Why Is It So Hard to Fire a Tenured Sexual Predator?
And what colleges and universities must do to fix that.
7 Tips on Applying for Faculty Openings at Community Colleges
What job candidates need to know about seeking a teaching position at a two-year college.
The Job Season Without In-Person Interviews
How a virtual search process can lead to better, more equitable hiring.
7 Steps to a Virtual Orientation That Won’t Bore Students
How we made a daylong, Zoom-based orientation that was actually fun and useful for new students.
What It’s Like to Start a Leadership Role in a Virtual World
Covid-19 means this fall is unlike any other in academe, and so is the experience of settling into a new leadership position
More Doctoral Programs Suspend Admissions. That Could Have Lasting Effects on Graduate Education.
Many departments are opting to focus funding on current students rather than bringing in a new cohort next fall.
The Trump Administration Says Diversity Training Can Be Harmful. What Does the Research Say?
A presidential directive reignites debate around diversity training and whether it does any good.
Public Writing in Uncertain Times
Don’t write for the general public to “be productive.” Do it because, in this anxiety-producing year, it will help you or someone else to make sense of our senseless times.
Admin 101: How to Explain the Complicated to the Brilliant
Overwhelm professors with too much institutional data and you cause confusion. But giving too little only sparks suspicion.
7 Ways to Assess Students Online and Minimize Cheating
What can you do to promote academic integrity in your virtual classroom without joining the ‘arms race’ in cheating-prevention tools?
Why I Quit Academe for a Coding Boot Camp
With the tenure-track market stalled, a history Ph.D. was urged to pursue Plan B. Unfortunately, he says, the alt-ac career trajectory is broken too.
Staff Get Little to No Say in Campus Governance. That Must Change.
As professors and administrators debate how to reimagine academe after Covid-19, that reform must include a greater voice for staff members
Are You Working? How to Move Past Fear and Into Productivity
An academic-writing coach answers readers’ questions on publishing, class prep, and scary dissertations
8 Practical, Sustainable Steps to a Diverse Faculty
The best practices for increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of your faculty are neither mysterious nor terrifically expensive.
Slouching Toward Equity
The lonely task of the chief diversity officer
The Future of the Academic Work Force
How will the pandemic change the way higher education works?
Distracted Minds: Why Your Students Can’t Focus
Not only have we always been distracted; we have always been unhappy about it. Here’s Part 1 of a new series on distraction in the college classroom, and what to do about it.
What if Everyone on Campus Understood the Money?
Administrators do not make a practice of ensuring that faculty and staff members grasp the details of campus finances, but they should
‘You Need to Leave Now, Ma’am’
I was mistaken for a prostitute at my job interview.
Diversity Without Dollars
You think you can’t afford to transform your faculty? The University of Houston begs to differ.
How to Detect and Dodge a Predatory Professor
Isolation is part of the disease of sexual harassment in academe. Connection and community are part of the cure.
Scholars Talk Writing: Martha S. Jones
A Johns Hopkins historian, whose new book on Black women’s suffrage is out this month, shares the legal, academic, and artistic influences that come together in her work
How I Built a Diverse Leadership Team at a Predominantly White College
It began with a refusal to accept excuses for why it wasn't possible.
5 Lessons From a Race-and-Ethnicity Requirement
This fall, your institution may be debating new course requirements on race and anti-racism. Here is some advice from the University of Michigan’s 30-year-old requirement.
Lessons From the 2020 Democratic and Republican Conventions — for Teaching Online
The political conventions offered academics a few lessons on what to do — and a lot on what not to do — in a virtual classroom
Doctoral Training Should Include an Internship
Here’s one model for a university internship program that offers graduate students the diverse career options they need.
Will Covid-19 Revive Faculty Power?
The pandemic has spurred professors across the country to organize. Are they too late?
The Almanac, 2020-2021
The Chronicle’s annual compendium of data
Are You Working? Distraction, Irrelevance, and Other Faculty Dilemmas Amid Covid-19
An academic-writing specialist tackles your questions about thorny aspects of scholarly productivity during a pandemic
The Secret Weapon of Good Online Teaching: Discussion Forums
6 ways to lead meaningful class discussions in an asynchronous online forum
Admin 101: the Art of Gracefully Accepting Defeat
As senior administrators, we have to say ‘no’ a lot. But sometimes we are the ones who must learn how to take ‘no’ for an answer.
How Covid-19 United the Higher-Ed Work Force
Professors are joining forces with grad students and housekeepers in a lawsuit and a planned strike.
Colleges' Sexist Scandal
Too many universities have no maternity leave.
Scholars Talk Writing: Vincent Brown
A Harvard social historian of the African diaspora and Atlantic slavery seeks to tell unfamiliar stories “without letting the power of anti-Blackness stand in for Black history.”
Your Students Will Be Different This Fall
After a summer of discontent, some college students may not defer to authority simply because it is authority. What does that mean for college instructors?
How to Curate Your Zoom Backdrop, and Why You Should
For faculty members heading back to virtual classrooms this fall, the crisis mode of spring is over and the expectations about online professionalism are rising.
The Biggest Cuts Need to Come From the Top
Budget cuts will reveal how "progressive" universities actually are.
First They Came for Adjuncts, Now They'll Come for Tenure
If college administrators take the current crisis as an opportunity to eliminate tenure once and for all, who’s going to stop them?
Santa Cruz Grad-Student Strikers Didn’t Win a Pay Raise, but They Got Their Jobs Back
A dispute over a wildcat action at the University of California at Santa Cruz is over.
Why Is It So Difficult to Hire Vice Presidents and Provosts?
Setbacks in a senior-leadership search usually have less to do with the applicants and more to do with the institution — a case of ‘it’s not you, it’s us’
As Safety Concerns Mount, Many Colleges Hold Fast to Reopening Plans
Some leaders are gambling that the benefits of bringing students back outweigh the risks. If they’re wrong, the losses could be incalculable.
Fall's Looming Child-Care Crisis
With reopening plans in constant flux, academic parents fear for their careers
How to Prepare for the Coming Flood of Student Mental-Health Needs
A fall to-do list to help counseling centers get ready for the surge of students who will seek help when classes resume amid Covid-19.
In Dispiriting Times, It Helps to Get ‘Lost in Thought’
Don’t let the complexities of the fall semester amid Covid-19 overwhelm all the good things that drove you to your discipline in the first place.
How to Be a Trauma-Informed Department Chair Amid Covid-19
The fall semester promises to be as stressful as the spring. What can you do as a department chair to lead in a compassionate way?
Why Search Committees Need to Emphasize Ideological Diversity
Departments suffer, and so do students, when faculty members try to replicate themselves
6 Quick Ways to Be More Inclusive in a Virtual Classroom
How do you create online or hybrid courses with an ethos of inclusion and equity embedded throughout?
How Higher Education Can Reinvent the Leadership Search
The Covid-19 pandemic is already changing the way colleges and universities recruit and hire senior administrators.
The Professor Is In: Fear, Anxiety, and the Faculty Career
How should candidates prepare for a faculty-job market that looks to be even more contracted than usual?
Scholars Talk Writing: Eve L. Ewing
‘For some academics, inaccessibility is the coin of the realm. For some, you prove your expertise by restricting your own legibility to as few people as possible.’
How to Make the Most of a Virtual Conference
Seven tips from a seasoned practitioner on how to select and get value out of your next online academic conference
When Should You Recruit Again? How About Now?
If your institution has a critical leadership position open, your best chance of attracting top candidates might be while other campuses have suspended all hiring amid Covid-19
Can You Teach a ‘Transformative’ Humanities Course Online?
It’s time to approach online teaching, not from a deficit mentality, but from an openness to its potential.
A Survival Guide for Black, Indigenous, and Other Women of Color in Academe
How to protect your bright mind from the drain of everyday racism you may encounter in academic life.
What Academics Misunderstand About ‘Public Writing’
Popular writing should be as rigorous as scholarship — but much easier to read
Admin 101: How Good Leaders Say No
The economic fallout of Covid-19 means administrators will be killing more ideas than they approve. But you can lessen the odds that your no will be taken as a personal or political affront.
5 Ways to Connect With Online Students
In remote teaching, it’s easy to forget that students are real people. Here’s why connecting early and often with them is vital, and how to do it.
The Provost’s Job Is Actually a Great Gig (Really)
A provost in the role for three years says it’s not the thankless position that it sometimes seems, even amid challenges like Covid-19.
Turns Out You Can Build Community in a Zoom Classroom
A professor finds that personal essays are surprisingly effective in building relationships in a synchronous virtual classroom
The Impossible Presidency
Taking a leadership post in higher education has never been such a risky career proposition.
How a Postdoctoral Fellowship Can Be a Bridge to a Nonacademic Career, Too
The 10-year-old Public Fellows Program offers a model for how to help new Ph.D.s — facing a barren faculty-job market this fall amid Covid-19 — make a career transition out of academe.
Sorry Not Sorry: Online Teaching Is Here to Stay
Four reasons you should join the online-teaching movement and spend some time this summer polishing your digital skills.
Can Faculty Be Forced Back on Campus?
Several Covid-related regulations and federal and state laws provide guidance
How I’m Spending My Pandemic Summer Vacation
A professor creates a syllabus to guide herself and other faculty members in preparing for more remote teaching this fall, amid Covid-19.
12 Tough Questions to Ask Yourself Before Becoming a Provost
“Do you enjoy hanging out with lawyers?,” and other questions to consider before a move into the provost’s office.
Equity in 2020 Requires More Than a Diversity Statement
How college campuses can remain spaces of transformative change during the pandemic.
What Do Our Most Vulnerable Students Need This Fall? To Be on Campus
Advocacy for a fully online semester seems to own the ethical high ground right now. But at what cost to our neediest students?
