Synopses & Reviews
Is a career as a professor the right choice for you? If you are a graduate student, how can you clear the hurdles successfully and position yourself for academic employment? What's the best way to prepare for a job interview, and how can you maximize your chances of landing a job that suits you? What happens if you don't receive an offer? How does the tenure process work, and how do faculty members cope with the multiple and conflicting day-to-day demands?
With a perpetually tight job market in the traditional academic fields, the road to an academic career for many aspiring scholars will often be a rocky and frustrating one. Where can they turn for good, frank answers to their questions? Here, three distinguished scholarsand#8212;with more than 75 years of combined experienceand#8212;talk openly about what's good and what's not so good about academia, as a place to work and a way of life.
Written as an informal conversation among colleagues, the book is packed with inside informationand#8212;about finding a mentor, avoiding pitfalls when writing a dissertation, negotiating the job listings, and much more. The three authors' distinctive opinions and strategies offer the reader multiple perspectives on typical problems. With rare candor and insight, they talk about such tough issues as departmental politics, dual-career marriages, and sexual harassment. Rounding out the discussion are short essays that offer the "inside track" on financing graduate education, publishing the first book, and leaving academia for the corporate world.
This helpful guide is for anyone who has ever wondered what the fascinating and challenging world of academia might hold in store.
Part I - Becoming a Scholar
* Deciding on an Academic Career
* Entering Graduate School
* The Mentor
* Writing a Dissertation
* Landing an Academic Job
Part II - The Academic Profession
* The Life of the Assistant Professor
* Teaching and Research
* Tenure
* Competition in the University System and Outside Offers
* The Personal Side of Academic Life
Review
“A lot of academics are going to find in this book just what they need to stimulate their own thinking and assessment of their career, whatever stage they’re in. Everyone who has worked in an academic position knows what these problems are, sort of, but a large number of professors and scholars refuse to think about them or to consider, calmly and with some reference to realities, what they should do about them. Behind the Academic Curtain will help them sort out what’s important to them. It provides a humane perspective on the insoluble dilemmas that inform a scholarly life.”
Review
“An exceptionally comprehensive guide to an entire academic career, from deciding where to apply to grad school to determining when it's time to retire.”
Review
“Every academic or potential academic should read this book. Frank F. Furstenberg gives sage and humane advice about every step of an academic career from deciding whether to go to graduate school to when and how to retire. These pages are brimming with brilliant career and professional advice. But even more importantly, Furstenberg reminds his readers to live a good and balanced life and shares his successful strategies for doing so.”
Review
“Frank F. Furstenberg offers a wealth of insight into the arc of the academic career. From the first steps into graduate programs to the complexities of retirement, he draws on his personal experience as one of the nation’s foremost scholars and his observations of hundreds of fellow academics in the making to enlighten the reader in ways practical, tactical, and philosophical. Anyone contemplating a life in the university world will want to devour this book and will come away from it equipped with invaluable insights into what it takes to succeed.”
Review
“This is a rare book. Behind the Academic Curtain offers a thoughtful reflection on the challenges of managing a career. It has great advice for individuals at different life stages. Are you trying to decide if you should go to graduate school? Are you in the pre-tenure track? Are you feeling stalled after tenure? Is retirement looming? With good humor, Frank F. Furstenberg offers honest, intelligent guidance. Highly recommended!”
Review
“In this superb book, sociologist Furstenberg offers readers a sweeping description of the five stages of an academic’s career from graduate school, to choosing a career in (or outside of) the academy, to tenure review, all the way to retirement. The author, who is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, provides graduate students and professors his personal reflections on the many twists and turns that every PhD will face in his or her career.”
Synopsis
More people than ever are going to graduate school to seek a PhD these days. When they get there, they discover a bewildering environment: a rapid immersion in their discipline, a keen competition for resources, and uncertain options for their future, whether inside or outside of academia. Life with a PhD can begin to resemble an unsolvable maze. In
Behind the Academic Curtain, Frank F. Furstenberg offers a clear and user-friendly map to this maze. Drawing on decades of experience in academia, he provides a comprehensive, empirically grounded, and, most important of all, practical guide to academic life.
