writing course can spur creativity or activism, but those are byproducts, not its main purpose.
Most of us have had at least one encounter with the sort of professors who go out of their way to put us in what they imagine to be our place.
A new project seeks to measure the extent of the mental-health crisis not just in graduate school but beyond it, among early-career Ph.D.’s.
Leonard Cassuto,
January 23
Where are the white guys when we talk about changing the way Ph.D.s are advised and trained?
If you’re lucky, your department doesn’t have to do much to attract majors. But the rest of us need to start making "the ask."
"Since I was in graduate school, I have had a problem with the exclusive use of the third-person voice."
A common question from job candidates is about how to cope with a major disconnect between the place where they earned a Ph.D., and the campuses that are hiring.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
January 16
The best way to defend yourself against the unscrupulous is to understand academe’s version of the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual."
A new series, The Public Writing Life, offers practical advice for academics on writing for a general audience.
David Gooblar,
January 10
Even the best teaching practices can have negative effects when they focus too much on data-driven compliance and surveillance.
Offered a “graceful exit” and time to search for a new leadership job, a former dean made a different choice and wonders about the fallout.
David D. Perlmutter,
January 3
Sure, you can “think outside the box” in higher education, but there are lots of obstacles to acting on your innovative speculation.
Manya Whitaker,
January 3
There is plenty of stress after tenure — different from the up-or-out pressures you experience before tenure, but intense in its own way.
This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.
Choosing the right tech tools for your teaching means making strategic choices, weighing costs against payoffs, and staying laser-focused on your course goals — and that is what this guide aims to help you do.
David D. Perlmutter,
December 23
Here's how to cope with family tensions about the nature and focus of your academic work.
The first day of class is crucial both for your students and for you. This guide will help you make opening day as effective as possible.
Leonard Cassuto,
December 19
What if departments could gain prestige from how they treated their graduate students?
Anyone with a book idea can pitch to scholarly press editors and get a fair hearing. But you have to make it easy for them to say yes.
What’s most important on a Ph.D.’s application for a tenure-track job might be least important in applying for many nonacademic ones.
Terry McGlynn,
December 10
It’s no surprise that a lot of cheating goes unreported, given the problematic protocols for dealing with students’ academic misconduct.
A look at the the ethical dilemmas facing disadvantaged college students as they struggle to balance home-life pressures with higher education.
Administrators talk a lot about “transparency,” but for that word to be more than jargon, you have to live by it.
In applying to small liberal-arts colleges, your local ties may be worth bringing up in your application.
Katie Rose Guest Pryal,
December 2
A new series, “The Public Writing Life,” offers practical advice for academics on writing for a general audience.
David D. Perlmutter,
November 26
By all means, trumpet the successes of your strategic plan but don’t cover up the warts.
Here’s what to consider as you practice introducing your work to potential publishers.
Two professors with five kids between them offer advice on how to move your tenure-track career forward while parenting.
Why campus chief executives and governing boards must aspire to creative abrasion and know how to achieve it.
As an undergraduate, she was the only woman majoring in her field. Now she’s chairing a comp-sci department and looking to diversify its graduates.
A college president chronicles how she dealt with candid comments from a search consultant about her appearance.
Feedback can be a powerful force in college classrooms. This comprehensive guide will show you how to provide it in more effective ways.
Leonard Cassuto,
November 11
Can a new gen-ed curriculum in the liberal arts boost undergraduate and graduate education at the same time?
So your faculty salary hasn’t budged in years? Maybe it’s time to promote your academic skills to outside “clients.”
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
November 4
Five behaviors that seem responsible but may not be good for your administrative career or your campus.
David Gooblar,
November 4
In fact, lecturing can be a good teaching tool, but only if the lecture is designed to produce good learning.
In a precarious era for academics, it is possible to optimize your happiness on the job. Here’s how.
After five unsuccessful years on the tenure-track market, a Ph.D. left academe and discovered it's not the only place you can lead a fulfilling life of inquiry in the humanities.
David D. Perlmutter,
October 30
Don’t be afraid to give up on a goal that has proved overly ambitious, and other advice for administrators on strategic planning.
With the cold and flu season comes the pressure on faculty members, especially the many untenured ones, to teach through an illness because canceling class would "look bad."
How should we "count" public writing and service for tenure and promotion?
Our strongest teachers get asked to write the most reference letters and receive little credit and no reward for their effort.
How one university finally made progress on its goal to hire more professors from underrepresented minority groups.
A former administrator offers a guide on how to get used to losing your authority and getting your schedule back.
Want to control syllabus bloat? Create an online version with everything students need to know in a familiar Q&A format.
"Write the kind of book you enjoy reading. If you’re not a part of your own audience, you’ll be faking it."
Leonard Cassuto,
September 30
In a tenure-market market where the odds of getting a job are never in your favor, graduate students are waking up and demanding more help from their programs.
Rob Jenkins,
September 25
Hint for candidates: Why should we seriously consider you when you haven’t seriously considered us?
Manya Whitaker,
September 24
It’s hard enough to get a tenure-track job now but your odds are even longer with too many of the wrong kinds of publications.
Time and again, leaders who chose to hang tough and not bail from a struggling campus find that their bold actions end up tainting their job prospects at other institutions.
David D. Perlmutter,
September 19
Some strategic plans fail because they are perceived as top-down mandates. Others collapse under the weight of too much input from too many committees. Here’s how to navigate the middle ground.
Karen Kelsky,
September 19
You may lose a year or two in moving to a new doctoral program, but sometimes that is the best call.
Our vulnerability to charismatic music offers a key to understanding our vulnerability to charismatic people, institutions, and ideologies more broadly.
If writing for general magazines and websites is something you really want to do in graduate school or after, prioritize it — even if your mentors see it as unimportant.
Leonard Cassuto,
September 10
Why write an application letter so dry that even you wouldn’t want to read it?
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
September 5
A new academic year means lots and lots of meetings. Here’s how to make them more productive and less contentious.
David Gooblar,
September 3
Warren’s version of the Socratic method, cold-calling on students in her law courses, is actually deeply progressive.