A ‘Radical’ Plan to Rethink Doctoral Admissions in the Wake of Covid-19
How a coordinated system of biennial admissions in the humanities would help graduate students, programs, and universities.
What an Ed-Tech Skeptic Learned About Her Own Teaching in the Covid-19 Crisis
Academe’s emergency shift to remote instruction has been toughest on faculty members who tended to resist digital tools. Here’s how one such “resister” coped.
How Can Graduate Programs and Students Prepare for an Uncertain Fall?
The 2008 recession offers some lessons for how to help doctoral students cope with the coming fallout from the Covid-19 crisis.
Lucky to Be Hired Before the Hiring Freezes. Unlucky to Be Starting in a Pandemic.
How new faculty hires can prepare for an uncertain first semester on the job, and how department chairs can help.
Why It’s Important to Write a Proposal for an Academic Book
Back in the old days, a prospective academic author could submit a manuscript — sometimes even a barely reworked dissertation — and book editors would consider it for publication. Now, even if you’ve finished the writing, editors want to see a book proposal first.
On Not Drawing Conclusions About Online Teaching Now — or Next Fall
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.
When You Can’t Send Students to the Campus Library
A professor of library science offers advice on how to locate high-quality digital course materials for instructors planning more remote instruction.
The Management Corner: Are You Struggling to Make Decisions?
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.
Should You Change Leadership Jobs in the Middle of a Pandemic?
Administrators who were offered new positions in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis talk about the personal aspects of making that career choice.
Teaching Through a Bout With Covid-19
With “mild” symptoms that didn’t feel all that mild, a professor found a good distraction in his remote teaching.
5 Takeaways From My Covid-19 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.
Keep Calm and Hire On (If You Get the Chance)
Five steps a department took to adapt its usual search process amid Covid-19 and hire a new faculty member remotely.
5 Myths About Remote Teaching in the Covid-19 Crisis
Why academics must resist the urge to use the pandemic to judge the value of online teaching.
Remote Teaching While Introverted
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.
Covid-19 and the Academic Parent
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?
How to Bridge the Mutual Distrust Between Leaders and Professors Amid Covid-19
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.
How to Ace the Virtual Interview
Nine tips for administrative job candidates on how to avoid the many minefields of interviewing by video from home.
For Would-Be Academics, Now Is the Time to Get Serious About Plan B
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.
Should You Keep Working on That Book Manuscript?
Editors and leaders of scholarly presses talk about the impact of Covid-19 on publishing in the months ahead.
How to Salvage a Disastrous Day in Your Covid-19 House Arrest
Here are three ways to get yourself unstuck on those particularly bad pandemic days.
The Professor Is In: Stranded on the Academic Job Market This Year?
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.
5 Low-Tech, Time-Saving Ways to Teach Online During Covid-19
Many faculty members are already exhausted by “live” teaching online. It’s time to embrace asynchronous instruction.
Graduate Advising in the Time of Covid-19
Amid the uncertainties created by the global pandemic, what our doctoral students may need more than usual is structure.
Productivity and Happiness Under Sustained Disaster Conditions
How to find new insights and unexpected joy amid a global pandemic.
6 Steps to Prepare for an Online Fall Semester
The possibility is becoming more likely. Colleges should have a plan.
8 Ways to Be More Inclusive in Your Zoom Teaching
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.
How to Ensure a Successful Opening This Fall 1
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.
How to Ensure a Successful Opening This Fall
Although we are in the midst of the pandemic, we can’t delay looking ahead.
2 Principles Guiding My Reluctant Online Conversion
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.
5 Ways to Transform the Academic Workplace in a Post-Covid-19 World
For HR administrators and staff, the new coronavirus has meant long, crazed hours — but the real work is just beginning.
What I Am Learning About My Students During an Impossible Semester
Two simple exercises — assigned before and after classes were disrupted by Covid-19 — have helped a professor keep his passion for teaching alive.
Admin 101: Our Shift to Remote Fund Raising
The Covid-19 crisis is forcing academic administrators to pivot from their usual reliance on face-to-face engagement with donors.
Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure
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.
Graduate School Prepared Me to Self-Quarantine
You learned a lot about social distancing when you wrote a dissertation. That experience can help you get through this pandemic crisis.
How to Recover the Joy of Teaching After an Online Pivot
It’s only natural to feel a letdown once the initial frenzy of moving courses into a virtual classroom passes.
Experience in Campus Administration Comes at a Cost
Why search committees and boards should give embattled ex-presidents a second look, instead of running from them.
As Classrooms Go Virtual, What About Campus-Leadership Searches?
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.
How to Quickly (and Safely) Move a Lab Course Online
Yes, it’s possible to shift your lab classes online, using technology, lab kits, and virtual simulations. Here’s how.
Admin 101: How to Make the ‘Big Ask’ on Campus
As an academic leader, your style of asking for things must fit what works — politically, culturally — at your institution.
Scholars Talk Writing: Eric Jager
What’s it like for an academic to see his book turn into a movie starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?
What About the Health of Staff Members?
Telling students and professors to work remotely, while demanding that all academic staff members come in, sends a clear message about whose health matters.
How to Make Your Online Pivot Less Brutal
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.”
What ‘Middle’ Administrators Can Do to Help in the Coronavirus Crisis
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.
Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start
Six steps for quickly (and realistically) moving your teaching online, with the goal of maintaining as much continuity as possible.
How to Work Well With Graduate Students
Four tips on how to have healthy, productive, rewarding interactions with your doctoral students.
What Not to Say in a Job Interview at a Two-Year College
Three things you shouldn’t say to a community-college hiring committee and four other remarks best avoided at any type of campus interview.
Why Every Doctoral Student Should Volunteer Off Campus
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.
Why and How You Should Let Your Postdocs Work Remotely
Instead of forcing Ph.D.s to relocate for a new postdoc, consider allowing them to work from their chosen hometown.
Start Career Advising for Ph.D. Students in Year 1
As soon as they walk in the door, doctoral students need a workshop on their job prospects — and not just the ones in academe.
We Know What Works to Close the Completion Gap
Why is it so rare to find "diversity initiatives" that have anything to do with teaching?
How Do I Map a Path to ‘Full’ Professor?
A newly tenured faculty member decides it’s not too early to start planning for her next promotion.
The Impossibility of Revising Your Own Work
Repeat this mantra if you are struggling with revisions: We all need editors, all the time.
The Public Writing Life: the Venue, the Pitch, and the Fee
How to decide which mainstream publications to pitch your essay to, and how to ask about the money.
The Unmet Mental-Health Needs of Foreign Doctoral Students
"Remember, you chose to come here," the faculty adviser admonished. "It was your choice."
Teaching While Introverted
The college classroom, it turns out, can be the ideal playground for those of us who identify as introverts.
Admin 101: What to Know About Alumni Relations
Administrators who conflate alumni outreach with fund raising do so at the risk of their own programs and careers.
Why You Should Consider an ‘Unconference’ for Your Next Academic Meeting
Could we produce an academic gathering that exploited everything good about conference-going without reproducing any of the bad aspects?
How to Counter the Isolation of Academic Life
A look at ways to build a professional-support network that will help you feel a little less alone on the job.
Why We Must Get Back to Basics in Teaching Composition
Sure, a first-year writing course can spur creativity or activism, but those are byproducts, not its main purpose.
Title Policing and Other Ways Professors Bully the Academic Staff
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.
Participate in a New Survey on Ph.D. Mental Health
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.
The Gender Politics of Doctoral Reform
Where are the white guys when we talk about changing the way Ph.D.s are advised and trained?
The (Not-So-)Secret Way to Attract Majors to Your Department
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."
Scholars Talk Writing: Kate Brown
"Since I was in graduate school, I have had a problem with the exclusive use of the third-person voice."
The Professor Is In: What if Your Teaching Experience is Not ‘on Brand’ for the Hiring College?
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.
5 ‘Dirty Tricks’ Common in Campus Administration
The best way to defend yourself against the unscrupulous is to understand academe’s version of the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual."
You Want to Write for the Public, but About What?
A new series, The Public Writing Life, offers practical advice for academics on writing for a general audience.
A Teacher’s New Year’s Resolution: Stop Fixating on the Data
Even the best teaching practices can have negative effects when they focus too much on data-driven compliance and surveillance.
Does Pausing Your Administrative Career Mean It’s Over?
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.
Admin 101: Why It’s Hard to Operate ‘Outside the Box’ in Academe
Sure, you can “think outside the box” in higher education, but there are lots of obstacles to acting on your innovative speculation.
A New Associate Professor Adjusts to Life After Tenure
There is plenty of stress after tenure — different from the up-or-out pressures you experience before tenure, but intense in its own way.
How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive
This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.
How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course
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.
You Can Go Home for the Holidays
Here's how to cope with family tensions about the nature and focus of your academic work.
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class
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.
Why We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
What if departments could gain prestige from how they treated their graduate students?
What to Say (and Not to Say) in Query Letters to Book Editors
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.
4 Tips on Applying for Jobs Outside of Academe
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.
Why We Don’t Report All of the Cheating We Detect
It’s no surprise that a lot of cheating goes unreported, given the problematic protocols for dealing with students’ academic misconduct.
Do You Truly Grasp Why That Student Keeps Missing Class?
A look at the the ethical dilemmas facing disadvantaged college students as they struggle to balance home-life pressures with higher education.
How to Be a Radically Open Department Head
Administrators talk a lot about “transparency,” but for that word to be more than jargon, you have to live by it.
The Professor Is In: ‘Should I Mention I’m From the Area?’
In applying to small liberal-arts colleges, your local ties may be worth bringing up in your application.
10 Questions Every Academic Should Ask Before Writing for the Public
A new series, “The Public Writing Life,” offers practical advice for academics on writing for a general audience.
