The Academic Life

When a professor is not who they say they are, what does it take to get them to resign? This episode explores: How an anonymous twitter account and a media investigation helped Ms. Cyca reveal the truth about a professor misrepresenting their identity. Why professors can fail to fully acknowledge all the harm done to the students, staff, and community even after they are exposed. A discussion of t...

We all know that academic integrity matters. But do we all agree on what academic integrity really is? Somewhere beyond the nuances and gray areas is blatant cheating. And that’s always wrong . . . but what if your professor asks you to cheat? This episode explores: How well students understand academic integrity. Why Dr. Heng Hartse designed a course that required cheating. What he and his studen...

Need help curating a list of Holocaust books for your students or library patrons? What’s on your shelf? What should be there? This podcast episode explores: The most commonly assigned Holocaust books. Why some of them are books you should never assign. Recommendations for books to assign, read, and share. Gaps in the literature. Gatekeepers of higher education. Susan’s wish-list. Our guest is: Su...

“I’m burned out” is a familiar phrase in higher ed these days. This episode explores: What burnout is and is not. One scholar’s personal experience with burnout. How higher ed’s culture and the “expectation escalation” encourage burnout. Academic capitalism and its relationship to faculty burnout. The missing voices from the conversation on burnout. Imposter syndrome and how it plays out for women...

Today’s book is: Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World) (U Chicago Press, 2022) by Thomas S. Mullaney and Christopher Rea, which tackles the two challenges every researcher faces with every new project: “How do I find a compelling problem to investigate—one that truly matters to me, deeply and personally? How do I then design my research project so t...

You’re going to an academic conference—and maybe even presenting a project! Whether you are going virtually or in person, for the first time or the tenth, presenting or just attending, you want to feel prepared. Are you? This podcast episode explores: Why we need to go to academic conferences. Why it can be difficult to navigate them. How can you get the most of out of it. Our guest is: Dr. Thomas...

How does identity and experience inform your writing? This episode explores: Professor Talty’s journey from community college student to college professor. The importance of supportive mentors and professors. Using identity and experience ethically in fiction and nonfiction. Why finding the right form for your story matters. A discussion of the book Night of the Living Rez. Our guest is: Professor...

Ever felt uncertain about how to manage the academic mid-career stage? This episode explores: Why the mid-career stage is so important to mid-career faculty. Strategies for taking control of your mid-career advancement plans. Equity issues surrounding women, academic mothers, and faculty of color. The importance of the department chair for mid-career faculty. Being strategic about your mentoring n...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: What inspired Clare Griffin to move far from home. The hidden curriculum of academic relocation. Her research concerns given world tensions and wars. The complexity of taking your pet from country to country. The importance of creating a community. Our guest is: Dr. Clare Griffin, a neuroatypical historian, fiction writer, and mental...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why we need to write about difficult topics. Four American towns trying to save themselves. The structural processes behind poverty. A discussion of the book The Fight to Save the Town. Today’s book is: The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America (Avid Reader, 2022), by Michele Wilde Anderson, which examines how decades...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: What inspired Professor Sumner to study wasps. That time she ate a slug. Her grad school research trip to study wasps in the Malaysian rainforest. The complex and varied roles wasps play in the natural world. The importance of approaching the natural world with endless curiosity. Today’s book is: Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wa...

Is there a strategy to communicating your research online? This episode explores: What an academic communications strategist does. Why having a strategy to your online presence is important. Common misperceptions about communicating online. Lessons learned from an academic communications strategist. The benefits and challenges to being an academic entrepreneur. Our guest is: Jennifer van Alstyne (...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The hard work of balancing academics and sports when you attend college on an athletic scholarship. Kyle’s original dream for his life after college, and where he is now. Why you need someone to have your back, and who that person has been in Kyle’s life for the last five years. How playing ball in the college off-season for the Sava...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why a humanities degree actually opens many career paths. The importance of curiosity. The contingency crisis in higher ed. How we can re-evaluate “academic success.” Advice for students and faculty. Our guest is: Dr. Katina Rogers, the author of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom (Duke Universit...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why Aaron Basko thinks we are looking at student success backwards. How asking alums why they stayed at a school often tells us more about student needs than asking the students who are withdrawing why they leave. What the “Big Six” for student success is. What two things to evaluate as you decide which college or university will be...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: How journalist Lisa Selin Davis became interested in tomboys. The questions that arise when we say the word “gender.” The supposed freedoms and limits of being a tomboy. Why manufacturers insist that clothing and toys and décor are “gendered.” A discussion of the book Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to be...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) operating out of Central European University. The importance of language related to students experiencing displacement. How our guests center theory-informed practice in their work. Three proposals for opening up the university to promote transformative experiences. Advice to others in the field i...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: How both of today’s guests became involved in higher education in prison. Why this work is personal to them. Funding and representation issues in higher education in prison. The complexities of supporting students who are incarcerated without supporting the carceral system. And a discussion of the Journal of Higher Education in Priso...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Hari Ziyad’s journey through higher education. Why they became editor of RaceBaitr after finishing film school at NYU. The necessary disruption of social norms. The challenges of writing memoir. And a discussion of the book Black Boy Out of Time. Our guest is: Hari Ziyad (he/they), a screenwriter, and the Editor-in-Chief of RaceBaitr...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer’s own experience getting her first two academic books published. An overview of different kinds of editors who will be part of shepherding your book to publication. What a developmental editor does. Why might you need to hire one. Her advice to book editors and their clients. Our guest is: Dr. Laura Portwood...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Our guests’ career paths at the Smithsonian, their work to help create a new Women’s history museum, collecting BLM materials during protests, creating exhibits just as the pandemic closed the museum, and a discussion of their book on women’s artifacts in the Smithsonian. Today’s book is: Smithsonian American Women: Remarkable Object...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Ruby Tapia’s viral Cornell sweatshirt tweet. How witnessing domestic violence, and the aftermath of her father’s suicide, influenced her decision to go to college far from home. Difficulties she faced freshman year both on and off campus. The professor who called her in to office hours, and how that changed her academic path. The...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Zibby Owen’s experience in grad school of losing her best friend. What she did to regroup and find a way forward after failing a grad exam. How the meaning she’s made of those experiences changed her. Why books and writing are essential to her. Why “overnight” success takes tenacity, adaptability, and a long time. Her passion for pub...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why Robert Ramaswamy wants to see your revised dissertation submitted for publication. What makes a revised dissertation ready to submit to a press. How to choose mentor texts to put in your proposal. Signs that you might not want to turn your dissertation into a book, and what to do instead. The editorial complexities of saying “no”...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Ellen Synder-Grenier’s career as a curator and public historian How Henry Street helped its neighbors survive the 1918 pandemic A discussion of the book The House on Henry Street Today’s book is: The House on Henry Street: The Enduring Life of a Lower East Side Settlement, which chronicles the sweeping history of the Henry Street Set...