Kevin Gannon,
September 3
Adapting a course for a digital environment forces you to ask yourself why you’re doing a particular pedagogical thing — and then to rethink it.
For graduate students going on the faculty market, the job talk is where you can really shine — or very publicly fail.
Getting the mental-health care that I so desperately needed was the best thing I ever did for myself as a doctoral student.
In learning how to be a dean, the magic is in distinguishing between what requires compromise and what must be an executive decision.
"There is nothing I am not interested in. That’s my strength. My weakness is there is nothing I am not interested in."
Manya Whitaker,
August 21
Here is a primer on the jargon of the academic-job market, aimed at early-career scholars preparing for their search this fall.
As "headhunters," we may be able to clarify things for you about an executive search, but we’re not going to coach you.
Your first year on the job, as a new, full-time faculty member at a two-year college, is often your most difficult.
David D. Perlmutter,
August 14
One of the biggest logjams in strategic planning occurs when the process begins without any agreement on how decisions will be made.
The way we hire tenure-track professors takes a toll on candidates and departments. Here’s how the system could be better.
Few benchmarks for tenure are more important than getting that first book contract if you are in a book field at a research-focused institution.
Theresa MacPhail,
July 30
After years of doling out advice on how to get more writing done, an academic has a revelation: Sometimes it’s OK to be lazy.
A black woman’s recent promotion to the top faculty rank happened, she writes, "not because times have changed, but because I beat the odds."
This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
July 24
In recruiting campus leaders, we need more community building and less star power. So how do we avoid being blinded by a candidate’s charm?
Many instructors have an intuitive sense of how to behave at the front of a classroom but have never really given much thought to how best to teach.
It’s not just a written record of your credentials. It’s an argument in favor of you. Draft it with that in mind.
Yes it’s still summer, but if you’re beginning a new faculty post this fall, it’s time to start preparing for what’s coming.
A health crisis introduces a faculty member to every impediment to mobility on his campus.
“If you don’t understand the need to make an argument in scholarly writing, you don’t understand scholarship.”
Career transitions for Ph.D.s cannot be mapped, which is why the road is so difficult and so draining for so many.
Question: What are the merits of a tenure-track job at a small college versus a term/clinical position at a major research university (R1 or R2)? I’m on the tenure track at a liberal-arts college, but on a very low salary. I have a possibili...
Given the weak tenure-track job market, why not make scholarly conferences a little more accessible for nonacademic employers in need of writers and researchers?
The biggest risk to a campus, a candidate, and a search firm is not a breach of confidentiality in the hiring process, but rather, a failed presidency owing to a bad fit.
David D. Perlmutter,
July 1
Learning how to use digital dashboards is vital for newcomers to administration, both to do your job every day and to ward off future problems.
A lack of health insurance leads many graduate students to delay treatment for chronic health problems, sometimes for years.
Why the overuse of a certain hated word in the college classroom might not be a problem that requires faculty attention.
My goal was to have coffee with every faculty member. Besides discovering the effects of too much caffeine, here are a few of the lessons I’ve picked up so far about provosting.
How an English department looked to data to rework its graduate-program curriculum, and it paid off for the students.
Summertime in higher education brings with it the illusion of endings yet we all face plenty of undone work to fill our minds and days.
Scientists often rely on informal networking to admit doctoral students and hire postdocs. But those methods help keep women and people of color out of the pipeline.
Listicles and their quick-fix promises are internet brain candy, but they actually can be a useful writing tool for academics.
Why colleges and universities that claim to take teaching seriously need a comprehensive and fair system of evaluating it.
What to say (and not say) when asked about your professional plans during a job interview at a teaching-focused college.
Two philosophy professors make the case that improving your writing is the ethical thing to do. And they’re serious.
It’s always problematic when students rate an instructor’s performance, but that doesn’t mean their comments can’t be useful in your own teaching.
Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.
For undergraduates unaware of the transformative power of print, reading in that format proved illuminating.
David D. Perlmutter,
May 28
When you become an administrator, you have to force yourself to think of time — everybody’s, not just your own — with a hint of urgency.
Sometimes you just have to accept that a writing commitment you made, with good intentions, is now standing in your way.
A female professor, told by a colleague that she should "play nice" in evaluating his student’s work, calls for more transparency in advising.
Perhaps it’s time to teach our doctoral students things they actually need to know for the nonacademic careers some of them want to pursue.
How to involve students in your scholarly projects in three ways that are substantive for both them and you.
How to involve students in your scholarly projects in three ways that are substantive for both them and you.
She always knew her contingent position would cease after four years. That didn’t make losing it any easier.
How to read the mixed messages from an “aspirational” teaching institution that is looking to raise its profile.
A good intro course is, most emphatically, not a content-driven information transfer. It’s more like a well-curated collection.
A faculty member who has struggled with clinical anxiety explores how to deal with the rising rates of undergraduate mental-health issues.
In a male-dominated discipline, job candidates who cannot see that the playing field is uneven have no hope of correcting it.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
May 6
Too many campus leaders use "change-resistance" plans to refute their potential opponents, rather than to actually hear them
Compiling a tenure file forces you to confront who you are and what you’ve done, and to reimagine who you want to become.
Peer review is an inherently imperfect process, but here are some steps that would make it better.
You can learn a lot about the inner workings of a campus when your administrative offices get moved into a classroom building.
A faculty member pens an ode to the academic miseries (and occasional joys) of April.
For many professors, the possibility of changing departments triggers uncertainties that are not always easy or possible to resolve.
Much like the “sharks,” publishers prod and poke and quickly suss out whether you have what it takes and whether they’ll invest in your book.
David D. Perlmutter,
April 15
Academics are used to doing lots of talking, but administration requires learning how to listen well.
Doubting that you know how to help your dissertation student is not uncommon among faculty members.
Theresa MacPhail,
April 9
Letting students "write" in nontraditional formats has the potential to have a major impact on our classrooms.
For Ph.D.s who opt to pursue nonacademic careers, disentangling from scholarly commitments can seem more difficult than completing them.