Admin 101: How to Properly Wrap Up a Strategic Plan (and Why That Matters)
By all means, trumpet the successes of your strategic plan but don’t cover up the warts.
What to Know When You Approach Book Editors at a Conference
Here’s what to consider as you practice introducing your work to potential publishers.
3 Ways to Survive Academe With Kids
Two professors with five kids between them offer advice on how to move your tenure-track career forward while parenting.
To Spark Real Innovation, Trustees and Presidents Need to Start Mixing it Up
Why campus chief executives and governing boards must aspire to creative abrasion and know how to achieve it.
5 Ways to Welcome Women to Computer Science
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.
Lipstick Leadership in Higher Education
A college president chronicles how she dealt with candid comments from a search consultant about her appearance.
How to Give Your Students Better Feedback With Technology
Feedback can be a powerful force in college classrooms. This comprehensive guide will show you how to provide it in more effective ways.
A Modern Great Books Solution to the Humanities’ Enrollment Woes
Can a new gen-ed curriculum in the liberal arts boost undergraduate and graduate education at the same time?
The Tenured Entrepreneur: Marketing Yourself Is a Drag. Do It Anyway.
So your faculty salary hasn’t budged in years? Maybe it’s time to promote your academic skills to outside “clients.”
The Management Corner: Are You Acting With ‘Integrity’ or Just Sabotaging Yourself?
Five behaviors that seem responsible but may not be good for your administrative career or your campus.
Do Students Really Learn Nothing From a Lecture?
In fact, lecturing can be a good teaching tool, but only if the lecture is designed to produce good learning.
4 Ways to Have More Fun as a Faculty Member
In a precarious era for academics, it is possible to optimize your happiness on the job. Here’s how.
Can You Have a Rewarding Intellectual Life Outside Academe?
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.
Admin 101: Tips on Carrying Out Your Strategic Plan
Don’t be afraid to give up on a goal that has proved overly ambitious, and other advice for administrators on strategic planning.
The Professor Is In: It’s Hard to Be Ill in Academe
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."
Public Writing and the Junior Scholar
How should we "count" public writing and service for tenure and promotion?
The Heavy Unseen Labor of Writing Reference Letters
Our strongest teachers get asked to write the most reference letters and receive little credit and no reward for their effort.
The Case for Cluster Hiring to Diversify Your Faculty
How one university finally made progress on its goal to hire more professors from underrepresented minority groups.
Back to the Faculty: Not as Easy as it Sounds
A former administrator offers a guide on how to get used to losing your authority and getting your schedule back.
How to Turn Your Syllabus into an FAQ, and Why You Should
Want to control syllabus bloat? Create an online version with everything students need to know in a familiar Q&A format.
Scholars Talk Writing: T.J. Stiles
"Write the kind of book you enjoy reading. If you’re not a part of your own audience, you’ll be faking it."
Anatomy of a Polite Revolt in Columbia’s English Department
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.
The Community-College Application: 7 Ways to Improve Your Odds
Hint for candidates: Why should we seriously consider you when you haven’t seriously considered us?
Which Publications Matter at Which Stages of Your Career?
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.
When Taking One for the Team Leaves a Permanent Mark
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.
Admin 101: How to Manage the Strategic-Planning Process
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.
The Professor Is In: A Few Good Reasons to Switch Graduate Programs
You may lose a year or two in moving to a new doctoral program, but sometimes that is the best call.
Gaslight of the Gods: Why I Still Play Michael Jackson and R. Kelly for My Students
Our vulnerability to charismatic music offers a key to understanding our vulnerability to charismatic people, institutions, and ideologies more broadly.
How to Get Started in Freelance Writing
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.
6 Tips to Improve Your Cover Letter
Why write an application letter so dry that even you wouldn’t want to read it?
10 Ways to Better Manage Your Meetings
A new academic year means lots and lots of meetings. Here’s how to make them more productive and less contentious.
What Elizabeth Warren Can Teach Us About Teaching
Warren’s version of the Socratic method, cold-calling on students in her law courses, is actually deeply progressive.
Teaching Online Will Make You a Better Teacher in Any Setting
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.
How to Give an Excellent STEM Job Talk
For graduate students going on the faculty market, the job talk is where you can really shine — or very publicly fail.
Why We Need to Talk More About Mental Health in Graduate School
Getting the mental-health care that I so desperately needed was the best thing I ever did for myself as a doctoral student.
10 Suggestions for a New Academic Dean
In learning how to be a dean, the magic is in distinguishing between what requires compromise and what must be an executive decision.
Scholars Talk Writing: Stanley Hauerwas
"There is nothing I am not interested in. That’s my strength. My weakness is there is nothing I am not interested in."
How to Read a Faculty Job Ad
Here is a primer on the jargon of the academic-job market, aimed at early-career scholars preparing for their search this fall.
Is It Crossing a Line for a Search Consultant to Counsel a Job Candidate?
As "headhunters," we may be able to clarify things for you about an executive search, but we’re not going to coach you.
What to Expect in Your First Semester at a Community College
Your first year on the job, as a new, full-time faculty member at a two-year college, is often your most difficult.
Admin 101: How to Plan for Strategic Planning
One of the biggest logjams in strategic planning occurs when the process begins without any agreement on how decisions will be made.
5 Easy Fixes for a Broken Faculty Job Market
The way we hire tenure-track professors takes a toll on candidates and departments. Here’s how the system could be better.
The Professor Is In: Publishing Isn’t Just About Volume; It’s Also About Strategy
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.
OK, I Admit It: Productivity Is Overrated
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.
Becoming Full Professor While Black
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."
How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive
This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.
Are We Too Captivated by Charisma in Hiring?
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?
3 Questions That Can Improve Your Teaching
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.
8 Tips to Improve Your CV
It’s not just a written record of your credentials. It’s an argument in favor of you. Draft it with that in mind.
How to Start Off Right in Your New Job
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.
My 5-Month Interlude as a Disabled Professor
A health crisis introduces a faculty member to every impediment to mobility on his campus.
Scholars Talk Writing: How a Literary Agent Views Academic Books
“If you don’t understand the need to make an argument in scholarly writing, you don’t understand scholarship.”
Odds Are, Your Doctorate Will Not Prepare You for a Profession Outside Academe
Career transitions for Ph.D.s cannot be mapped, which is why the road is so difficult and so draining for so many.
The Professor Is In: Is a Renewable Faculty Job Ever Better Than One on the Tenure Track?
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...
I Went to Hire Ph.D.s at a Scholarly Meeting and Left Frustrated
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?
Sorry, Headhunters, but the Healthiest Presidential Searches Are Open
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.
Admin 101: Which Metrics Are Actually Useful and How Can You Tell?
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 Tenure-Track Job Means Finally Catching Up on Doctor Visits
A lack of health insurance leads many graduate students to delay treatment for chronic health problems, sometimes for years.
What Should You Do if Your Students Say ‘Like,’ Like, Every 10th Word?
Why the overuse of a certain hated word in the college classroom might not be a problem that requires faculty attention.
What a Rookie Provost Learned in His First Semester
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.
Outcomes-Based Graduate School: the Humanities Edition
How an English department looked to data to rework its graduate-program curriculum, and it paid off for the students.
The Academic Year Is Over, but the Work Isn’t
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.
How the Opaque Way We Hire Postdocs Contributes to Science’s Diversity Problem
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.
7 Ways That List-Making Helps You Produce Scholarly Work
Listicles and their quick-fix promises are internet brain candy, but they actually can be a useful writing tool for academics.
We Don’t Trust Course Evaluations, But Are Peer Observations of Teaching Much Better?
Why colleges and universities that claim to take teaching seriously need a comprehensive and fair system of evaluating it.
The Professor Is In: ‘What Is Your Five-Year Plan?’
What to say (and not say) when asked about your professional plans during a job interview at a teaching-focused college.
Why Writing Better Will Make You a Better Person
Two philosophy professors make the case that improving your writing is the ethical thing to do. And they’re serious.
How to Make the Best of Bad Course Evaluations
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.
How to Hold a Better Class Discussion
Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.
And for Extra Credit: Read a Physical Book
For undergraduates unaware of the transformative power of print, reading in that format proved illuminating.
Admin 101: It’s About Time — or Rather, Time Management
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.
How to Cope With Multiple-Project Paralysis
Sometimes you just have to accept that a writing commitment you made, with good intentions, is now standing in your way.
Are Women Harsher Critics Than Men on Dissertation Committees?
A female professor, told by a colleague that she should "play nice" in evaluating his student’s work, calls for more transparency in advising.
Outcome-Based Graduate School?
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.
Can You Really Do Humanities Research With Your Undergraduates?
How to involve students in your scholarly projects in three ways that are substantive for both them and you.
Can You Really Do Humanities Research With Your Undergraduates?
How to involve students in your scholarly projects in three ways that are substantive for both them and you.
The Grant Ran Out, the Job Ended — Go Ahead and Grieve
She always knew her contingent position would cease after four years. That didn’t make losing it any easier.
The Professor Is In: When the Promise of Research Support Falls Flat
How to read the mixed messages from an “aspirational” teaching institution that is looking to raise its profile.
How to Fix the Dreaded Survey Course
A good intro course is, most emphatically, not a content-driven information transfer. It’s more like a well-curated collection.
The Best (and Worst) Ways to Respond to Student Anxiety
A faculty member who has struggled with clinical anxiety explores how to deal with the rising rates of undergraduate mental-health issues.
An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?
In a male-dominated discipline, job candidates who cannot see that the playing field is uneven have no hope of correcting it.
The Management Corner: Stop Silencing the Skeptics
Too many campus leaders use "change-resistance" plans to refute their potential opponents, rather than to actually hear them
10 Things No One Told Me About Applying for Tenure
Compiling a tenure file forces you to confront who you are and what you’ve done, and to reimagine who you want to become.
