Professerror

Bryan and Steve go on a bit of a rant about email and what annoys them about it. Think ‘middle-aged men scream at the digital cloud’ energy. This episode is light in tone, but also in substance. You should probably not listen and do something else with your time. But if you absolutely must listen, we hope you enjoy it!

Bryan and Steve discuss when future work may NOT be needed for specific research topics. Sometimes researchers collect data that indicates a novel concept or approach aimed at improving our field will not work. Despite this evidence, we often say “future work is needed” to study the topic further. But is it? When should researchers read the writing on the wall and discontinue pursuing a particular...

Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences with seeing grade inflation among students. They discuss some underlying causes of it, issues with it, and potential fixes that could theoretically mitigate some aspects of it. These fixes probably won't happen, but hopefully they make for interesting food-for-thought. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in handling technology vendors who often want access to students. They talk about when they do and don't agree to provide access and some of the factors they consider when making these decisions.

Professor Chuma Nnaji (Texas A&M University) discusses his experiences, headaches, and some successes with recently leading the planning/orchestration of a major conference in our field. It is great to hear the honest dialogue about the kinds of camaraderie that was built through this experience, but also some of the surprising challenges that kept him up at night while planning for this event...

Bryan and Steve discuss aspects of academic jobs that they do NOT like and if these aspects of their job were to expand in scope (hypothetically) would lead to them leaving their positions. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss experiences where they allow graduate students to struggle through certain professional experiences to support long term learning, even if that comes at the expense of near-term research outputs. Enjoy!

Formerly "Professor" Dan Aukes of Arizona State University talks about his journey into academia, succeeding in academia, and ultimately choosing to leave it to explore new professional life chapters. Considering non-academic careers after finding success in academia is common, but following through with the decision to pursue other career paths is less common. It's refreshing to hea...

Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in finding professional purpose after tenure. The post-tenure life undoubtedly comes with high levels of freedom, but also lacks direction, which can have unexpected challenges for finding motivation and purpose in the profession.

Bryan and Steve discuss challenges with following unclear, conflicting, or unchecked policies in academic environments. They discuss difficulties with understanding these and also discuss strategies they’ve employed to handle these challenging situations in academia.

Bryan and Steve discuss challenges and ramifications of instances of poorly set expectations between graduate students (i.e., advisees) and faculty (i.e., advisors). Hopefully the stories resonate and possibly even give some tips for how to handle these if they relate to your academic situation. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss the hypothetical scenario of federal funding for research suddenly drying up. What might happen at universities? How would faculty react? Who knows if we're right or not, but hopefully it offers food for thought. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in receiving (and sometimes making) excuses related to working with others. When is a "yes" a "yes"? When is it really a "no"?

Bryan and Steve discuss their concerns with the peer review process that research papers currently follow and offer some food-for-thought suggestions for changing the process (none of which are likely to actually happen). Despite their grouchy tone, they recognize the value that this process provides for research, so take their thoughts with a grain of salt. Hope you enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their thoughts on sharing research ideas or not. They talk about risks associated with both sharing and withholding ideas. Enjoy!

Professor and Associate Dean Denise Simmons of the University of Florida joins us to discuss her experiences with being “FOIA’d” (Freedom of Information Act). This conversation is really eye opening about the processes and emotions that may follow a FOIA request related to a given study. Enjoy!

Professor Matt Morris (University of Colorado Boulder) joins us to discuss his journey to academia via a first career in the military and second career in private industry. We haven't had the opportunity to talk much with teaching faculty, so his perspective is a nice change of pace from most of our prior focus areas. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss the value of playfulness in academic discussions. They talk about the benefits they’ve observed in having playful conversations that are not aimed at specific objectives or outputs. They talk about how these discussions have led to rich collaborations despite the seemingly wasteful effort spent on discussing topics that are not immediately productive. Enjoy!

Professor Vineeth Dharmapalan (Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa) talks about his recent move from a mostly teaching-focused institution to one with more research focus. He also discusses some of the professional and personal reasons that guided his move, as well as some of the challenges experienced in the process. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in receiving and sending cold emails (emails to people you do not yet know). They discuss what works well and what strategies were not well received. Hopefully this helps you avoid some of the mistakes we've made. Enjoy!

Professor Kristen Parrish (Arizona State University) joins us to talk about challenges with writing letters for other individuals' promotion and tenure (P&T) cases. She talks about challenges not only with writing these letters, but also challenges in considering how they'll be received by a different university audience. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss challenges and lessons learned when wrapping up research projects. They discuss what is often involved at the end of projects, things to consider when closing out a project, and some strategies they've employed to finish projects on a high note. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their plans for the upcoming summer and how their summer work experience differs from the rest of the academic year.

Bryan discusses his new position as a PhD Program Director and challenges and lessons learned in this administration role. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss how generative AI is impacting processes for generating and reviewing research manuscripts. They also offer some food for thought for what a future might look like where academics remain relevant in a world with AI. Enjoy!