It’s that time of the semester when students start to wonder what they can do to boost their final grades.
The new president of the Association of University Presses talks about the challenges facing academic publishing and what they mean for first-time authors.
Many struggling scholarly writers delete too much too soon. Why not save your ugly prose for a bit, and give it a chance to bloom?
In STEM fields, students with an unplanned pregnancy need mentors who will guide rather than dictate the way forward.
Whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer, ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason).
It turns out online teaching and learning isn’t inherently better or worse than the face-to-face variety — just different.
For academics with disabilities, having to self-advocate for even basic accommodations is a daily frustration.
Whether to lead your department is a question that every faculty member must answer. Here are some factors to help you make the call.
David D. Perlmutter,
March 18
It’s all too easy for a senior administrator’s incidental remark to be misinterpreted as a new demand.
"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
March 12
How the "Ringelmann Effect" might be damaging your department, your committee, or your career.
Apps are training all of us to expect ease in life. But cognitive research shows that the hardest study habits are the most effective.
The Professor Is In columnist tackles questions about teaching dossiers, email etiquette, and citation woes.
Does waiting to hear a verdict on your work get easier as you advance in your career? No, no it does not.
Just as you near or cross the doctoral finish line, it hits: the "Who am I? What now?" conundrum.
Leonard Cassuto,
February 28
This year's meeting of the nation's largest humanities organization focused on the academic workplace more than ever before -- and that spotlight promises to widen.
A "childfree" academic mulls the delicate kid issue in the context of teaching, tenure, and faculty life.
A great failure in our current academic system is the inconsistency of managers receiving — or providing — regular, specific, quality feedback on job performance.
David Gooblar,
February 25
The idea that professors indoctrinate students is actually a very old accusation. But there are teaching strategies you can use to be sure you are promoting open-mindedness.
Rebecca Schuman,
February 19
A tried-and-true technique can help you resume a project that has stalled for personal or professional reasons.
Kevin Gannon,
February 19
Here’s what job candidates need to know about preparing a sample class for an opening at a teaching-oriented college.
Just because academics have grown up with video doesn’t mean they are masters of self-presentation on camera. Here is a primer.
A funny thing happens when you decide to believe that most students are trustworthy: They mostly prove you right.
There is no easy way to earn a graduate degree, but there are plenty of ways to make it harder on yourself.
David D. Perlmutter,
January 29
It’s one of the most challenging, miserable, and politically dangerous aspects of any job in academic administration.
Theresa MacPhail,
January 28
Call me unrigorous if you like, but rethinking my assigned-reading lists has reinvigorated my classroom.
A professor enters the world of marketing blurbs, book tours, and career writers, and finds her students.
A professor opts to limit his syllabus to a single, two-sided page. He reports the sky has not fallen.
David Gooblar,
January 17
New instructors — trained in the importance of "active learning" techniques — often aren’t sure when lecturing is still a valid teaching strategy.
Leonard Cassuto,
January 16
One university’s successful effort to recruit and retain more minority students in Ph.D. programs begins at the undergradate level.
Two instructors allow students to choose their own attendance policy. The result: More show up to class.
The first day of class is crucial both for your students and for you.
You don’t want the search committee to think you sound like a panicked undergraduate trying to explain why a paper is late.
Be skeptical of any grass-is-greener hype about your nonacademic career options.
Here are four questions to help tenured professors turn a "midcareer slump" into a new mind-set.
For most of us, success isn’t about the sales. So how do we define it?
David D. Perlmutter,
January 3
Whether you are a chair, a dean, or a provost, the academic freedom that you defend vociferously for others is constricted for you.
Five lessons from the experience of applying for the tenure-track version of your previously contingent job.
David Gooblar,
December 18
You’re a faculty member, not a trained counselor. But you can play a significant role in guiding a struggling student.
We should all be talking about the overproduction of Ph.D.s — not just about nonacademic career options.
Rebecca Schuman,
December 12
In the third installment of this series on writing productivity, a quick lesson in how to take semester breaks off — forever.
There are many good reasons to teach in the two-year sector, but you need to be aware of the drawbacks, too.
Across the entire discipline, there’s only one subfield where the number of tenure-track postings is higher today than it was 20 years ago.
On the use of "they" as a singular pronoun: "It helps me to think of ‘they’ not as genderless but as genderful."
A professor with Stage IV cancer shares how he has dealt with his diagnosis on the job in academe.
Leonard Cassuto,
December 3
Graduate school glorifies solitary labor, but scholarly writing has always been collaborative.
"Transformative" teaching is exhausting. Here are some suggestions on how to lessen the load.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
November 27
An uptick in vacancies in campus human-resources and equity offices highlights the frustrations of those jobs.
Kevin Gannon,
November 26
It’s not just about inflicting one more test before the semester ends. There are ways to make it meaningful.
High standards coupled with high expectations — including encouragement, not derision — create real student success.
Whether you are a chair, a dean, or a provost, you will spend a lot of time repeating yourself.
No, doctoral students complaining about a toxic adviser aren’t just whining about the workload.
Karen Kelsky,
November 13
You’ve already interviewed with the whole search committee in Round 1. Why do you have to repeat that exercise in Round 2?
It’s all too easy to be annoyed by students’ questions, until you realize their confusion might be your fault.
Does tackling a mouse problem in our department "count" as service to the institution?
David Gooblar,
November 6
Why faculty members should come up with more ambitious goals for class discussion than just getting students to talk.
Rebecca Schuman,
November 5
In Episode 2 of the "Are You Writing?" series: Some much better advice to replace a popular productivity tip that doesn’t work for most people.
Leonard Cassuto,
October 31
An interactive database created by the American Historical Association offers a comprehensive look at the professional paths of 10 years of history Ph.D.s.
For academic leaders — especially during a job search — transparency and honesty about your career must rule the day.
Terry McGlynn,
October 29
A professor who had always resisted the call takes his first steps on the administrative path.
You risk betraying your discipline and academic freedom by refusing to cite the scholarship of sexual harassers and other problematic academics.