21 Dos and Don’ts for Journal Writers and Reviewers
Peer review is an inherently imperfect process, but here are some steps that would make it better.
A Burst Pipe Brings a Flood of Insights for a University President
You can learn a lot about the inner workings of a campus when your administrative offices get moved into a classroom building.
Why College Professors Hate (and Love) April
A faculty member pens an ode to the academic miseries (and occasional joys) of April.
The Professor Is In: Ambivalence About Midcareer Moves
For many professors, the possibility of changing departments triggers uncertainties that are not always easy or possible to resolve.
Lessons Learned From Shark Tank on Writing Book Proposals
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.
Admin 101: How to Become a Better Listener
Academics are used to doing lots of talking, but administration requires learning how to listen well.
Your Graduate Adviser May Have Imposter Syndrome, Too
Doubting that you know how to help your dissertation student is not uncommon among faculty members.
Tell Me a Smart Story: On Podcasts, Videos, and Websites as Writing Assignments
Letting students "write" in nontraditional formats has the potential to have a major impact on our classrooms.
When Leaving Academe, Which Research Projects Do You Leave Unfinished?
For Ph.D.s who opt to pursue nonacademic careers, disentangling from scholarly commitments can seem more difficult than completing them.
The Extra-Credit Question: Should You Offer It or Resist?
It’s that time of the semester when students start to wonder what they can do to boost their final grades.
Worried About the Future of the Monograph? So Are Publishers
The new president of the Association of University Presses talks about the challenges facing academic publishing and what they mean for first-time authors.
Step Away From the Delete Button
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?
How Not to React to Your Pregnant Student
In STEM fields, students with an unplanned pregnancy need mentors who will guide rather than dictate the way forward.
The Professor Is In: Why You Should Negotiate Every Job Offer
Whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer, ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason).
4 Lessons From Moving a Face-to-Face Course Online
It turns out online teaching and learning isn’t inherently better or worse than the face-to-face variety — just different.
A Note From Your Colleagues With Hearing Loss: Just Use a Microphone Already
For academics with disabilities, having to self-advocate for even basic accommodations is a daily frustration.
To Chair or Not to Chair?
Whether to lead your department is a question that every faculty member must answer. Here are some factors to help you make the call.
Admin 101: How to Make Sure They Heard What You Actually Said
It’s all too easy for a senior administrator’s incidental remark to be misinterpreted as a new demand.
Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students
"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."
The Management Corner: Are There Too Many People On Your Team?
How the "Ringelmann Effect" might be damaging your department, your committee, or your career.
How Can We Convince Students That Easier Doesn’t Always Mean Better?
Apps are training all of us to expect ease in life. But cognitive research shows that the hardest study habits are the most effective.
What Qualitative Evidence Can You Include in a Teaching Dossier?
The Professor Is In columnist tackles questions about teaching dossiers, email etiquette, and citation woes.
When It Comes to Waiting, I Really Could Care Less
Does waiting to hear a verdict on your work get easier as you advance in your career? No, no it does not.
The Ph.D. Identity Crisis
Just as you near or cross the doctoral finish line, it hits: the "Who am I? What now?" conundrum.
The MLA Gets Practical: Less Theory, More Profession
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.
I Don't Regret Not Having Kids, And I Don't Resent Yours, Either
A "childfree" academic mulls the delicate kid issue in the context of teaching, tenure, and faculty life.
The Art of Executive Feedback
A great failure in our current academic system is the inconsistency of managers receiving — or providing — regular, specific, quality feedback on job performance.
What Is ‘Indoctrination’? And How Do We Avoid It in Class?
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.
The Hardest Part of Writing Is Restarting
A tried-and-true technique can help you resume a project that has stalled for personal or professional reasons.
How to Succeed at a Teaching Demo
Here’s what job candidates need to know about preparing a sample class for an opening at a teaching-oriented college.
Ready for Your Close-Up?
Just because academics have grown up with video doesn’t mean they are masters of self-presentation on camera. Here is a primer.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust Students
A funny thing happens when you decide to believe that most students are trustworthy: They mostly prove you right.
10 Tips to Help You ‘Win’ at Graduate School
There is no easy way to earn a graduate degree, but there are plenty of ways to make it harder on yourself.
Admin 101: Time to Overcome Your Evaluation Avoidance
It’s one of the most challenging, miserable, and politically dangerous aspects of any job in academic administration.
Are You Assigning Too Much Reading? Or Just Too Much Boring Reading?
Call me unrigorous if you like, but rethinking my assigned-reading lists has reinvigorated my classroom.
‘If It Weren’t for This Pesky Teaching Job …’
A professor enters the world of marketing blurbs, book tours, and career writers, and finds her students.
Yes, Your Syllabus Is Way Too Long
A professor opts to limit his syllabus to a single, two-sided page. He reports the sky has not fallen.
‘Is It Ever OK to Lecture?’
New instructors — trained in the importance of "active learning" techniques — often aren’t sure when lecturing is still a valid teaching strategy.
How to Increase Graduate-School Diversity the Right Way
One university’s successful effort to recruit and retain more minority students in Ph.D. programs begins at the undergradate level.
Time to Make Your Mandatory-Attendance Policy Optional?
Two instructors allow students to choose their own attendance policy. The result: More show up to class.
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class
The first day of class is crucial both for your students and for you.
The Professor Is In: Should I Admit I’m Not Submitting What They Asked For?
You don’t want the search committee to think you sound like a panicked undergraduate trying to explain why a paper is late.
How Ph.D.s Romanticize the ‘Regular’ Job Market
Be skeptical of any grass-is-greener hype about your nonacademic career options.
You’re a Full Professor. Now What?
Here are four questions to help tenured professors turn a "midcareer slump" into a new mind-set.
How Academics Measure the Value of Their Books
For most of us, success isn’t about the sales. So how do we define it?
Administration 101: 4 Phrases Academic Administrators Should Never Say
Whether you are a chair, a dean, or a provost, the academic freedom that you defend vociferously for others is constricted for you.
'What' Advantage? A Few Reality Checks for Internal Candidates
Five lessons from the experience of applying for the tenure-track version of your previously contingent job.
How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis
You’re a faculty member, not a trained counselor. But you can play a significant role in guiding a struggling student.
Ex-Academics Still Aren’t Being Consulted on Graduate-Education Reform
We should all be talking about the overproduction of Ph.D.s — not just about nonacademic career options.
Don’t Spend Your Holiday Break Writing
In the third installment of this series on writing productivity, a quick lesson in how to take semester breaks off — forever.
Now for the Downsides of a Community-College Career
There are many good reasons to teach in the two-year sector, but you need to be aware of the drawbacks, too.
What We Hire in Now: English by the Grim Numbers
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.
Scholars Talk Writing: Hyphens, Oxford Commas, and Pronoun Preferences
On the use of "they" as a singular pronoun: "It helps me to think of ‘they’ not as genderless but as genderful."
Writing and Teaching With a Terminal Illness
A professor with Stage IV cancer shares how he has dealt with his diagnosis on the job in academe.
On the Value of Dissertation Writing Groups
Graduate school glorifies solitary labor, but scholarly writing has always been collaborative.
Does ‘High-Impact’ Teaching Cause High-Impact Fatigue?
"Transformative" teaching is exhausting. Here are some suggestions on how to lessen the load.
Why Your HR Officer Is Leaving
An uptick in vacancies in campus human-resources and equity offices highlights the frustrations of those jobs.
What Is the Purpose of Final Exams, Anyway?
It’s not just about inflicting one more test before the semester ends. There are ways to make it meaningful.
Why Grades Still Matter
High standards coupled with high expectations — including encouragement, not derision — create real student success.
Administration 101: 5 Phrases Every Academic Leader Should Know
Whether you are a chair, a dean, or a provost, you will spend a lot of time repeating yourself.
Graduate School Should Be Challenging, Not Traumatic
No, doctoral students complaining about a toxic adviser aren’t just whining about the workload.
The Professor Is In: The First-Round Interview Versus the Campus Visit
You’ve already interviewed with the whole search committee in Round 1. Why do you have to repeat that exercise in Round 2?
Turn Your Classroom Irritation Into Compassion
It’s all too easy to be annoyed by students’ questions, until you realize their confusion might be your fault.
How I Trapped Some Wild Colleagues
Does tackling a mouse problem in our department "count" as service to the institution?
The ‘Holy Grail’ of Class Discussion
Why faculty members should come up with more ambitious goals for class discussion than just getting students to talk.
The Worst Writing Advice in the World
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.
Finally, a Model for Disciplines to Track Ph.D. Career Outcomes
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.
Reputation Management in an Era of Too Much Information
For academic leaders — especially during a job search — transparency and honesty about your career must rule the day.
Administration Was a Definite No, Until It Became a Yes
A professor who had always resisted the call takes his first steps on the administrative path.
Academic Ethics: Should Scholars Avoid Citing the Work of Awful People?
You risk betraying your discipline and academic freedom by refusing to cite the scholarship of sexual harassers and other problematic academics.
Try to Lower the Stakes of the Job-Interview Dinner
When academic hiring committees take job candidates out to eat, cultural anxiety is often on the table, too.
How to Be Strategic on the Tenure Track
It’s difficult to resist the pressures to overwork since that is often the only path to tenure.
Why Does Graduate School Kill So Many Marriages?
The pursuit of knowledge in a Ph.D. program should not mean sacrificing your relationship.
So Your Ph.D. Program Is Not Going ‘As Planned’?
You’re not alone: For most doctoral students, the graduate-school experience rarely goes as expected.
Admin 101: Sometimes Good Leaders Should Play Favorites
Be as transparent as possible about the reason why someone or something deserves to be favored.
When You Communicate With Students, Tone Matters
Do you really think talking down to undergraduates makes them want to work hard in your class?
