The case for administrative postdocs

“A postdoc in the dean’s office? What does that mean?” Over the past academic year, Yukiko Tanaka constantly fielded questions like this when she told postdocs, staff, faculty and administrators that she was the postdoctoral fellow in faculty equity and solidarity, working in the office of the vice-principal academic and dean at the University of Toronto Scarborough.  

Given the common myths about the role of postdocs in general, it’s not surprising a postdoc in the dean’s office would cause confusion. We are here to suggest some aims for an administrative postdoc and to point to the many ways it can be mutually beneficial for the university and PhD graduate. 

What is an administrative postdoc? 

Postdoctoral positions in administrative units provide PhDs from a range of disciplines in the humanities, education, management, sciences and social sciences an opportunity to turn their critical and transformative research lens on the university itself. Budgetary constraints, ongoing institutionalized racism, debates over academic freedom, and the opportunities and challenges of generative AI are pressing contemporary administrative concerns. Yet they are also manifestations of some of the oldest dilemmas in academia, raising questions such as: How should knowledge be produced? What kinds of knowledge are legitimate? How should resources be allocated for knowledge production and dissemination?  

Rather than treating such dilemmas as idiosyncrasies of the local institution, the postdoc can approach them as a site of study and bring forward solutions that are informed by scholarship and strategic consultations with experts inside and outside the university.  

As the postdoctoral fellow in faculty equity and solidarity, Yuki supported and was supported by Jessica, her supervising academic administrator, in her work as vice-dean faculty affairs, equity, and success. Yuki took on various research initiatives and developed programming and recommendations advancing equity for faculty.  

For example, UTSC, like many other universities, is committed to hiring and retaining more Indigenous faculty. Through a literature review and consultations with UTSC chairs and faculty, Yuki wrote a research brief outlining structural changes that promise to increase Indigenous faculty hiring. This brief now informs ongoing conversations about Indigenous hiring and retention.   

UTSC department chairs asked for more support for their work mediating faculty and administration needs. Yuki reviewed the literature on best practices on chair professional development and mentorship and produced a research brief on supporting department chairs. That brief became the basis of a series of peer mentorship sessions for chairs that Yuki and Jessica co-developed and facilitated in 2023-24.  

Finally, UTSC faculty and staff have expressed interest in restorative practices and restorative justice as a non-punitive response to faculty harm and harassment. Yuki conducted consultative interviews with restorative practice experts working in non-profit organizations, universities and think tanks. She also reviewed the existing research on faculty experiences of harm and harassment and the ways universities have implemented restorative practices. This work has contributed toward the 2024-25 “Year Toward Restoration” activities under the leadership of the vice-dean.  

What Are the Benefits of Administrative Postdocs? 

Through the postdoc, early career scholars can gain experience in project management, professional consulting, strategic planning, research analysis and other senior roles in the public and private sectors. Meanwhile, the academic administrators and institution benefit from having a highly trained research specialist available to critically explore in-depth issues facing faculty, students and staff. 

For those early career scholars who want to pursue a faculty role, the postdoc fosters a deeper understanding of the way the university functions and prepares the candidate to take on meaningful service work. Yuki started a new job as an assistant professor, teaching stream at U of T this year. From working on reports like the Teaching Stream Working Group initiative at UTSC, she has gained an intimate familiarity with the challenges and opportunities associated with the teaching stream. She also gained an appreciation for the necessary and difficult work of the dean’s office and the proverbial village it takes to fulfill the academic mission of the university. For those who earn a PhD and then pursue careers in university administration (one version of the “alt-ac” or alternative academic career), the postdoc can create pathways toward these important roles. 

For those who aim to work outside academia, the postdoc offers an opportunity to apply research skills to a large institution with diverse stakeholders. Recent years have brought an explosion of interest in the public and private sectors in advancing principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). PhD holders are well trained in the theoretical and methodological skills required to implement EDI, but employers may not recognize the value of a PhD without the experience of working in a complex organization. An administrative postdoc allows early career scholars to bridge the academic and non-academic worlds and offers PhD holders one pathway beyond the university. 

A postdoctoral fellowship in administration also represents a unique mentorship opportunity for the postdoctoral fellow and the supervising university administrator. Rachel Endo’s work on multi-level mentoring partnerships provides a model through which senior and early career scholars can enter a mutually enriching and instructive relationship in which, on the one hand, the administrator facilitates the postdoc’s access to conversations and decision-making processes not usually accessible to early career scholars and, on the other, the postdoc can ensure the academic administrator recognizes and responds to the needs and perspectives of early career scholars. Such fellowships contribute to equity in the university. Through international recruitment, the postdoc can be an opportunity to hire Black, Indigenous and racialized scholars and to welcome those perspectives into spaces where these voices are often left out. 

Given the immense benefits that the supervising academic administrator, the postdoctoral fellow, and the institution itself can gain from an administrative postdoc, we urge other universities to consider this innovative postdoc model.