Jonathan Malesic,
October 23
When academic hiring committees take job candidates out to eat, cultural anxiety is often on the table, too.
Manya Whitaker,
October 22
It’s difficult to resist the pressures to overwork since that is often the only path to tenure.
The pursuit of knowledge in a Ph.D. program should not mean sacrificing your relationship.
You’re not alone: For most doctoral students, the graduate-school experience rarely goes as expected.
David D. Perlmutter,
October 15
Be as transparent as possible about the reason why someone or something deserves to be favored.
David Gooblar,
October 10
Do you really think talking down to undergraduates makes them want to work hard in your class?
One of the most common mistakes that new Ph.D.s make on the job market is ignoring the two-year sector.
Why common complaints about how a publisher handled a manuscript are often off-base.
Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?
Rebecca Schuman,
October 2
Episode 1: This is an Intervention. Even if you’re (sort of) making your deadlines, your work schedule might be out of balance.
"Everything I learned as an undergraduate is out of date. The same will be true for my students in 25 years."
Karen Kelsky,
September 27
Deflect your doctoral students’ excessive praise by emphasizing that academe is a workplace — not a holy order.
As you prepare for this year’s round of annual meetings, here’s how to spot all the nudniks and kuni lemls.
When it comes to a nonfaculty career path, doctoral students are afraid to talk about it and their professors are afraid to offer any advice.
We must reject the idea that having tenure, or being in the tenure stream, carries with it the right to be cruel.
Manya Whitaker,
September 19
The academic year is just under way and it’s already time to consider whether to go back on the faculty job market.
For Ph.D.s, figuring out how to describe your "transferable skills" is a lot harder than it looks.
Leonard Cassuto,
September 17
It should make us look far more closely at how we advise graduate students.
As a Ph.D., you shouldn’t feel embarrassed to admit your interest in a career outside of the professoriate.
George Justice,
September 11
A former dean chronicles the challenges of returning to full-time teaching.
A faculty-search process that used to be finite and uniform is now year-round, scattershot, and ruthless.
The process of building on academic work burnishes the reputations of people whose scholarship may be good but whose characters are awful.
David Gooblar,
September 6
The more that students believe they can succeed in your course, the more motivated they will be to try.
Jeremy Yoder,
September 5
A new assistant professor recalls his mentor in mulling how to choose his own graduate students.
David D. Perlmutter,
September 5
Emotion, ego, and ideology jumble with finances, and the solutions are never simple and self-evident.
If it seems as if you’re just kicking the tires, your candidacy will fall flat.
This is how to bridge the wide communication gap between you and your book publisher.
In the literary humanities, a sea change is underway in the job-search process and the discipline itself.
Leonard Cassuto,
August 22
A new seminar at Michigan helped doctoral students explore nonfaculty jobs and helped a professor learn how to teach about them.
Professors should be alarmed at the amateurish way in which faculty-employment issues are often handled.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
August 20
You often have several chances to intervene and shift the dynamics of a workplace situation that is on course to end badly.
The best way to start motivating students to do well in your course is to ask them what they want out of the class.
Here’s how to assist your new colleagues in their first year on the campus.
The importance of encouraging students who are weighed down by preprofessional courses to take a class for — dare I say it? — pleasure.
Yes, you know how to read. But do you know how to read scholarship effectively?
Chairs are notoriously stuck in the middle, serving everyone in all directions.
Let go of the fantasy that you must use every minute of a strictly planned class schedule to introduce, explain, clarify, and cover.
Whatever your discipline, you should also be teaching students how to understand, assess, evaluate, and apply information.
David D. Perlmutter,
July 23
Being aware of how you, your words, and your actions are perceived is not vanity — it’s common sense.
A new one-volume history of the American academy should be a must-read for every graduate student — and plenty of more-established Ph.D.s, too.
An author platform means you are seeking the right readers for your work and putting yourself forward as an authority.
A CV and a cover letter are not just redundant vehicles for the same information.
Every undergraduate should start and finish their education with a course tackling the "big questions of life."
Nonacademic hiring is very different from what a Ph.D. is used to, and there’s no shame in recognizing that you find it challenging and even infuriating.
A look at the pros and cons of moving from department chair into a senior leadership post.
Naomi Schneider, an executive editor at the University of California Press, talks shop about publishing.
Many academics spend 60 percent of their time on tasks that go unrecognized. Don’t let it happen to you.
The hiring situation for English majors is not so bad, but "not so bad" is not good enough.
Here’s why you should always assume that everyone you meet on a campus visit may have a say in who gets the job.
A former-dean-turned-professor begins the difficult challenge of renewing his scholarship.
Associations encourage graduate students to seek nonfaculty careers and then lose them as members. Here’s why that’s bad for both.
Dealing with manuscript reviewers is, by far, the least rewarding and most difficult part of my job.
David D. Perlmutter,
June 18
To be effective in senior administration, you have to think about the how of communication delivery, not just the what.
What to expect and how to prepare for careers that combine technology and humanities scholarship.
How a former faculty member came around to the importance of serving his undergraduate "clients."
In hiring senior leaders, "trust the process" is a mantra that many campus groups have trouble following.
Too many academic writers come to believe the lie they tell themselves — that their work is not good enough.
Calling or emailing ahead of time might seem like a good way to get information about the place, but it’s more than a little risky.
You can’t dictate who will write about you or what they will say, but you can influence both.
Deborah Fitzgerald,
May 31
Here’s what institutions should be doing to make the transition to emeritus life easier.
Every faculty member needs a magic briefcase full of heart-warming student letters.
The goal of a good intro is to orient the audience and offer a confident sense of what’s to come.
To reach tenure, you must survive the pressures of life as an advanced assistant professor.
Here’s how your institution can offer a better visual story of what’s happening in its classrooms.
All sorts of magical thinking can distort the realities of the tenure-track job hunt.
Some colleagues will drop you before the ink dries on the announcement of your return to the faculty. But others will renew your faith in people.
