Why do we feel the need to belong, and what happens when we don’t? This episode explores: What it takes to belong. Why it physically hurts to be excluded. How perspective-gathering can help create more inclusion. A Discussion of the book Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides. Today’s book is: Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, by Dr. Geoffrey Cohen, which explores how we became so alienated from one another, the physical and emotional...
Dec 15, 2022•58 min•Ep. 140
Why do so many difficult conversations happen over a school break, a holiday meal, or at an important family event? How can we better prepare ourselves, and start managing our expectations? This episode explores: Ways we can navigate difficult* conversations. Why we can stop trying to have the right answer. Questions to ask ourselves as we set our intentions and our boundaries. How to offer a heads up in advance of divulging surprising news. The importance of chosen families, and of friendship g...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 142
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 the article The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A “Pretendian” Investigation. Our guest is: Michelle Cyca...
Dec 08, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 133
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 students learned from it. How it feels to cheat, and why some students feel forced to do it. A discussion ...
Dec 01, 2022•50 min•Ep. 139
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: Susan Kusel, who is the Library Director at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. She is also...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 137
“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, especially, in the academy. Our guest is: Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark, Director of the Office of Facult...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 138
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 that the results will matter to anyone else?” This easy-to-follow workbook guides you to find researc...
Nov 10, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 129
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 J. Tobin, who is a founding member of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring at the Unive...
Nov 08, 2022•48 min•Ep. 120
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 Morgan Talty, who is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. He is the author of...
Nov 03, 2022•48 min•Ep. 127
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 needs in mid-career. Two critical considerations for mid-career faculty developing programs. Our gues...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 131
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 health advocate who is an assistant professor in the department of history at Indiana University Bl...
Oct 20, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 126
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 of cuts to local government amidst rising concentrations of poverty have wreaked havoc on communiti...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 119
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 Wasps, which explores these much-maligned insects’ secret world, their incredible diversity and comple...
Oct 06, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 125
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 (@HigherEdPR), a communications strategist for professors and researchers. At The Academic Designer L...
Sep 29, 2022•47 min•Ep. 128
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 Savannah Bananas reminded him about the importance of having fun, and what he had liked about the sport ...
Sep 22, 2022•46 min•Ep. 122
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 University Press, 2020). In 2021, she founded Inkcap Consulting to help universities build more supportive an...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 118
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 the right “fit” for you. His advice to parents and incoming students. Our guest is: Aaron Basko, who...
Sep 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 117
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 Different. Today’s book is: Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to be Differ...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 116
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 initiating programs for displaced students. Our guests are: Dr. Ian M. Cook and Dr. Prem Kumar Rajara...
Aug 25, 2022•54 min•Ep. 123
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 Prison. Our guest is: Dr. Erin Corbett, who earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, whe...
Aug 18, 2022•51 min•Ep. 112
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. Originally from Cleveland, OH, they currently reside in Brooklyn, NY, and received their BFA from ...
Aug 11, 2022•56 min•Ep. 110
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-Stacer, who is a scholar and academic. She wrote a book based on her dissertation and many scholarl...
Aug 04, 2022•57 min•Ep. 115
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 Objects and Stories of Strength, Ingenuity, and Vision from the National Collection, a book that offers a ...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 105
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 meaning she’s made of these experiences, and how they changed her. Her hopes for future generation ...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 114
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 publishing, podcasting, and reading. The advice she would have given herself when she was embarking on ...
Jul 14, 2022•57 min•Ep. 113
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” to a book proposal. And a discussion about the new University of Wyoming Press imprint Our guest is...
Jul 07, 2022•52 min•Ep. 111
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 Settlement and its enduring vision of a more just society. Through personal narratives, vivid images, a...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 101
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why the AAUP was formed. Their role in supporting academic freedom. Why the threat to tenure is a threat to higher education. The importance of collective bargaining, and of transparency in academic salaries. Our guest is: Dr. Irene Mulvey, who is a Professor of Mathematics at Fairfield University where she has been teaching for 37 years. She has been fighting to protect academic freedom, to promote shared governance, and to uphold...
Jun 23, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 109
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Our guest Eric Frans’ career path into, out of, and around higher education Key factors that influenced his decision to pursue employment outside the academy The transition from higher education to a different industry How he plans to use his doctorate in the future His advice to those inside higher ed considering switching to other industries Our guest is: Eric Frans, a career development professional currently working as a Talent...
Jun 16, 2022•52 min•Ep. 108
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Karin Lewis’s experience pitching and winning the book bid Karin and the editorial team’s vision for an inclusive and diverse collection The process of working as a team to develop an idea into a book The realities of editing a large volume with many authors Blurring the lines of traditional scholarship with artistic and creative submissions Her advice to other scholars considering editing an established collection Our guest is...
Jun 09, 2022•46 min•Ep. 107
