Synopses & Reviews
Review
"One of the many good qualities of the essays in this book is that collectively they offer a panorama of humanists' lives. In them every major step in the humanist's career, from graduate school to retirement, comes in for imaginative, sympathetic, and precise description. Even if you are not a humanist—especially if you are not a humanist—let me urge you to read this book from end to end. Do it, and you will learn a great deal—much of it the sort of thing that no polemic could teach you. This is a book I wish I could have read when I was much younger. Since nothing like it existed then—and nothing like it exists now." - Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History, Princeton University, USA
"This collection of tart, lively essays puts the 'humanity' back into the humanities, and contributes to a robust ongoing conversation on life and lifestyle within the academy. How to Build a Life in the Humanities is an imaginative and valuable book." - Leonard Cassuto, Chronicle of Higher Education columnist and Professor of English, Fordham University, USA
Synopsis
A follow-up to the popular Graduate Study for the 21st Century, this book seeks to expand professional development to include the personal aspects of daily lives in the humanities. How to Build a Life in the Humanities delves into pressing work-life issues such as post-tenure depression, academic life with children, aging, and adjuncting.
Synopsis
Foreword; Anthony Grafton Introduction; Greg Col n Semenza and Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr. PART I: PROFESSIONAL LIFE 1. Life in a Liberal Arts College; William Pannapacker 2. Life in a Community College; Rob Jenkins 3. Life in a Research University; Barry V. Qualls 4. Teaching; Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr. 5. Grading; Karen J. Renner 6. Departmental and University Citizenship; Claire Bond Potter 7. Research and the Public; Brendan Kane PART II: PERSONAL LIFE 8. Imposter Phenomenon; Natalie M. Houston 9. Academic Guilt; Giuseppina Iacono Lobo 10. Depression; Greg Col n Semenza 11. Downtime; Christina M. Fitzgerald 12. Maternity; Kristen Ghodsee 13. Life with Children; Michael B rub 14. Life without Children; Sean Grass and Iris Rivero 15. Aging; Eric Lorentzen PART III: DIVERSE LIVES 16. Class; Simon Yarrow 17. Religion; Kristin Poole 18. Race/Ethnicity; Cathy Schlund-Vials 19. Gender; Claudia Calhoun 20. Disability; Brenda Brueggemann and Stephanie Kerschbaum 21. Sexual Orientation; Margaret Breen PART IV: LIFE OFF THE TENURE TRACK 22. Life as an Adjunct; Joe Fruscione 23. Life as a Graduate Student; Alex Galarza 24. Life after Retirement; Valerie Wayne and Linda Woodbridge 25. Life after Academe; Anne Trubek
About the Author
Greg Colón Semenza is Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA and former Director of English Graduate Studies. He is the author of Graduate Study for the 21st Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; 2nd ed. 2010). He has also written The History of British Literature on Film (forthcoming 2014), as well as numerous books and articles on a variety of subjects ranging from early modern sports to the Sex Pistols. He lectures widely on graduate studies and issues in the Humanities and his work has been covered in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Associated Press Radio, PBS, and Gradhacker.org, among others.
Garrett Sullivan is Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is the author most recently of Sleep, Romance, and Human Embodiment: Vitality from Spenser to Milton (Cambridge, 2012). He has also edited numerous works, including The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Tragedy (Cambridge, 2010, with Emma Smith), and along with Julie Sanders is editing for Oxford University Press a new book series entitled Early Modern Literary Geographies. He has been the recipient of a Folger Shakespeare Library and an NEH grant.