It is precisely because students had no choice in taking a required course that we should offer them more choices within it.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
May 15
A temporary leadership gig can elevate your career prospects, or sink them entirely.
The permanent departure of a faculty member, contingent or otherwise, has real implications for undergraduates.
What I Learned From Being Laid Off
The benefits of graduate students’ mentoring undergraduates in the lab flow in both directions.
A Ph.D. starting her first job in the fall wonders how to respond to a flood of professional and personal suggestions.
Given their many demonstrable and potential flaws, why would we still use these instruments to gather feedback on teaching and learning?
Yet another example of why we should all be lecturing less and using active-learning strategies more in the college classroom.
A new essay collection on "what editors do" is an essential read for anyone who hopes to get published.
David D. Perlmutter,
April 30
To succeed as an academic leader you must become a bean counter, but a sensitive one.
The internet has made course evaluations even more unreliable, which contributes to their ineffectiveness as a primary metric for faculty assessment.
If students already think I’m a good teacher, doesn’t that mean that I am just "meeting expectations"?
It’s not uncommon for early-career academics to lose professional ground because of family obligations.
"We’re going to go in a different direction," the provost said — one that clearly didn’t include me.
Leonard Cassuto,
April 19
A new organization is helping researchers explain their work and why it matters.
If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their professors flourish, too.
Perhaps you have to experience a crisis to truly understand the degree to which it can affect your work and life.
A Ph.D. who made it to the tenure track after six years as an adjunct describes all that her chair did to help her get there.
Very few issues cannot wait until morning, and that is an important message for any dean’s office to send.
Preparing undergraduates for life beyond college is arguably our greatest responsibility — and perhaps our biggest failure.
In a campus visit, you are assessed on your adherence to social scripts expected of you in that setting.
Tips for the advice-givers on how to be helpful when your protégé leaves academe to pursue a nonfaculty career.
Know that even before you begin a campus inquiry, you have already failed in the eyes of students.
Teaching is the main source of faculty burnout. So doesn’t it follow that our teaching — and our students’ learning — will suffer the more stressed and exhausted we become?
Humanities courses have plenty to offer every student: We simply need to get our best faculty members on the job.
David D. Perlmutter,
April 2
Faculty plots and revolts are not inevitable against leaders who are newcomers to academe.
A job candidate wonders how to decide which of two offers to accept when both have drawbacks.
As scholars. we do all sorts of small, self-interested things that undermine collegiality and our own interests, too.
It helps to choose the right scholarly meeting, and to swallow your discomfort with schmoozing.
In a new series, an ex-administrator chronicles his unexpected return to faculty life.
But I am ready to ask students to do more self-assessments, and to give their "grading" as much weight as mine.
"There’s deep pleasure in working on your chops, and deep reward in being part of a community of inquiry with students who are working on theirs."
Instead of being a deal breaker, a mistake on a cover letter should be a chance to build trust on an executive search committee.
How relentless administrative turnover makes it hard for me to do my job as a faculty member.
Who and what is served when nontenure-track faculty members do academic service?
An economics professor devises a way to allow a class of 200 students more choice over how they are graded.
Is it OK to renege on a job offer once you’ve accepted it? That all depends on the nature of the position.
David D. Perlmutter,
March 12
How to make the most of those early months on the job.
Leaving my Ph.D. program turned out to be a smarter decision than applying.
What to expect and how to prepare for a career in a campus assessment and evaluation office.
How to use movie trailers, social media, and other nontraditional forms of rhetoric to improve student writing.
What to consider as you attempt to persuade book editors to give you a contract.
The distressingly unsurprising story of what happens when prominent (usually male) dissertation advisers fail to do their job.
Theresa MacPhail,
March 1
No, doing a little outlining or editing during your "writing time" does not count as writing.
Kevin Gannon,
February 28
If we can’t recruit additional students, we need to make every effort to keep more of the ones we have.
Karen Kelsky,
February 27
Why bother if an inside candidate is in line for the job?
Leonard Cassuto,
February 26
And what the decision to leave the professoriate behind says about graduate education.
Not the obsessive type, but the kind whose support shows your work has reached people.
David Gooblar,
February 22
Just follow the writing rules, kid, and there won’t be any trouble.
Ph.D.s applying to teach at two-year campuses will encounter a very different sort of job interview.
The mother of lesbian history says, "For me, my writing has been my activism."
Academics are silent workaholics — so free to work whenever we want that many of us end up working all the time.
How to write a grant proposal that has the best chance of getting approved.
Karen Kelsky,
February 14
How do you tell your Ph.D. adviser who disdains nonacademic careers that you’ve accepted a private-sector job?
A professor decides it’s time to reconceive the way he comments on essay assignments.
David D. Perlmutter,
February 12
What to do as you prepare to be in charge.
Rebecca Schuman,
February 9
In Part 4 of "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. comes up short on the faculty job market for a fifth year — but it’s OK. Really.
David Gooblar,
February 8
How the stubborn inertia of educational institutions killed off a successful teaching strategy.
Leonard Cassuto,
February 7
Time for the MLA and other scholarly societies to confront the open-access elephant in the room.
Manya Whitaker,
February 6
You can’t speed up the academic hiring process, but you can take steps to maintain your sanity as it plays out.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
February 6
While campaigning for your next job, don’t lose the one you’ve got.
I can’t be the only faculty member to notice that sweet, lovable Christine is an unrepentant academic cheater.
Mark Carrigan,
February 1
Making an impact with social media is about much more than follower counts.
Is it ethical to participate in a search that has concealed preferences for the hire?
Sometimes it’s not easy to tell whether a hiring department is more interested in your scholarship or your pedagogy.
What do you do when you’re not included in the new president’s plans?
Too many of these campus sites feature a catalog of bad practices and outdated information.
David Gooblar,
January 24
Why you should invite your students to write badly, perform an experiment incorrectly, or botch an equation.
In a liberal-arts education, there’s a lot to be said for "good enough."
When it comes to putting innovation into practice, a new book argues, not all classes are created equal.
A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That’s a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.