While the greatest anxieties for PhD candidates and postgrads are often centered on getting that tenure-track dream job, each stage of an academic career poses a series of distinctive problems. Furstenberg divides these stages into five chapters that cover the entire trajectory of an academic life, including how to make use of a PhD outside of academia. From finding the right job to earning tenure, from managing teaching loads to conducting research, from working on committees to easing into retirement, he illuminates all the challenges and opportunities an academic can expect to encounter. Each chapter is designed for easy consultation, with copious signposts, helpful suggestions, and a bevy of questions that all academics should ask themselves throughout their career, whether at a major university, junior college, or a nonacademic organization. An honest and up-to-date portrayal of how this life really works, Behind the Academic Curtain is an essential companion for any scholar, at any stage of his or her career.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
About the Author
John A. Goldsmith is the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor in, and former chair of, the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago.
John Komlos is a professor of economics, chair of the Institute of Economic History, and a former chair of the economics department at the University of Munich.
Penny Schine Gold is a professor of history at Knox college and past chair of the Women's Studies Program.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One: Becoming a Scholar
1. Deciding on an Academic Career
-The advantages and disadvantages of academic life
-Academic salaries
-Academic freedom
-The personality traits of successful graduate students
2. Entering Graduate School
-Differences between undergraduate and graduate training
-Preconditions for a graduate education
-Questions to ask yourself
-Financial considerations
-Picking the right school
-Specialization
-Knowing whether you've made the right career choice
-The Inside Track: Financing Graduate Education
Thomas Thuerer
3. The Mentor
-The role of the mentor
-Finding a mentor
-The mentoring commitment
4. Writing a Dissertation
-Prerequisites
-The dissertation requirement
-Choosing a topic
-How long it takes to write a thesis
-Becoming discouraged and persevering
5. Landing an Academic Job
-Preparing to enter the academic job market
-Presenting a paper at a conference
-The job search
-How to read job advertisements
-Assembling the dossier
-Application letters
-Letters of reference
-The c.v.
-Interviews at national meetings
-What should be avoided
-Applying as a couple
-The short list
-The campus visit
-The job talk
-Rejections
-How long to keep trying
-Receiving and evaluating offers
-Negotiating the terms of the appointment
-The "two-body" problem
-Multiple offers
-The Inside Track: Leaving Academia for the Corporate World
Ami Kronfeld
Part Two: The Academic Profession
6. The Life of the Assistant Professor
-Beginning the first job
-Juggling responsibilities
-Sorting out priorities
-Committees and commitments
-Keeping tenure in view
-Getting along with colleagues
-The institutional bureaucracy
-Departmental politics-BGetting involved in institutional change
-Long-term goals
-Family considerations
-Job satisfaction
7. Teaching and Research
-What teaching is all about
-Expectations at research universities
-Expectations at teaching institutions
-Preparing a syllabus
-Learning how to teach
-Exams and writing assignments
-The first day of class
-Evaluating students' work
-Evaluating your own teaching
-Teaching at the graduate level
-Plagiarism and other ethical issues
-Making life easier on yourself
-"Publish or perish"
-Beginning to publish
-Finding the right journal
-Submitting the article
-The editor's decision
-Referee reports
-Coauthoring
-Publishing a book
-Getting grants
-Surviving writer's block
The Inside Track: Publishing the First Book
Colin Day
8. Tenure
-Why tenure exists
-The tenure-review process
-Evaluation criteria
-Attacks on tenure
-Being denied tenure
-Opportunities outside academia
9. Competition in the University System and Outside Offers
-The forces of competition
-Mobility and loyalty
-Junior and senior hires
-Outside offers as a way to move up
The Inside Track: Consulting and Intellectual Property
Pierre Laszlo
10. Family, Gender, and the Personal Side of Academic Life
-Effects on family
-Shared appointments
-Discrimination in academia
-Sexual harassment and consensual relationships
11. Conclusion
Appendix 1 The Administrative Structure of a University
Appendix 2 Policies on Parental Leave and Shared Positions
Appendix 3 Tables
Notes
Bibliography
Index