Don’t Let Prestige Bias Keep You From Applying to Community Colleges
One of the most common mistakes that new Ph.D.s make on the job market is ignoring the two-year sector.
5 Complaints Academics Have About Their Editors
Why common complaints about how a publisher handled a manuscript are often off-base.
How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome
Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?
A New Series on Scholarly Productivity: ‘Are You Writing?’
Episode 1: This is an Intervention. Even if you’re (sort of) making your deadlines, your work schedule might be out of balance.
What Will Students Remember From Your Class in 20 Years?
"Everything I learned as an undergraduate is out of date. The same will be true for my students in 25 years."
The Professor Is In: How to Discourage Sycophancy in Graduate School
Deflect your doctoral students’ excessive praise by emphasizing that academe is a workplace — not a holy order.
How to Avoid Idiots at Academic Conferences
As you prepare for this year’s round of annual meetings, here’s how to spot all the nudniks and kuni lemls.
Are We Setting the Career-Advice Bar Too High for Graduate Advisers?
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.
How to Be a Generous Professor in Precarious Times
We must reject the idea that having tenure, or being in the tenure stream, carries with it the right to be cruel.
Warning Signs That You and Your Campus Are a Bad Fit
The academic year is just under way and it’s already time to consider whether to go back on the faculty job market.
Before You Write a Cover Letter for a Nonfaculty Job, Try This Exercise
For Ph.D.s, figuring out how to describe your "transferable skills" is a lot harder than it looks.
The Overlooked Lesson of the Ronell-Reitman Case
It should make us look far more closely at how we advise graduate students.
Why I Left a Tenured Job for a Career in Policy
As a Ph.D., you shouldn’t feel embarrassed to admit your interest in a career outside of the professoriate.
Back to the Classroom After 11 Years in Administration
A former dean chronicles the challenges of returning to full-time teaching.
The Way We Hire Now
A faculty-search process that used to be finite and uniform is now year-round, scattershot, and ruthless.
Should We Still Cite the Scholarship of Serial Harassers and Sexists?
The process of building on academic work burnishes the reputations of people whose scholarship may be good but whose characters are awful.
Will Students Actually Believe They Can Do This Assignment?
The more that students believe they can succeed in your course, the more motivated they will be to try.
My Graduate Adviser: What Did He See in Me?
A new assistant professor recalls his mentor in mulling how to choose his own graduate students.
Administration 101: How Do You Decide Which ‘Great Idea’ to Back?
Emotion, ego, and ideology jumble with finances, and the solutions are never simple and self-evident.
In a First-Round Interview for a Leadership Post, Make Sure You Show the Love
If it seems as if you’re just kicking the tires, your candidacy will fall flat.
The Author-Editor Relationship: Same Planet, Different Worlds
This is how to bridge the wide communication gap between you and your book publisher.
How the Jobs Crisis Has Transformed Faculty Hiring
In the literary humanities, a sea change is underway in the job-search process and the discipline itself.
Can You Train Your Ph.D.s for Diverse Careers When You Don’t Have One?
A new seminar at Michigan helped doctoral students explore nonfaculty jobs and helped a professor learn how to teach about them.
Student Affairs Has an Association; Faculty Affairs Needs One, Too
Professors should be alarmed at the amateurish way in which faculty-employment issues are often handled.
What Is Your Responsibility as a Bystander to a Colleague Having Problems?
You often have several chances to intervene and shift the dynamics of a workplace situation that is on course to end badly.
Will My Students Actually Want to Do This Assignment?
The best way to start motivating students to do well in your course is to ask them what they want out of the class.
That New Hire Needs Your Help
Here’s how to assist your new colleagues in their first year on the campus.
Why I'm Easy: On Giving Lots of A's
The importance of encouraging students who are weighed down by preprofessional courses to take a class for — dare I say it? — pleasure.
Lessons on the Craft of Scholarly Reading
Yes, you know how to read. But do you know how to read scholarship effectively?
5 Tips on Surviving Your First Year as a Department Head
Chairs are notoriously stuck in the middle, serving everyone in all directions.
How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing
Let go of the fantasy that you must use every minute of a strictly planned class schedule to introduce, explain, clarify, and cover.
How to Teach Information Literacy in an Era of Lies
Whatever your discipline, you should also be teaching students how to understand, assess, evaluate, and apply information.
Administration 101: Good Administrators Care About ‘How It Will Look’
Being aware of how you, your words, and your actions are perceived is not vanity — it’s common sense.
Scholars, Know Thy History: Higher Ed Has 'Always' Struggled to Survive in the U.S.
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.
Writing a Book or Article? Now’s the Time to Create Your ‘Author Platform’
An author platform means you are seeking the right readers for your work and putting yourself forward as an authority.
Your CV Should Inform. Your Cover Letter Should Persuade.
A CV and a cover letter are not just redundant vehicles for the same information.
Why We Should Require All Students to Take 2 Philosophy Courses
Every undergraduate should start and finish their education with a course tackling the "big questions of life."
What It’s Like to Search for Jobs Outside of Academe
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.
Do You Really Want to Be a Dean?
A look at the pros and cons of moving from department chair into a senior leadership post.
Scholars Talk Writing: How Does a Book Editor Find Projects?
Naomi Schneider, an executive editor at the University of California Press, talks shop about publishing.
How to Advocate for Yourself as an Early-Career Scholar
Many academics spend 60 percent of their time on tasks that go unrecognized. Don’t let it happen to you.
Jobs Will Save the Humanities
The hiring situation for English majors is not so bad, but "not so bad" is not good enough.
What Actually Happens After the Interviews Are Over? And Who Decides?
Here’s why you should always assume that everyone you meet on a campus visit may have a say in who gets the job.
Can You Really Restart Your Research After Years in Administration?
A former-dean-turned-professor begins the difficult challenge of renewing his scholarship.
We Need All Those Ph.D.s in Nonteaching Jobs to Stay in Our Scholarly Societies
Associations encourage graduate students to seek nonfaculty careers and then lose them as members. Here’s why that’s bad for both.
The 3 Types of Peer Reviewers
Dealing with manuscript reviewers is, by far, the least rewarding and most difficult part of my job.
Administration 101: What Do You Have to Do to Become a ‘Great Communicator’?
To be effective in senior administration, you have to think about the how of communication delivery, not just the what.
From Doctoral Study to … Digital Humanities
What to expect and how to prepare for careers that combine technology and humanities scholarship.
Customer Service Is Misguided in the Classroom but Crucial in Advising
How a former faculty member came around to the importance of serving his undergraduate "clients."
Shared Governance Works in Executive Hiring, If We Let It
In hiring senior leaders, "trust the process" is a mantra that many campus groups have trouble following.
6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
Too many academic writers come to believe the lie they tell themselves — that their work is not good enough.
The Professor Is In: Should You Reach Out to Potential Colleagues Before the Campus Interview?
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.
How to Survive a Media Blitz: an Academic’s Guide
You can’t dictate who will write about you or what they will say, but you can influence both.
A Professor's Last Crucial Decision: When to Retire
Here’s what institutions should be doing to make the transition to emeritus life easier.
A Self-Care Strategy for Beleaguered Academics
Every faculty member needs a magic briefcase full of heart-warming student letters.
On the Dissertation: How to Write the Introduction
The goal of a good intro is to orient the audience and offer a confident sense of what’s to come.
When Do You Stop Being an Early Career Scholar?
To reach tenure, you must survive the pressures of life as an advanced assistant professor.
Do Photos of Teaching on Your Campus Look Staged and Static?
Here’s how your institution can offer a better visual story of what’s happening in its classrooms.
5 Big-Picture Mistakes New Ph.D.s Make on the Job Market
All sorts of magical thinking can distort the realities of the tenure-track job hunt.
Leave Your Administrative Job and Find Out Who Your Friends Aren’t
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.
‘Why Is This Course Required?’
It is precisely because students had no choice in taking a required course that we should offer them more choices within it.
Are You Sure You Want That Interim Job?
A temporary leadership gig can elevate your career prospects, or sink them entirely.
You’re Not Just Leaving Academe, You’re Leaving Your Students
The permanent departure of a faculty member, contingent or otherwise, has real implications for undergraduates.
Do I sign the severance agreement? Do I negotiate? Hire a lawyer to send a threatening letter?
What I Learned From Being Laid Off
The Case for Student-to-Student Mentoring in Bench Science
The benefits of graduate students’ mentoring undergraduates in the lab flow in both directions.
The Professor Is In: My New Colleagues Are Inundating Me With Advice
A Ph.D. starting her first job in the fall wonders how to respond to a flood of professional and personal suggestions.
In Defense (Sort of) of Student Evaluations of Teaching
Given their many demonstrable and potential flaws, why would we still use these instruments to gather feedback on teaching and learning?
Your Students Learn by Doing, Not by Listening
Yet another example of why we should all be lecturing less and using active-learning strategies more in the college classroom.
Scholars Talk Writing: Do Book Editors Do Much Editing?
A new essay collection on "what editors do" is an essential read for anyone who hopes to get published.
Administration 101: Learn How to Follow the Money
To succeed as an academic leader you must become a bean counter, but a sensitive one.
Why We Must Stop Relying on Student Ratings of Teaching
The internet has made course evaluations even more unreliable, which contributes to their ineffectiveness as a primary metric for faculty assessment.
The Semester’s Ending. Time to Worry About Our Flawed Course Evaluations
If students already think I’m a good teacher, doesn’t that mean that I am just "meeting expectations"?
How to Be a Caregiver While Caring for Your Own Career
It’s not uncommon for early-career academics to lose professional ground because of family obligations.
What it Felt Like to Lose My Deanship
"We’re going to go in a different direction," the provost said — one that clearly didn’t include me.
