Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Steven M. Cahn's advice on the professorial life covers an extensive range of critical issues: how to plan, complete, and defend a dissertation; how to navigate a job interview; how to improve teaching performance; how to prepare and publish research; how to develop a professional network; and how to garner support for tenure. He deals with such hurdles as a difficult dissertation advisor, problematic colleagues, and the pressures of the tenure clock. Whether you are beginning graduate study, hoping to secure an academic position, or striving to build a professorial career, Cahn's insights are invaluable to traversing the thickets of academia.
Synopsis
This is a book of advice for students considering doctoral programs and doctoral students considering faculty life. It is framed as a glossary of about 150 terms that author Herb Childress, as a first-generation student, wishes that he had known and understood as he applied for and completed his PhD and went into the academic job market. The guide examines the practices of doctoral education and faculty life through entries that illuminate terms such as buyout, edited volume, and FERPA; so many things that most academics learned somewhere along the way and forget that others don't know. The alphabetical reference format enables readers to turn directly to the topic in question and find some borrowed wisdom. Each entry features a little storytelling, then some larger context, and leaves readers able to put on the mask of the capable scholar even though they feel like impostors. Every time they hear a term they feel they ought to know, it is here. The book is often funny as well, attempting to offer both encouragement and reality to students facing unconscionable odds as they search for safe harbor. As more than half of all college instructors are now adjuncts, the questions about an academic career are changing, and there are now fewer reliable answersand#151;and answers. Herb Childressand#8217;s volume promises to be a trusted companion to many a graduate student, aspiring academic, and adjunct professor.