Reflections on Academic Lives (original) (raw)

“Feeling more academic now”: Doctoral stories of becoming an academic

The Australian Educational Researcher, 2018

It is commonly believed that the doctorate prepares students for academic careers. While there is wide ranging literature about the development of doctoral students as researchers, preparation for the other aspects of academic careers, e.g. teaching, is mostly absent from the discussion. This qualitative longitudinal study investigated the shift from doctoral identities to academic identities using narrative inquiry. It examined the narratives of 15 doctoral students from two large Australian universities, who were approaching thesis submission and who aspired to academic employment. Two contrasting stories illuminated in-depth accounts of how academic identities were developed and experienced. Students defined their identities and assessed their academic development in relation to their perceived ‘market value’ in academia. To increase their employability, they engaged in university teaching and focused on strategic networking. Students regarded researcher development as the main focus of the doctorate as being insufficient for an academic career. This paper argues that doctoral education needs to facilitate student agency, encourage synergies between teaching and research, and support non-academic work experiences to strengthen researcher identity development.

Jumping Into the Abyss:Life After the Doctorate

2016

This multi-phase phenomenological study explored doctoral graduates" perceptions of self, identity and adjustment in the post-dissertation phase, using Neugarten"s (1978) Adult Development Theory and Lachman"s (2004) Midlife Development Theory to frame the findings. This third and final phase probed doctoral degree graduates" personal reflections and "crossroad" stories to highlight the commonalities of this adjustment phase for all participants. While considerable research has been conducted on currently enrolled doctoral students, it has focused predominantly on Ph.D. graduates

Editor's Introduction: Telling Academic Lives - Special Journal Edition

TELLING ACADEMIC LIVES IS A COLLECTION of historical biographies that examine historians and anthropologists, their lives, careers, institutional affiliations, challenges and achievements. In short, it deals with academics as real people. The six historians whose bio- graphical analyses form this special edition are part of a wider Zeit- geist, namely embodied histories and a return to the humane.

Rough Seas to Calmer Waters: The Journey of an Early Career Academic

academics.georgiasouthern.edu

As an early career academic I have had the opportunity to reflect on my early experiences in academia. This paper is a reflection on my journey through rough seas to calmer waters. This paper describes an uneasy voyage of experience, from confident practitioner to uncertain academic. Helping to steer me through uncharted waters on the high seas of academia was the Graduate Certificate in Education (University Teaching). This experience was instrumental in my development as an academic. Key to this personal reflection is discovery, action and reflection.

A Meaningful Academic Life: Loving, Fulfilling, Challenging, and Flabbergasting

Nauki o Wychowaniu. Studia Interdyscyplinarne

In this essay, I present the talk I gave at the celebration honoring my retirement from University of South Florida (USF). Held on January 25, 2019, this event was attended by an audience of friends, students, and university faculty and administrators. I tell several stories about coming to USF, meeting and collaborating with Art Bochner, and the support I experienced and the fulfillment I found in my university life. Passionate about teaching from the heart to the whole person and doing research that matters, I describe the meaning I derived from participating in an interpretive and qualitative Communication program that focused on the human sciences. I end with 10 aphorisms or observations from lessons learned in my experience of four decades in the university, some of which allude to the unnamed challenges I experienced among the great joys and good fortune of academic life.

Book Review: Navigating an Academic Career

2021

This book is a little gem that can be defined as a “survival guide” for PhD students, postdocs, and new (and not only new) faculty members to approach a career in scientific research with a conscious attitude. The book is based on the academic experience of prof. Jeffrey J. McDonnell and his leadership in his scientific field, and offers plenty of suggestions, personal advice, practical thoughts, and solid recommendations on how to live a happy life in academia, especially in the initial period of a researcher’s career. There are several available resources (books, articles, blogs, interviews, etc.) about how to conduct a successful PhD and achieving personal goals when working in university. However, this book addresses these concepts from a different point of view, offering real life-based examples and personal perspectives deriving from the long experience of the author in mentoring young and less young students and postdocs, and accompanying them to successful careers. The autho...

Contextualizing Academic Lives

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 2012

This article establishes a historical context for understanding academic lives. The focus is on the issues individuals face as they adopt and enact the role of academic, including their experiences as newcomers, interactions with saga-keepers, and the limits of their voice and role in new institutional environments.