As Scientists Speak Out About Science, Women and Young Scholars Lead the Way
A new organization is helping researchers explain their work and why it matters.
3 Ways Colleges Can Help Faculty Members Avoid Burnout
If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their professors flourish, too.
How Trauma Can Alter Your Teaching
Perhaps you have to experience a crisis to truly understand the degree to which it can affect your work and life.
Instead of Gaslighting Adjuncts, We Could Help Them
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.
What Happened When the Dean’s Office Stopped Sending Emails After-Hours
Very few issues cannot wait until morning, and that is an important message for any dean’s office to send.
We Must Help Students Master Standard English
Preparing undergraduates for life beyond college is arguably our greatest responsibility — and perhaps our biggest failure.
The Professor Is In: Is Texting During a Job Interview Now Acceptable?
In a campus visit, you are assessed on your adherence to social scripts expected of you in that setting.
Why Your Advice for Ph.D.s Leaving Academe Might Be Making Things Worse
Tips for the advice-givers on how to be helpful when your protégé leaves academe to pursue a nonfaculty career.
The Honorable but Thankless Work of Leading Sexual-Assault Investigations
Know that even before you begin a campus inquiry, you have already failed in the eyes of students.
4 Ideas for Avoiding Faculty Burnout
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?
We Reversed Our Declining English Enrollments. Here’s How.
Humanities courses have plenty to offer every student: We simply need to get our best faculty members on the job.
Lessons for Leaders Who Are ‘Not One of Us’
Faculty plots and revolts are not inevitable against leaders who are newcomers to academe.
The Professor Is In: Should I Turn Down a Tenure-Track Position?
A job candidate wonders how to decide which of two offers to accept when both have drawbacks.
Historians Behaving Badly
As scholars. we do all sorts of small, self-interested things that undermine collegiality and our own interests, too.
How to Get the Most Out of a Conference
It helps to choose the right scholarly meeting, and to swallow your discomfort with schmoozing.
I Was a Dean. And Now I’m Not.
In a new series, an ex-administrator chronicles his unexpected return to faculty life.
I’m Not Ready to Quit Grading
But I am ready to ask students to do more self-assessments, and to give their "grading" as much weight as mine.
Scholars Talk Writing: Carlo Rotella
"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."
Candidacies Killed by a Typo
Instead of being a deal breaker, a mistake on a cover letter should be a chance to build trust on an executive search committee.
Another New Provost?
How relentless administrative turnover makes it hard for me to do my job as a faculty member.
Faculty Service and the Difference Between Opportunity and Exploitation
Who and what is served when nontenure-track faculty members do academic service?
‘How Much Do You Want Your Final to Count?’
An economics professor devises a way to allow a class of 200 students more choice over how they are graded.
The Professor Is In: The Ethics of Backing Out
Is it OK to renege on a job offer once you’ve accepted it? That all depends on the nature of the position.
Administration 101: The Honeymoon May Be Brief
How to make the most of those early months on the job.
Just Another Piece of Quit Lit
Leaving my Ph.D. program turned out to be a smarter decision than applying.
From Doctoral Study to … Assessment Careers
What to expect and how to prepare for a career in a campus assessment and evaluation office.
No More Formulaic Composition Essays
How to use movie trailers, social media, and other nontraditional forms of rhetoric to improve student writing.
Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal
What to consider as you attempt to persuade book editors to give you a contract.
Ghost Advising
The distressingly unsurprising story of what happens when prominent (usually male) dissertation advisers fail to do their job.
The Tough Love Approach to Writing
No, doing a little outlining or editing during your "writing time" does not count as writing.
The Case for Inclusive Teaching
If we can’t recruit additional students, we need to make every effort to keep more of the ones we have.
The Professor Is In: The Sham National Search
Why bother if an inside candidate is in line for the job?
The Grief of the Ex-Academic
And what the decision to leave the professoriate behind says about graduate education.
Forget Mentors — What We Really Need Are Fans
Not the obsessive type, but the kind whose support shows your work has reached people.
‘What Is Your Position on Citation?’
Just follow the writing rules, kid, and there won’t be any trouble.
What to Expect at a Community-College Interview
Ph.D.s applying to teach at two-year campuses will encounter a very different sort of job interview.
Scholars Talk Writing: Lillian Faderman
The mother of lesbian history says, "For me, my writing has been my activism."
Why I Collapsed on the Job
Academics are silent workaholics — so free to work whenever we want that many of us end up working all the time.
10 Tips for Successful Grant Writing
How to write a grant proposal that has the best chance of getting approved.
The Professor Is In: Breaking the Alt-Ac News
How do you tell your Ph.D. adviser who disdains nonacademic careers that you’ve accepted a private-sector job?
Why I Stopped Writing on My Students’ Papers
A professor decides it’s time to reconceive the way he comments on essay assignments.
Administration 101: The Work Starts Before You Start
What to do as you prepare to be in charge.
A Fine Rejection Season
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.
Still Learning the Lessons of the '60s
How the stubborn inertia of educational institutions killed off a successful teaching strategy.
The Incredible Shrinking Book Exhibit
Time for the MLA and other scholarly societies to confront the open-access elephant in the room.
The Job Market: Waiting for the Day
You can’t speed up the academic hiring process, but you can take steps to maintain your sanity as it plays out.
Is Ambition Always Bad?
While campaigning for your next job, don’t lose the one you’ve got.
'Lady Bird’s' Cheating Problem
I can’t be the only faculty member to notice that sweet, lovable Christine is an unrepentant academic cheater.
Stop Fixating on the Size of Your Audience
Making an impact with social media is about much more than follower counts.
Academic Ethics: ‘Hidden’ Hiring Criteria
Is it ethical to participate in a search that has concealed preferences for the hire?
The Professor Is In: Research First or Teaching?
Sometimes it’s not easy to tell whether a hiring department is more interested in your scholarship or your pedagogy.
Off the Team and Out of a Job
What do you do when you’re not included in the new president’s plans?
How to Fix Your Broken Grants Website
Too many of these campus sites feature a catalog of bad practices and outdated information.
The Benefits of Doing It Wrong
Why you should invite your students to write badly, perform an experiment incorrectly, or botch an equation.
In Praise of Adequacy
In a liberal-arts education, there’s a lot to be said for "good enough."
Reinventing the Survey Course
When it comes to putting innovation into practice, a new book argues, not all classes are created equal.
Preventing Post-Tenure Malaise
A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That’s a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.
Ph.D.s Are Still Writing Poorly, Part 3
We need to move toward a culture in which the quality of research remains excellent and the writing is also readable.
The Professor Is In: The Interdisciplinary Factor
How do you approach the job market if you are a traditional Ph.D. applying for an interdisciplinary opening, or vice versa?
Administration 101: the Big Decision
They made you an offer that you may want to refuse.
A Scholar, But Not a Professor
Leaving academe does not mean you have to give up your intellectual interests.
The Academic Apostate’s Guide to Interviewing
In Part 3 of "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. tries something unheard-of on the faculty job market: being her actual self.
This Is How a Scholar Behaves
How do you shape the teaching persona you want to convey in your classroom?
The Not-So-Secret Guide to Dissertating
It’s not a mysterious process; it just needs to be more transparent.
How to Go Public, and Why We Must
A new book seeks to help scholars vault themselves out of the ivory tower and into the wider world.
10 Common Grant-Writing Mistakes
It might not be the science that brought you a rejection but the nonscientific gaffes in your proposal.
Carrot Versus Stick Teaching
Students try harder, and learn more, when your grading includes rewards, rather than just punishments.
The 21st-Century Academic
How an emphasis on diversity, in all its forms, is reshaping faculty roles and academic culture.
The Professor Is In: When Will We Stop Elevating Predators?
Truly grotesque is the range, scope, variety, and, at the same time, numbing repetitiveness of the attacks of senior men on junior women.
Yes, We Should Teach Character
But we shouldn’t look to the "grit" phenomenon as the best way to do that.
Welcome to the Jungle
Don’t cede the online-education terrain to people whose courses are nowhere near as good as your own.
On Faculty and Mental Illness
Finally, academe has a guide for how to better treat its psychiatrically disabled workers.
Stuck With Someone Else’s Mess
What’s the best way to respond when your dream job in administration quickly turns into a nightmare?
‘What Are You Working on Today?’
How to turn your grad-school friendship into a productive model of "remote co-working."
Ph.D.s Are Still Writing Poorly, Part 2
Be brave enough to put your ideas into the world unadorned by all the bad habits you picked up in grad school.
Playing With Technology
Why I gave peer instruction and polling a try, and how they’ve changed my teaching.
The Professor Is In: How to Write a Good Job Ad
Do candidates and their letter-writers a favor: Don’t ask for documents you don’t actually need at the initial screening stage.
Administration 101: Winning Over ‘the Final Decider’
In most leadership searches, whether you get the job or not comes down to one person.
Facing My Own Extinction
An institution eliminates its English major, but more has been lost than a degree program.
The Credibility Gap in Academe
Will you still take me seriously if I talk about gender equity?
Academic Conference Panels Are Boring
Here are seven ways to improve them.
Could Better Teaching Have Helped?
Why it’s a mistake to bracket the world of politics from our conception of the college classroom.
Rate My Job Applications
In Part 2 of the series "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. offers a rundown of where she applied, and why.
Don’t Avoid Risk — Manage It
Formal risk-management methods might be overkill, but you can learn how to informally evaluate the potential hazards facing your projects.
The Teaching Demo: Less Power, More Point
Search committees want to see how you teach, not how you use PowerPoint.
It’s Never Too Early to Learn to Think
What a philosophy professor and his graduate students can teach us about their adventures in elementary school.
The Professor Is In: ‘So, How Would You Change Our Major?’
Be on the lookout for the big-picture agenda when search committees ask you a seemingly narrow question
How to Escape Grading Jail
In the end-of-the-semester crush, our students don’t do their best work in all-night cram sessions, and neither do we.
