When you’re up for tenure, you will be evaluated on the basis of your teaching, your research, and your service. Why, then, should you do public intellectual work like speaking to local organizations, appearing on TV and radio, and writing occasional articles, op-eds, and letters to the editor of your local newspaper? If you already have a solid tenure file, [...]

This advice is addressed to would be mentors. Graduate students, if you would like to be mentored, we have a wealth of materials to help you learn more. Also, IHS program officers are available to offer you advice and mentor you on your journey as an academic. What is Mentoring? A mentor is someone who takes a long term interest [...]

As a scholar, you are a professional writer and communicator. You become a better communicator when you practice communicating. One way to practice communicating is to write occasional opinion articles for newspapers and other outlets. Writing for the general public is different from writing for a professional audience, and it is a very good way to practice writing for clarity, [...]

  With our new series on online presence underway, this podcast where Jeanne Hoffman interviews Professor Steve Horwitz about using social media to your advantage as an academic is fitting. If you’re looking for ways to further your career over the summer through social media, Dr. Horwitz has some great advice. Dr. Horwitz is the Charles A. Dana Professor and Chair of [...]

A few years ago, Dr. Art Carden, Assistant Professor in the department of Economics at Samford University, shared his paper, “How to Be a Great Conference Participant,” with us. Reflecting on his experiences in all the conferences he has attended, to offer his thoughts on how to make the most out of a conference whether you’re a presenter, discussant, panel chair, [...]

Last week, Inside Higher Ed published “The Radical New Humanities Ph.D.” highlighting the latest developments by some PhD programs to focus more attention on career advancement for their students. The piece focuses on a recently published paper from a group of Stanford professors calling for the reduction of the time it takes to obtain a degree in the humanities as [...]

In this post, the third in our series on online education and the future of academia, we are shifting our focus from the independent alternatives to traditional education to look at the online education initiatives that have come from universities. These programs, some of which are affiliated with established institutions, show some of the ways in which the academy is [...]

Introduction Early in my academic career I looked down on independent undergraduate research. In large part this is because I was exposed to some very bad undergraduate research while a student at Ohio University and an adjunct professor at Capital University. Bob Lawson, a colleague at the time, brought one memorable paper in a “refereed” undergraduate research journal to my [...]

A recent post over at Inside Higher Ed by Margaret Andrews goes over data from the last 30 years on the breakdown of instructors at universities and the rise of adjunct and non-tenure track faculty. So we went from 45% of instructional faculty being tenured or tenure-track in 1975 to 24% in 2009.  Over the same period the percentage of [...]

In my last post, I talked about running a speaker series and the positive ways in which my experience has allowed for students to better engage ideas and interact with academics and their thought. We are now turning to encouraging undergraduates to publish and collaborating with them on research. Introduction As a masters student at Ohio University I felt fortunate [...]