We need to move toward a culture in which the quality of research remains excellent and the writing is also readable.
How do you approach the job market if you are a traditional Ph.D. applying for an interdisciplinary opening, or vice versa?
David D. Perlmutter,
January 16
They made you an offer that you may want to refuse.
Leaving academe does not mean you have to give up your intellectual interests.
Rebecca Schuman,
January 11
In Part 3 of "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. tries something unheard-of on the faculty job market: being her actual self.
David Gooblar,
January 10
How do you shape the teaching persona you want to convey in your classroom?
It’s not a mysterious process; it just needs to be more transparent.
Leonard Cassuto,
January 8
A new book seeks to help scholars vault themselves out of the ivory tower and into the wider world.
It might not be the science that brought you a rejection but the nonscientific gaffes in your proposal.
Students try harder, and learn more, when your grading includes rewards, rather than just punishments.
Manya Whitaker,
January 3
How an emphasis on diversity, in all its forms, is reshaping faculty roles and academic culture.
Truly grotesque is the range, scope, variety, and, at the same time, numbing repetitiveness of the attacks of senior men on junior women.
David Gooblar,
December 21
But we shouldn’t look to the "grit" phenomenon as the best way to do that.
Jonathan Rees,
December 20
Don’t cede the online-education terrain to people whose courses are nowhere near as good as your own.
Katie Rose Guest Pryal,
December 19
Finally, academe has a guide for how to better treat its psychiatrically disabled workers.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
December 18
What’s the best way to respond when your dream job in administration quickly turns into a nightmare?
How to turn your grad-school friendship into a productive model of "remote co-working."
Be brave enough to put your ideas into the world unadorned by all the bad habits you picked up in grad school.
Why I gave peer instruction and polling a try, and how they’ve changed my teaching.
Karen Kelsky,
December 12
Do candidates and their letter-writers a favor: Don’t ask for documents you don’t actually need at the initial screening stage.
David D. Perlmutter,
December 11
In most leadership searches, whether you get the job or not comes down to one person.
An institution eliminates its English major, but more has been lost than a degree program.
Annmarie Caño,
December 7
Will you still take me seriously if I talk about gender equity?
Here are seven ways to improve them.
David Gooblar,
December 5
Why it’s a mistake to bracket the world of politics from our conception of the college classroom.
Rebecca Schuman,
December 4
In Part 2 of the series "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. offers a rundown of where she applied, and why.
Melanie Nelson,
December 1
Formal risk-management methods might be overkill, but you can learn how to informally evaluate the potential hazards facing your projects.
Search committees want to see how you teach, not how you use PowerPoint.
Leonard Cassuto,
November 29
What a philosophy professor and his graduate students can teach us about their adventures in elementary school.
Karen Kelsky,
November 28
Be on the lookout for the big-picture agenda when search committees ask you a seemingly narrow question
Kevin Gannon,
November 27
In the end-of-the-semester crush, our students don’t do their best work in all-night cram sessions, and neither do we.
David Gooblar,
November 21
Teaching techniques like "the progressive stack" is a way for faculty members to circumvent our own buried prejudices.
Manya Whitaker,
November 20
The person you present during your two-day visit is the person the search committee will assume you to be.
It’s clearly not open to all if scholars are required to pay to publish their results.
Noah Berlatsky,
November 16
Presenters should have the right to ask people not to live-tweet, and shouldn’t have to explain their reasons.
A librarian at a small college chronicles the ups and downs of transitioning in academe.
Karen Kelsky,
November 14
What to expect if you apply for faculty positions in Europe.
David D. Perlmutter,
November 13
The hiring profile for a campus-leadership position is often an elaborate, committee-drawn projection of myriad hopes and contradictory needs. Certain meta-qualities, however, tend to stand out as universally sought after, whether the opening is f...
Jonathan Rees,
November 10
If the good ship Academic Freedom sinks, under the weight of Twitter attacks on controversial profs, we will all drown.
To get published now, your book must be well-written. So why are new faculty members still producing deadly dull monographs?
What a role-playing game can teach you about thriving in a doctoral program.
A new book seeks to help instructors design a meaningful writing assignment.
Some skeptics say no, but here’s why undergraduates deserve a seat at the table.
Academe is full of Petruchios looking for their next Kate.
David Gooblar,
November 2
Halfway through the term, the quality you need — more than any other — is flexibility.
Maybe it’s your own generational bias that is getting in the way of appreciating today’s undergraduates.
One year you’re a candidate, and the next you’re on a hiring committee. How to manage the abrupt transition.
Why wouldn’t a struggling English department jump at the chance to offer a class on the drama of the Hogwarts crew?
In search of good pedagogy to break the sound barrier in the networked classroom.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
October 26
Self-awareness as a leader in higher education does not mean being proud of your faults.
A faculty guide on how to help during a campus crisis and how to avoid inflicting more harm.
Terry McGlynn,
October 24
Beyond public outreach, science blogs serve a far more important function within the profession itself.
Rebecca Schuman,
October 23
In Part 1 of a new series, "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. wonders: "Am I out of my ever-loving mind?"
What three faculty members learned about teaching from a course they offered to incarcerated students.
Mark Carrigan,
October 19
Used properly, it’s not just an unwelcome drain on productivity but a way to manage your research activities more effectively.
Mischa Willett,
October 18
Let's just say faculty orientation leaves out a lot.
Too many tenure narratives veer wildly between paroxysms of grandiosity and groveling insecurity.
Leonard Cassuto,
October 16
A new study of postdoctoral careers — inside and outside of academe — aims to collect the numbers and the stories.
Kelli Marshall,
October 13
Taking roll always seemed more laborious than necessary, but I never really thought not to do it.
Rachel B. Herrmann,
October 13
How to eat well as an academic living paycheck to paycheck.
Manya Whitaker,
October 11
Search committees have to comb through dozens of pages in each candidate’s application. Here’s how we do it, and what we’re looking for.
Three books offer different theories and solutions on what helps us get our work done.
David D. Perlmutter,
October 9
How to project a positive image during a campus interview.