Yes, You Have Implicit Biases, Too
Teaching techniques like "the progressive stack" is a way for faculty members to circumvent our own buried prejudices.
The Job Market: The Campus Interview
The person you present during your two-day visit is the person the search committee will assume you to be.
The Fallacy of Open-Access Publication
It’s clearly not open to all if scholars are required to pay to publish their results.
The Dangers of Tweeting at Conferences
Presenters should have the right to ask people not to live-tweet, and shouldn’t have to explain their reasons.
Becoming a Woman
A librarian at a small college chronicles the ups and downs of transitioning in academe.
The Professor Is In: Job Hunting Overseas
What to expect if you apply for faculty positions in Europe.
Administration 101: The Vision Thing
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...
The Wrong Kind of Famous
If the good ship Academic Freedom sinks, under the weight of Twitter attacks on controversial profs, we will all drown.
Ph.D.s Are Still Writing Poorly, Part 1
To get published now, your book must be well-written. So why are new faculty members still producing deadly dull monographs?
Dungeons & Dragons & Graduate School
What a role-playing game can teach you about thriving in a doctoral program.
Will They Remember Writing It?
A new book seeks to help instructors design a meaningful writing assignment.
Do We Need a Student on the Search Committee?
Some skeptics say no, but here’s why undergraduates deserve a seat at the table.
Abusers and Enablers in Faculty Culture
Academe is full of Petruchios looking for their next Kate.
The Midsemester Course Correction
Halfway through the term, the quality you need — more than any other — is flexibility.
The Kids Are Still Alright
Maybe it’s your own generational bias that is getting in the way of appreciating today’s undergraduates.
The Professor Is In: Help! I’m on a Search
One year you’re a candidate, and the next you’re on a hiring committee. How to manage the abrupt transition.
Harry Potter and the Chair’s Dilemma
Why wouldn’t a struggling English department jump at the chance to offer a class on the drama of the Hogwarts crew?
2 Campuses, 2 Countries, 1 Seminar
In search of good pedagogy to break the sound barrier in the networked classroom.
Stop Flaunting Your Flaws
Self-awareness as a leader in higher education does not mean being proud of your faults.
What to Say After a Student Dies
A faculty guide on how to help during a campus crisis and how to avoid inflicting more harm.
Why Blogging Is Still Good for Your Career
Beyond public outreach, science blogs serve a far more important function within the profession itself.
I Am Going Back on the Academic Job Market (Really)
In Part 1 of a new series, "Ice Skating in Hell," a Ph.D. wonders: "Am I out of my ever-loving mind?"
So We Went to Prison …
What three faculty members learned about teaching from a course they offered to incarcerated students.
Social Media Is Scholarship
Used properly, it’s not just an unwelcome drain on productivity but a way to manage your research activities more effectively.
The Missing Campus Map
Let's just say faculty orientation leaves out a lot.
The Professor Is In: 4 Steps to a Strong Tenure File
Too many tenure narratives veer wildly between paroxysms of grandiosity and groveling insecurity.
Documenting What Ph.D.s Do for a Living
A new study of postdoctoral careers — inside and outside of academe — aims to collect the numbers and the stories.
Why I Don’t Take Attendance
Taking roll always seemed more laborious than necessary, but I never really thought not to do it.
FoodNotes: Cheap Eats in Graduate School (and Beyond)
How to eat well as an academic living paycheck to paycheck.
The Job Market: Picking Apart Your Application
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.
Lessons on Productivity
Three books offer different theories and solutions on what helps us get our work done.
Administration 101: Mind Your Manner
How to project a positive image during a campus interview.
How to Make Money From Speaking Engagements
A "tenured entrepreneur" offers advice on peddling your skills on the open market.
Rethinking the Scientific Career
A career in science should be a long and winding adventure, not an uphill slog.
The Professor Is In: You Have a Ph.D. From Where?
How much will a doctorate from a foreign institution be held against you on the American faculty job market?
The Making of a Public Intellectual
How do you know if you are one or should want to be one?
Cute Outfits and the Academic Career
Clothing is just one more minefield for female graduate students that their male counterparts do not encounter in the same way.
A Welcoming Classroom
As more students request accommodations, you may find that meeting their needs can help all of your students.
Podcasting in Plain Sight
How two academics created a popular Harry Potter podcast, and didn’t come to regret it.
What Is the Going Rate for Tenure Nowadays?
The careers of promising scientists are in peril, amid intense pressure to bring in a big grant.
When No One Answers the Call
How to avoid a collective game of “Not It” when the chair’s job opens up.
How to Be Political in Class
Let’s banish the fiction of the completely apolitical robot prof.
Academic Ethics: Is ‘Diversity’ the Best Reason for Affirmative Action?
There was, once upon a time, another compelling argument that had nothing to do with demographic markers.
Why We Hate Our Own Meetings
A good portion of what ails academic meetings stems from factors within our control.
The Professor Is In: How to Ask ‘Smart’ Questions
What you say and how you say it in departmental seminars is one way your colleagues will size you up.
Do We Still Value the Dissertation?
A debate over whether to ban graduate-student publication suggests not.
Searching Without a Search Firm
If you are running a search without a consultant — and sometimes you should — do it under the right conditions.
The Search for Stability as a Freelance Academic
Freedom and flexibility are huge pluses of self-employment, but the sheer unpredictability of it can wear you out.
The Stress of Academic Publishing
The waiting is, indeed, the hardest part, but some academics cope with it better than others.
The Job Market: Where Should You Apply?
Even in a weak academic job market, you should carefully consider where you want to work and what sort of job you actually want.
Administration 101: An Intel Checklist for Finalists
What information should you gather before you set foot on the campus for an interview?
Our Academic Book Tour
Listen, we need to talk. And talk. And talk.
The Forgotten Value of a Literature Course
English professors have had to do a lot of hard thinking about why students should take our courses — something we once took for granted.
Teaching From the Passenger Seat
Run a good discussion section and you can remedy many of the shortcomings of the lecture format.
The Professor Is in: Relevant Resistance in the Classroom
In the “post-fact” timeline in which we find ourselves, our very function as educators becomes to resist it.
Rethinking the Student-Affairs Cattle Call
A giant placement fair is convenient for us but too costly for a lot of struggling early-career professionals.
The Distracted Classroom: Transparency, Autonomy, and Pedagogy
When cellphones distract students from engaging work in class, the users can regulate themselves far more effectively than we can.
Are They Doing Their Own Work?
Some institutions are requiring professors to do more to confirm their students’ identities in online coursework.
Project Planning in an Uncertain World
How to use “dependency analysis” to foresee potential problems and delays.
Endless Summer
The (unpaid) dog days of August in grad school.
Getting You to Trust Them
A good administrator has to learn to trust the faculty. Here’s how.
Administration 101: Why You Shouldn’t Be a Finalist
Here are some of the reasons why you might want to decline that campus interview.
Reeling Them in Early
Getting students invested in your course is the most important objective to aim for in the opening weeks of the semester.
Job-Market Diaries: A Religious Studies Professor
Part 6 in a series featuring new faculty members talking about their job search.
The Professor Is in: Is it Too Soon to Talk to Publishers?
When should doctoral students start approaching a book editor about their dissertations?
Aiding the Writing-Stalled Professor
The most direct way to improve academic life for everyone on campus is to support faculty writing.
The Worst F-Word
A tenure-track dream you’ve spent 14 years pursuing is not an easy thing to give up.
The Benefits of Time Away
To be a better teacher and scholar: Leave your office. Explore. Engage.
‘Don’t Take Our Failures Personally’
And other advice for professors from developmental-writing students.
Why We Need Ph.D. Career Fairs
Graduate schools can’t afford to wait for employers to come to us.
‘This Isn’t the Life I Imagined’
Hungry for a sense of belonging and impact? You may be better off building a better life than finding a better job
The Awkwardest Hug
In a job interview, you don’t have as much power to ruin everything as you think.
All the Classroom’s a Stage
What teaching and acting have in common.
Now is the Time to Think About Accessibility
Treating the needs of disabled students as an afterthought can make them feel unwelcome and, even worse, can erect further barriers to their learning
The Professor Is in: The Career-Math of Publishing
Is it better to have a weak publication on your CV, or no publication at all?
How to Create and Keep a Useful Network
Fall means it’s time to maintain — and prune — your professional contacts.
How to Talk to Famous Professors
A cheat sheet for making a potential contact without gushing or embarrassing yourself.
Still Screaming, But Not Over Nothing
Higher education fails to help victims cope with the predictable mental-health aftermath of sexual assault.
‘It’s the Cover Letter, Stupid’
Your objective is to get an interview. So make sure your letter isn’t just informational, but persuasive.
How to Survive Permanent Austerity
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?
When Your Colleague Is a Backstabber
What are the best ways to manage those people who seem intent on tearing you down?
Scholars Talk Writing: Michael C. Munger
“Journal reviewers can seem like angry trolls, blocking the bridge to publication.”
Walking the Career-Diversity Walk
Do professors really support multiple career paths for Ph.D.s? And do the graduate students?
5 Ways to a Faster Ph.D.
How graduate schools could shorten time-to-degree without watering down program requirements.
Your Syllabus Doesn’t Have to Look Like a Contract
And students are more likely to read it if it doesn’t.
The Professor Is in: Should I Mention I Can Teach Their Electives?
How to present yourself as a pedagogical asset in your cover letter and avoid stepping on toes.
Fixing Our Job-Market Problem
Career diversity must become the new norm, not an exceptional trend, if graduate education is to thrive in the future.
It’s a Dangerous Business, Being a Female Professor
Who would call and threaten a professor with rape?
Administration 101: The First-Round Interview
Whether it happens at an airport or via Skype, here’s what candidates need to know.
