The Professor Is In


Book Description

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.




Leaving Academia


Book Description

A guide for grad students and academics who want to find fulfilling careers outside higher education. With the academic job market in crisis, 'Leaving Academia' helps grad students and academics in any scholarly field find satisfying careers beyond higher education. The book offers invaluable advice to visiting and adjunct instructors ready to seek new opportunities, to scholars caught in "tenure-trap" jobs, to grad students interested in nonacademic work, and to committed academics who want to support their students and contingent colleagues more effectively. Providing clear, concrete ways to move forward at each stage of your career change, even when the going gets tough, 'Leaving Academia' is both realistic and hopeful.




The Professor and the Profession


Book Description

Robert Bechtold Heilman is one of the last survivors of a remarkable generation of American critics that included such literary giants as Cleanth Brooks, Allen Tate, & Edmund Wilson, men to whom literary criticism was not a profession or an academic necessity but a calling. In a distinguished career that has spanned nearly six decades, Heilman has influenced generations of scholars & critics through his exquisitely written commentaries on subjects ranging from William Shakespeare to Thomas Hardy. In The Professor & the Profession, Heilman looks back over his life & times from his perspective as both an academic & an American. Differing in theme & subject matter, the essays included in this collection are ultimately unified by the author himself. Whether the topic is football, Robert Penn Warren, or education, Heilman's generous & intelligent voice emerges on every page. Yet this collection is more than one academic's personal reminiscences; it is a reflection upon American literary history itself. In the first section of essays, "The Self Displayed," Heilman reveals how he developed from a small-town boy into a distinguished critic & teacher, touching upon his love of baseball & football along the way. "Writers Portrayed" & "Literary Types & Problems Inspected," the following sections, offer his opinions on the past & on the current state of American literary criticism, including personal portraits of such renowned friends as Eric Voegelin, Robert Penn Warren, Theodore Roethke, & Malcolm Cowley. The final section, "Education Examined," is an enlightening inquiry into the development of American universities in the twentieth century. A fascinating chronicle of a significant academic life, The Professor & the Profession will appeal to a broad array of scholars, from young academics wanting to know where they came from to those of Heilman's generation who can appreciate this personal reminiscence into the world of letters.




Hello Professor


Book Description

Like many black school principals, Ulysses Byas, who served the Gainesville, Georgia, school system in the 1950s and 1960s, was reverently addressed by community members as "Professor." He kept copious notes and records throughout his career, documenting efforts to improve the education of blacks. Through conversations with Byas and access to his extensive archives on his principalship, Vanessa Siddle Walker finds that black principals were well positioned in the community to serve as conduits of ideas, knowledge, and tools to support black resistance to officially sanctioned regressive educational systems in the Jim Crow South. Walker explains that principals participated in local, regional, and national associations, comprising a black educational network through which power structures were formed and ideas were spread to schools across the South. The professor enabled local school empowerment and applied the collective wisdom of the network to pursue common school projects such as pressuring school superintendents for funding, structuring professional development for teachers, and generating local action that was informed by research in academic practice. The professor was uniquely positioned to learn about and deploy resources made available through these networks. Walker's record of the transfer of ideology from black organizations into a local setting illuminates the remembered activities of black schools throughout the South and recalls for a new generation the role of the professor in uplifting black communities.




The Ethical Professor


Book Description

The purpose of The Ethical Professor is to provide a road map to some of the ethical dilemmas that doctoral students and newer faculty members are likely to face as they enter a career in academia (the Academy). Academic career paths appear to be quite standard, transparent, and achievable with dedicated and hard work. Argued in this book, however, is that the road map to a successful academic career is not so easy. There are ethical pitfalls along the way, starting with entry into academia as a new PhD student. These ethical dilemmas remain equally opaque as faculty progress in their careers. The ethical pitfalls that plague each of the steps along the academic career path are often not visible to doctoral students and young faculty members; nor are they well prepared to spot them. Ethical issues are seldom discussed and little training is provided on how to spot and handle these potential road blocks to a successful career in the academy. Based on extant research and collective years of academic experience, The Ethical Professor seeks to shorten the learning curve around common ethical pitfalls and issues by defining them, sharing research and experiences about them, and offering a discussion framework for continued learning and reflection. This innovative new volume will be key reading for doctoral students and junior faculty members in social science departments in colleges and universities, as well as managers undertaking an MBA. Due to the increasing complexity of managing academic institutions, more seasoned professors, administrators, and college deans and presidents, will also benefit from the research presented here.







Tomorrow's Professor


Book Description

Tomorrow's Professor is designed to help you prepare for, find, and succeed at academic careers in science and engineering. It looks at the full range of North American four-year academic institutions while featuring 30 vignettes and more than 50 individual stories that bring to life the principles and strategies outlined in the book. Tailored for today's graduate students, postdocs, and beginning professors, Tomorrow's Professor: Presents a no-holds-barred look at the academic enterprise Describes a powerful preparation strategy to make you competitive for academic positions while maintaining your options for worthwhile careers in government and industry Explains how to get the offer you want and start-up package you need to help ensure success in your first critical years on the job Provides essential insights from experienced faculty on how to develop a rewarding academic career and a quality of life that is both balanced and fulfilling NEW Bonus material is available for free download at http://booksupport.wiley.com At a time when anxiety about academic career opportunities for Ph.D.s in these field is at an all-time high, Tomorrow's Professor provides a much-needed practical approach to career development.




The Essential College Professor


Book Description

The Essential College Professor is about the "how" and "why" of being a faculty member today. Based on the author's series of highly successful faculty development workshops, each chapter deals concisely with the most important information college professors need at their fingertips when confronted by a particular challenge or faced with an exciting opportunity. Written both as a comprehensive guide to an academic career and as a ready reference to be consulted whenever needed, The Essential College Professor emphasizes proven solutions over untested theories and stresses what faculty members have to know now in order to be successful in their careers. Each chapter is concluded by a short exercise that faculty members can perform to help them, for instance, completely revise a course by restructuring the syllabus and course materials, bring new life to a research project by reframing it as a book proposal or grant application, and so on.




Becoming a Psychology Professor


Book Description

Introduction -- The varieties of academic experiences: types of institutions -- The fundamental research and teaching experiences needed to be a psychology professor -- Professional service, engagement, and connections -- Searching for and selecting open positions -- Creating a curriculum vita -- Application materials and the application process -- Interviewing -- Job offers and negotiations -- Conclusion.




The Last Lecture


Book Description

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.