A "tenured entrepreneur" offers advice on peddling your skills on the open market.
A career in science should be a long and winding adventure, not an uphill slog.
How much will a doctorate from a foreign institution be held against you on the American faculty job market?
Devoney Looser,
October 2
How do you know if you are one or should want to be one?
Holly Genovese,
September 29
Clothing is just one more minefield for female graduate students that their male counterparts do not encounter in the same way.
As more students request accommodations, you may find that meeting their needs can help all of your students.
Hannah McGregor,
September 27
How two academics created a popular Harry Potter podcast, and didn’t come to regret it.
Terry McGlynn,
September 26
The careers of promising scientists are in peril, amid intense pressure to bring in a big grant.
How to avoid a collective game of “Not It” when the chair’s job opens up.
David Gooblar,
September 22
Let’s banish the fiction of the completely apolitical robot prof.
Brian Leiter,
September 21
There was, once upon a time, another compelling argument that had nothing to do with demographic markers.
Kevin Gannon,
September 20
A good portion of what ails academic meetings stems from factors within our control.
Karen Kelsky,
September 19
What you say and how you say it in departmental seminars is one way your colleagues will size you up.
Leonard Cassuto,
September 18
A debate over whether to ban graduate-student publication suggests not.
If you are running a search without a consultant — and sometimes you should — do it under the right conditions.
Katie Rose Guest Pryal,
September 14
Freedom and flexibility are huge pluses of self-employment, but the sheer unpredictability of it can wear you out.
The waiting is, indeed, the hardest part, but some academics cope with it better than others.
Manya Whitaker,
September 12
Even in a weak academic job market, you should carefully consider where you want to work and what sort of job you actually want.
David D. Perlmutter,
September 11
What information should you gather before you set foot on the campus for an interview?
Listen, we need to talk. And talk. And talk.
English professors have had to do a lot of hard thinking about why students should take our courses — something we once took for granted.
David Gooblar,
September 6
Run a good discussion section and you can remedy many of the shortcomings of the lecture format.
Karen Kelsky,
September 5
In the “post-fact” timeline in which we find ourselves, our very function as educators becomes to resist it.
A giant placement fair is convenient for us but too costly for a lot of struggling early-career professionals.
When cellphones distract students from engaging work in class, the users can regulate themselves far more effectively than we can.
Stephanie Reese Masson,
August 30
Some institutions are requiring professors to do more to confirm their students’ identities in online coursework.
Melanie Nelson,
August 29
How to use “dependency analysis” to foresee potential problems and delays.
Rebecca Schuman,
August 28
The (unpaid) dog days of August in grad school.
A good administrator has to learn to trust the faculty. Here’s how.
David D. Perlmutter,
August 24
Here are some of the reasons why you might want to decline that campus interview.
Getting students invested in your course is the most important objective to aim for in the opening weeks of the semester.
Part 6 in a series featuring new faculty members talking about their job search.
When should doctoral students start approaching a book editor about their dissertations?
The most direct way to improve academic life for everyone on campus is to support faculty writing.
A tenure-track dream you’ve spent 14 years pursuing is not an easy thing to give up.
David Wildermuth,
August 17
To be a better teacher and scholar: Leave your office. Explore. Engage.
And other advice for professors from developmental-writing students.
Leonard Cassuto,
August 15
Graduate schools can’t afford to wait for employers to come to us.
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
August 14
Hungry for a sense of belonging and impact? You may be better off building a better life than finding a better job
In a job interview, you don’t have as much power to ruin everything as you think.
Sarah Rose Cavanagh,
August 10
What teaching and acting have in common.
Treating the needs of disabled students as an afterthought can make them feel unwelcome and, even worse, can erect further barriers to their learning
Is it better to have a weak publication on your CV, or no publication at all?
Fall means it’s time to maintain — and prune — your professional contacts.
Robin Bernstein,
August 4
A cheat sheet for making a potential contact without gushing or embarrassing yourself.
Katie Rose Guest Pryal,
August 3
Higher education fails to help victims cope with the predictable mental-health aftermath of sexual assault.
Your objective is to get an interview. So make sure your letter isn’t just informational, but persuasive.
If your institution is going to be dependent on tuition dollars to keep its doors open, how can you as a faculty member help recruit and retain students without sacrificing your integrity?
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
July 31
What are the best ways to manage those people who seem intent on tearing you down?
“Journal reviewers can seem like angry trolls, blocking the bridge to publication.”
Do professors really support multiple career paths for Ph.D.s? And do the graduate students?
How graduate schools could shorten time-to-degree without watering down program requirements.
And students are more likely to read it if it doesn’t.
How to present yourself as a pedagogical asset in your cover letter and avoid stepping on toes.
Career diversity must become the new norm, not an exceptional trend, if graduate education is to thrive in the future.
Who would call and threaten a professor with rape?
David D. Perlmutter,
July 21
Whether it happens at an airport or via Skype, here’s what candidates need to know.
My experience on the market was just one data point, not a complete description of a highly stochastic process.
I do my best to avoid snarky rejoinders when I’m teaching yet they pop out uninvited.
Part 5 in a series featuring new faculty members talking about their job search.
Theresa MacPhail,
July 17
You may be convinced that your paper has a solid central argument. Here are three ways to tell when it doesn’t.
In this summer’s fiction recommendations, faculty are taking out their frustrations on overworked and under-respected middle managers.
A look at solutions in the latest column of our series on teaching and digital disturbances.
We sit in our offices, surrounded by potential sources of advice right down the hall, and yet we don’t turn to them systematically for guidance.
As much as you can. The more time you devote, the more interesting it becomes.
Here are three things job candidates should be doing now — besides publishing — to get ready for a new hiring season.
You have to find a way to disconnect from the work environment while remaining engaged with the work.
A university’s leadership-training program prepares them to be linchpins for transformation.
When things get tough, people tell you to stick it out, persevere. But sometimes quitting is the smart thing to do.
Katie Rose Guest Pryal,
July 6
A Q&A with Kelly J. Baker: “Academic notions of success are remarkably narrow, and the world around us has more possibilities than we might think.”