I Found a Tenure-Track Job: The Big Picture
My experience on the market was just one data point, not a complete description of a highly stochastic process.
Sar-Chasm in the Classroom
I do my best to avoid snarky rejoinders when I’m teaching yet they pop out uninvited.
Job-Market Diaries: A History/Sustainability Professor
Part 5 in a series featuring new faculty members talking about their job search.
The ‘So What?’ Question
You may be convinced that your paper has a solid central argument. Here are three ways to tell when it doesn’t.
Evil Deans and the Academic Novel
In this summer’s fiction recommendations, faculty are taking out their frustrations on overworked and under-respected middle managers.
The Distracted Classroom: Do Tech Fasts Work?
A look at solutions in the latest column of our series on teaching and digital disturbances.
‘Radical Candor’ and Faculty Annual Reviews
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.
How Much Time Should You Spend on Teaching?
As much as you can. The more time you devote, the more interesting it becomes.
The Professor Is in: Summer Prep for the Job Market
Here are three things job candidates should be doing now — besides publishing — to get ready for a new hiring season.
The Early Career Academic: Your First Sabbatical
You have to find a way to disconnect from the work environment while remaining engaged with the work.
Can Deans Fix Higher-Ed Dysfunction?
A university’s leadership-training program prepares them to be linchpins for transformation.
All in Favor of Quitting?
When things get tough, people tell you to stick it out, persevere. But sometimes quitting is the smart thing to do.
A Memoir on Leaving the Faculty
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.”
Using Social Media to Recruit Guest Speakers
How I used Twitter to land my students a conversation with a Seinfeld star.
Banish the Smarm
Effective networking isn't slimy — it's sincere, deep, and generous.
The Vitae Bookshelf: Jennifer Burek Pierce
On the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter series, here are five other books that have shaped our students' lives.
Dear New Instructor: It’s Not All on You
The most successful learning environments are created together — by the faculty member and the students.
Fictional Truths or Harmless Humor?
A story about academics, social media, empathy, and satire.
They Know You’re Making Fun of Them
Respect for students is a prerequisite for academics writing about our profession.
Service With a Smile
How to do enough, but not too much, institutional service.
The Joys and Downsides of Hate-Reading
Life’s too short to keep reading a book you hate. Why not stop?
This Is Your Brain on Power. Any Questions?
Also this week: gender bias isn’t just for women; the perils of being a female professor; partisan prejudice is rising.
On Not Writing a Book Right Now
Why I won’t be asking you about your next big project.
You’re “Not Ready” for a Promotion? Take it Anyway
What are the best ways to prepare yourself to jump when an opportunity comes along?
The Importance of Being Present
How often as faculty members are we “in absentia” — sometimes literally but also metaphorically?
The Art of Peer Pressure
Hello prospective grad student. Come in under the shadow of this red rock.
The ‘Realistic’ Research Paper
How to use problem-solving and role-playing to help students write about something that matters to them.
Administration 101: Getting Your Name in the Real Pool
What has to happen before you are invited to a first-round interview for an academic-leadership position.
Why the Gender Wage Gap Is Worse Than We Thought
Also this week: the unseen labor of mentoring; marginalized people need more influence, not courtesy; discrimination is a health issue.
Why You Need a Writing Group
A writing group is automatically subversive — a parallel universe outside of the isolation of academic culture.
Sometimes Their Gripe is Legit
Instead of being defensive about a student’s complaint, why not try listening?
The Professor Is in: Juggling Review Requests
You are eager to be a peer reviewer for journals — just don’t be too eager.
The Unseen Labor of Mentoring
How to keep helping marginalized students without jeopardizing your own career.
Fair Use Too Often Goes Unused
Scholarly publishers want authors to get permission to reprint any image, but does the law always require it?
A Tenure Track for Teachers?
We should have debated a dual-track tenure system 15 years ago. It’s not too late.
Why Economic Diversity Matters
Also this week: why progressive college towns are rife with inequality; how we network.
Breaking into the NGO Bubble
How to network and land contracts with non-governmental organizations.
How to Craft a Pitch
Six tips to help you craft an effective pitch that will get your article published.
The Importance of Being Bad at Something
The ability to keep going through an initial period of incompetence is like a muscle. It will atrophy if you don't use it
You. Yes, You!
Warning: You may be surprised by the realities of an administrative position.
Some Lesser-Known Truths About Academe
They warn you about the job market but not necessarily all the other ways in which you might not fit faculty life.
Surrounded by Compulsive Talkers
Why do my colleagues have to talk all the time?
The Future of Work
Also this week: Being human might be a pre-existing condition; what’s driving administrative bloat; and other news.
A Summer Reading List
You ran/walked/crawled across the finish line of the spring semester: Reward yourself with a few good books.
No, Student Evaluations Aren’t “Worthless”
Flawed? Yes. But right now they're the best instrument we've got for measuring teaching effectiveness.
The Professor Is in: The Dissertation-to-Book Transition
Which sections should you drop? And which publishers should you approach?
7 Questions for Would-Be Chairs
Do you like meetings? Lots and lots of meetings? Be honest, because they’re part of the job.
You Are Not a Public Utility
When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it’s a student?
You’re Not Colorblind. You Just Need to Remove the Blindfold.
Also this week: the downsides of being in charge; two jerks walk into a negotiating room; and other news.
ISO … a Peer Mentor
Why is it so difficult to find a midcareer mentor near my own age?
The Tiny Yet Powerful Cover Letter
On the nonfaculty job market, this letter is your first impression — make it count.
Tread Carefully with the Socratic Method
In these hypersensitive times, students don’t always understand the concept of devil’s advocate.
You Can’t Automate Good Teaching
Any professor who cares one whit about teaching understands that education involves a lot more than just conveying information.
What You Do Does Matter
Notes on teaching for those days when it seems as if no one is listening.
The Distracted Classroom: Is It Getting Worse?
Today’s devices do have a more negative effect on students’ attention span than did new technologies of the past.
Does Diversity Training Work?
Also this week: Why older workers might be better workers. Segregation is alive and well, but no one cares; and other news.
Why All Conferences Should Go Vegan
A manifesto on behalf of meat-free meals at scholarly meetings and conferences.
We Keep Ignoring the Audience
Teaching graduate students to pay attention to who they’re writing for could go a long way toward improving academic writing.
The Professor Is in: A Second Chance?
Would a spurned department offer a tenure-track job to a candidate who had already turned it down?
Now You're in Charge
Warning: You may be surprised by the realities of an administrative position.
Administration 101: Assembling the Application
Sorry, there’s no avoiding the tedious, heavy paperwork involved in seeking an academic-leadership post.
Recommendation Inflation
Recommendation letters don't generally reflect candid professional judgments, but here are some tips on making them at least a little more helpful.
Androids, Higher Ed, and the Future of Work
Also this week: the dust-up at Duke Divinity School; the link between women, work, and economic prosperity; and other news.
Unexpected Careers
Our Career Talk columnists talk with three Ph.D.s who ended up finding satisfying work outside their disciplines.
From Bench Science to Academic Administration
A Ph.D. in psychology found her niche working with graduate students on their professional development.
Handling Your Imperfect Adviser
How to “manage up” and get what you need from your graduate supervisor.
Writing a Book Pre-tenure
A few words of advice on how to approach, and finish, your first book.
The Gentle Guide for Applying to Graduate Schools
How the doctoral-application process itself prepares students for the nature of academic life.
How to Cut Time to Degree
Notre Dame’s new "5+1" program equals more than the sum of its parts.
Grumps in the Workplace
Also this week: the secret to keeping tenured professors happy; unfair pay practices; the remarkable benefits of biking to work.
How to Stop Sneering
Just because you can disparage a student or a colleague doesn’t mean you have to.
In Praise of the First Person
Why you should be encouraging your undergraduate and graduate students to write in the first person.
The Professor Is in: The Book Question
When do you need a published book to secure a tenure-track job.
The Vitae Bookshelf: Leonard Cassuto
Five Necessary Books to Read about American Colleges and Universities
Stuck in the Assessment Swamp?
It’s little wonder that “assessment” is one of those words that make faculty break out in hives.
He Keeps Calling Us ‘Females’
How to explain to a colleague that you are a woman, not a cow.
Academic Ethics: Defending Faculty Speech
How should universities respond to public attacks on their professors?
Who Really Benefits From Diversity Programs?
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?
Lessons From Year 1 on the Faculty
Teaching, it turns out, is not always about teaching.
Have Postdoc, Will Travel
Before you accept that fellowship, consider the high costs — financial and otherwise — of short-term relocations.
The Myth of One More Source
Are you searching for more sources out of curiosity or fear?
I Found a Tenure-Track Job. Here’s What it Took.
Two hiring seasons and 112 applications.
Yes, I Send Fanmail
Once in a while, it’s OK to fawn over writing you admire, even if the author is still breathing.
Why I Teach Online
It turns out that online instruction is a feminist issue.
Why Informal Job Interviews Are Worthless
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.
Stalled in the Writing?
The problem may be that you are approaching your project from the outside in, rather than from the inside out.
Getting Our Students Wrong
Why is it always so surprising when our initial impression of a student turns out to be mistaken?
From Bench Science to Science Diplomacy
“As a scientist you get trained to be a specialist, but in my role now I'm a generalist.”
Mastering the Boring Basics
Much of teaching is procedural. But making the most of those routine moments can have a big impact in your classroom.
The Distracted Classroom
New research may help us break the impasse over how to cope with digital diversions in the classroom.
Conserving Your Teaching Energy
In today's college classroom, where affect often supersedes subject, we expend a lot of effort monitoring our students’ feelings.
Smart Design and the Power of Gender Perspectives
Also this week: Why struggling against overwhelming odds is bad for you; CEO superheroes and supervillains; and other news.
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