Alongside research and teaching, most tenure-track jobs come with some expectation of service.
Strategic Service on the Tenure Track
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academia
Five Things I Wish Someone had Told me in Grad School: Building a nurturing community
Grad students who weren’t schooled at elite universities face real challenges in a squeezed academic job market. But many talented grad students do reach tenure when they receive the same support and guidance offered in elite universities.
Five Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me in Graduate School: Navigating the Choppy Seas
Mostly, I muddled through grad school, but with the support of my cohort and guidance from a few choice people, I was able to navigate my way through the uncertainty of graduate school.
5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me in Graduate School: Balancing Work and Family
When thinking about what things I most wish someone had told me in graduate school… I found it difficult to not write about work-life balance, particularly today.
More academia Posts
A Friendly Amendment to a Useful Conversation: Lets Make the World a Better Place
This is a guest post by Christian Davenport, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Will Moore was a close friend of, and collaborator with, Professor Davenport. There have several themes emerging out of the loss of our dear colleague that have emerged: how wonderful Will H. Moore (hereafter Will) was as a colleague, teacher and friend as well as a detailed and long-overdue discussion about mental health/care in the profession as well as individual cases. I do not want to detract from that conversation but I do wish to suggest two things. First, just...
Building Safe Space for Depression in Academia
The following is a guest post by Emily Hencken Ritter, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Merced. Like so many, my heart and mind aches for the loss Will Moore’s death represents to humanity. He was as much a mentor to me in grad school and my career as if he had been on my dissertation committee. He supported me, critiqued my work, told me to be bold, and showed me I could be myself. Perhaps the most special thing he gave me was an example for generating bigger conversations. I attended conference after conference that he hosted not to present papers in panels but to get...
For Will: Some Reflections on Sorrow
The following is a guest post by Jana von Stein, Senior Lecturer of Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington. Will Moore’s suicide carries with it a special sorrow that I can’t yet even wrap my head (or heart) around. I met Will when I was on the job market in 2005, but it wasn’t until 2008 that we became close. My comradery with him did not revolve chiefly around academics, although he was a tremendous mentor to me. Instead, it revolved around tragedy. “Somewhere, my son’s brain is in a jar in a medical researcher’s office,” Will bellowed to a...
Researcher Trauma and Our Discipline
The following is a guest post by Cyanne Loyle, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. With the devastating passing of Will Moore, many of us in Conflict Studies have begun to discuss the impact of our work on our mental health. Talking is important. So is seeking help when needed. But there is more that we can be and should be doing. In January, I wrote a piece on research-related trauma and conflict studies. Will helped with this article. He thought it was high time that the field and the discipline had a serious discussion of mental illness. In this article,...
Trump Reminded Me Why I Am An Academic
This is a guest post by Idean Salehyan. Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Texas at Dallas “Why did you become an academic?” is a question that I’m frequently asked. For me, my path into this profession is pretty clear. I was about fourteen and a freshman in high school in the early 1990s. A few of my friends joined the school chapter of Amnesty International, and I figured I’d go along. My world was changed. I learned of people being slaughtered because their ethnicity; political activists imprisoned for their beliefs; widespread torture and sexual assault; and...
Perverse Incentives and Academia
What's wrong with the current use of metrics in academia? This is the best summary that I've ever seen. Here's the horrifying key table from the paper Siddhartha Roy co-authored on perverse incentives in academia. #AAASmtg pic.twitter.com/sdrUlPmXs7 — Mike 48% Tⓐylor (@MikeTaylor) February 18, 2017 I will be discussing the publishing part of the equation on my Saturday panel at ISA.
Duck Retirement: what 7 years of blogging has given me
It's time. I'm signing off as permanent member of the Duck of Minerva after seven (7!?!) years of blogging. The experience has helped shape me as a professional, writer, and member of the IR and online communities. I began blogging during my first nervous year as an academic and continued through to the current realisation that I'm now a *youthful* mid-career scholar. My posts have covered a very wide range of topics, including ebola, Anthony Weiner's first set of dick picks, women and combat in the US military, and the parallels between police and military racism and brutal tactics. I'm...
I Broke Up With Michel Foucault*
I broke up with Michel Foucault. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I sort of ghosted him. Let me explain. When I was in grad school I fell in love with Foucault. He was just exactly what I was looking for- he made me see gender differently, and he helped me to finally piece together what I thought I was trying to say in my thesis. It was magical. He just really 'got me.' You know? But then things changed. I was introduced to theorists like Judith Butler, bell hooks, Aimee Cesaire, and Frantz Fanon and I started to realise I just couldn't be exclusive with Foucault anymore. He pretended...