In my opinion
A professor reflects on the recent attack on two students and a professor at the University of Waterloo.
My colleague — a friend — Continue reading last week while teaching a gender studies course at the University of Waterloo. In an attack that mirrors others we’ve seen before, someone targeted her classroom and tried to harm her and ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/we-cannot-barricade-ourselves-within-the-ivory-tower/
The Black Hole
Those who know me might recall a certain penchant I have for making terrible acronyms (or jokes in general) and I can't believe that this one has escaped me for so long:
PHD = Professionals in High Demand
This tidy little phrase underscores ma...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/professionals-in-high-demand/
The Black Hole
In a recent comment left on the site by SubC, a request was made to "look deeper" into the 20% number of PhDs becoming professors. Specifically, the question was raised as to "how many that wanted an academic career in the first place actually ended up in one" and that a look into postdoctoral fel...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/a-deeper-look-into-the-80-of-phds-who-do-not-become-professors/
The Black Hole
So you want to be..." which gives some advice on how to first start looking for non-academic career options.
For those who want to stay in the academy, the Individual Development Plan is still useful - it will help you identify which skills you need to get the professor job and hopefully it will ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/a-new-way-to-help-you-choose-your-science-related-career/
The Black Hole
The following is an edited transcript from Continue reading I gave at the medical device development course, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) on May 12, 2016.
Due to length, I have broken the talk up into s...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/translate-discoveries-bench-bedside/
Speculative Diction
I’m taking some time out in this post, to talk a bit self-indulgently about my approach to blogging - partly because I’m still asked pretty regularly about how and why I got started with writing a blog. I suppose it seems a bit random; this still isn’t really a common activity in academic circ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/speculative-diction/thoughts-beginning-blogging/
Speculative Diction
A frank discussion about open access publishing, Dr. Eve’s own Open Library for the Humanities, and what future he sees for the academic publishing industry.
The current state of academic publishing is something we should all be thinking about, given that it’s a means of disseminating the knowledge generated by academic research — much of which is publicly funded yet inaccessible to the public. Publishing is also significant because ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/speculative-diction/open-access-academic-publishing-interview-dr-martin-paul-eve/
Career Advice
How to wrestle your dissertation to the mat
The idea of time management is drilled into most students through their undergraduate years, but the focus on this skill seems to drop off in grad school. The irony is that most students need time management skills even more when they are looking at working on a thesis or dissertation.
Writing a ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/thesis-time-management/
Career Advice
Four steps to make your presence felt online
It happens slowly at first. You hear about somebody at a conference who uses the web to share lecture notes with her students. Then another colleague tells you about this great resource of links that a professor in your field is building up on his site. Maybe one of your coworkers smugly announces h...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/how-to-build-your-faculty-website-for-free/
Career Advice
This vital skill can open doors to funding, contacts and new opportunities.
For many students networking seems at its best a guarantee of awkward small talk, at its worst, a glorified word for using people. Despite the bad connotations, when done correctly, networking is beneficial for everyone involved.
Networking is also an essential skill for any graduate student. It ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/learning-to-network/
Career Advice
Some helpful resources and tools for professors who have to quickly move their courses online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Editor's note: This has been reprinted with the author's permission. It has been shortened and edited for clarity. Read the Continue reading.
We are at a pivotal ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/a-digital-survival-kit-for-transitioning-your-course-online/
From PhD to Life
Christine Slocum earned her MA in sociology at the University at Buffalo in 2010. She spent two years pursuing a doctorate in sociology at the University of Washington before leaving that to begin a career working to alleviate homelessness. She is employed as one of the data nerds at the Home...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/from-phd-to-life/transition-q-a-christine-slocum/
From PhD to Life
Raj Dhiman completed his PhD in bio-organic chemistry at the University of Toronto. He is currently the sales training manager for Vicinity, a division of Rogers Communications that focuses on customer loyalty and marketing solutions for small businesses. Connect with him on
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/from-phd-to-life/transition-q-a-raj-dhiman/
From PhD to Life
Occasionally I’m asked about quitting, particularly "quitting" a PhD program. This happened several times last week, when I was in Vancouver.
Contrary to what you may hear or what your own internal critics tell you, there’s no shame in moving on. I remember a long post on a
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/from-phd-to-life/ok-quit-phd/
From PhD to Life
Jennifer Askey earned her PhD in Germanic languages and literature from Washington University in St. Louis and then worked as an assistant, then associate professor of German at Kansas State University, followed by stints as a special project coordinator at Wilfrid Laurier University, and associ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/from-phd-to-life/transition-q-jennifer-askey/
Careers Café
Liz Koblyk wants you to focus on what you can produce rather than on whether you’re qualified to produce it.
I’ve been taken with the Continue reading, where people put together common items in unusual ways. The idea with tinkering is to use what’s at hand, in ways not originally intended, and to focus more on what you can produce rather than on whether...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/careers-cafe/tinkering-with-your-career/
Careers Café
Some secret interviews are built into the formal interview process, some happen during informational interviews and some happen purely by chance.
While the days are still short and the nights long, I’ll stick with the theme of secrets. Continue reading explored the secret CV, through which you give voice and space to endeavours that have mattered deeply ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/careers-cafe/the-secret-job-interview-exploring-three-times-you-might-not-even-know-it-is-happening/
Responsibilities May Include
I felt stuck in my job search. But networking, conducting informational interviews and revamping my CV helped me not only find a great job, but get it.
to">The year was 2017 and I had just defended my
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/responsibilities-may-include/how-stepping-outside-my-comfort-zone-by-networking-landed-me-a-job-i-love/
Graduate Matters
Guiding questions to facilitate your quest for a collaborative student-supervisor relationship.
So, you’ve decided that you want to go to grad school but don’t know where to start. You’ve come to the right place. Follow this step-by-step guide to find the right supervisor for you.
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/graduate-matters/picking-the-right-graduate-supervisor/
Step 1: determining your personal goals
Let’s start with a simple question: why are you going t...
Ask Dr. Editor
Be conscious and deliberate with how you occupy the landscape of your writing.
Question, submitted via email:
I chose my academic field – modernist literature – because I love the language that the best novelists use. I’ve heard, though, that I shouldn’t close my paragraphs with a quotation. I want to, because a well-turned phrase can often crysta...
Click to fill out a quick survey