How I used Twitter to land my students a conversation with a Seinfeld star.
Effective networking isn't slimy — it's sincere, deep, and generous.
On the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter series, here are five other books that have shaped our students' lives.
The most successful learning environments are created together — by the faculty member and the students.
Theresa MacPhail,
June 26
A story about academics, social media, empathy, and satire.
Respect for students is a prerequisite for academics writing about our profession.
How to do enough, but not too much, institutional service.
Life’s too short to keep reading a book you hate. Why not stop?
Also this week: gender bias isn’t just for women; the perils of being a female professor; partisan prejudice is rising.
Why I won’t be asking you about your next big project.
What are the best ways to prepare yourself to jump when an opportunity comes along?
How often as faculty members are we “in absentia” — sometimes literally but also metaphorically?
Hello prospective grad student. Come in under the shadow of this red rock.
How to use problem-solving and role-playing to help students write about something that matters to them.
David D. Perlmutter,
June 16
What has to happen before you are invited to a first-round interview for an academic-leadership position.
Also this week: the unseen labor of mentoring; marginalized people need more influence, not courtesy; discrimination is a health issue.
A writing group is automatically subversive — a parallel universe outside of the isolation of academic culture.
Instead of being defensive about a student’s complaint, why not try listening?
You are eager to be a peer reviewer for journals — just don’t be too eager.
How to keep helping marginalized students without jeopardizing your own career.
Scholarly publishers want authors to get permission to reprint any image, but does the law always require it?
We should have debated a dual-track tenure system 15 years ago. It’s not too late.
Also this week: why progressive college towns are rife with inequality; how we network.
How to network and land contracts with non-governmental organizations.
Six tips to help you craft an effective pitch that will get your article published.
The ability to keep going through an initial period of incompetence is like a muscle. It will atrophy if you don't use it
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
June 5
Warning: You may be surprised by the realities of an administrative position.
They warn you about the job market but not necessarily all the other ways in which you might not fit faculty life.
Why do my colleagues have to talk all the time?
Also this week: Being human might be a pre-existing condition; what’s driving administrative bloat; and other news.
You ran/walked/crawled across the finish line of the spring semester: Reward yourself with a few good books.
Flawed? Yes. But right now they're the best instrument we've got for measuring teaching effectiveness.
Which sections should you drop? And which publishers should you approach?
Do you like meetings? Lots and lots of meetings? Be honest, because they’re part of the job.
When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it’s a student?
Also this week: the downsides of being in charge; two jerks walk into a negotiating room; and other news.
Why is it so difficult to find a midcareer mentor near my own age?
Melissa Dalgleish,
May 24
On the nonfaculty job market, this letter is your first impression — make it count.
In these hypersensitive times, students don’t always understand the concept of devil’s advocate.
Any professor who cares one whit about teaching understands that education involves a lot more than just conveying information.
Notes on teaching for those days when it seems as if no one is listening.
Today’s devices do have a more negative effect on students’ attention span than did new technologies of the past.
Also this week: Why older workers might be better workers. Segregation is alive and well, but no one cares; and other news.
A manifesto on behalf of meat-free meals at scholarly meetings and conferences.
Teaching graduate students to pay attention to who they’re writing for could go a long way toward improving academic writing.
Would a spurned department offer a tenure-track job to a candidate who had already turned it down?
Allison M. Vaillancourt,
May 15
Warning: You may be surprised by the realities of an administrative position.
David D. Perlmutter,
May 15
Sorry, there’s no avoiding the tedious, heavy paperwork involved in seeking an academic-leadership post.
Recommendation letters don't generally reflect candid professional judgments, but here are some tips on making them at least a little more helpful.
Also this week: the dust-up at Duke Divinity School; the link between women, work, and economic prosperity; and other news.
Our Career Talk columnists talk with three Ph.D.s who ended up finding satisfying work outside their disciplines.
A Ph.D. in psychology found her niche working with graduate students on their professional development.
How to “manage up” and get what you need from your graduate supervisor.
A few words of advice on how to approach, and finish, your first book.
How the doctoral-application process itself prepares students for the nature of academic life.
Notre Dame’s new "5+1" program equals more than the sum of its parts.
Also this week: the secret to keeping tenured professors happy; unfair pay practices; the remarkable benefits of biking to work.
Maria Shine Stewart,
May 4
Just because you can disparage a student or a colleague doesn’t mean you have to.
Why you should be encouraging your undergraduate and graduate students to write in the first person.
When do you need a published book to secure a tenure-track job.
Five Necessary Books to Read about American Colleges and Universities
It’s little wonder that “assessment” is one of those words that make faculty break out in hives.
How to explain to a colleague that you are a woman, not a cow.
How should universities respond to public attacks on their professors?
Also this week: how to be an ally to minority scholars; on fiscal-literacy programs and poor-blaming; and who says there aren't enough accomplished female scientists?
Teaching, it turns out, is not always about teaching.
Before you accept that fellowship, consider the high costs — financial and otherwise — of short-term relocations.
Are you searching for more sources out of curiosity or fear?
Two hiring seasons and 112 applications.
Once in a while, it’s OK to fawn over writing you admire, even if the author is still breathing.
It turns out that online instruction is a feminist issue.
Also this week: the importance of mentoring people who aren’t like you; when a professor is a victim of a racial slur; why you should think like a nonagenarian.
Amy Benson Brown,
April 20
The problem may be that you are approaching your project from the outside in, rather than from the inside out.
Why is it always so surprising when our initial impression of a student turns out to be mistaken?
Viviane Callier,
April 18
“As a scientist you get trained to be a specialist, but in my role now I'm a generalist.”
Much of teaching is procedural. But making the most of those routine moments can have a big impact in your classroom.
New research may help us break the impasse over how to cope with digital diversions in the classroom.
In today's college classroom, where affect often supersedes subject, we expend a lot of effort monitoring our students’ feelings.
Also this week: Why struggling against overwhelming odds is bad for you; CEO superheroes and supervillains; and other news.
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