The lingering challenges of "bootstrapping" in academia

Some of you may have seen this piece in The Chronicle by Rachel Wagner, discussing her struggles as a single mom from an impoverished rural community trying to make it in academia. To put it mildly, it stuck a chord with me. Enough to get me to un-mothball the blogge and post something, obviously. Her experience is mine. She discusses how financial...

May 2015

The Passion of the Scientist

There have been a few responses (updated: Janet has one also, as does Mike) to this chuckleheaded essay chiding, well, basically anyone who isn't in the lab 60+ hours every week about how they lack passion about their research, and are essentially letting sick people die because they think they have the "right" to lives outside of the lab. I wish I...

May 2015

Aaaargh

It's been on of those months. Have way too much shit to do, and to complicate matters, I stupidly took on a new project on contract. This was supposed to be fairly easy, but it has been kicking my ass. Supplies haven't been coming in on time, had to make a bunch of shit from scratch, track down people to actually do the work, and still ended up spending...

May 2015

Grad students, get writing!

Over at Academic Inspirations, Dr. O brings up a great point about dissertation writing: On the contrary, grad students should be continually writing throughout their thesis work, one results section at a time. For papers, if possible. If not, then for practice. Writing is an art, and it takes lots of practice. You understand your data and results better...

May 2015

On the night shift...

Must be "feeling like a college kid" week here in the household. Yesterday I was mulling my drinking habits (which are, essentially, identical to those of Progeny, minus the chocolate milk) and today I'm practically pulling an all-nighter trying to catch up on work. Glaring zit, check--minus the serious self-esteem issues, I could be 19 again. I've...

May 2015

Monday confessional: Starbucks who?

It's that time of year again, when summer is winding down and thoughts turn to prepping courses and greasing the academic wheels. As such, I'm frequently asked by colleagues to meet for coffee or drinks to discuss teaching opportunities, course design, etc. I have a terrible, dark confession. A secret that generates jaw-drops and strange stares from...

May 2015

Hook 'em while they're young

This is all sorts of awesomeness: When Shivani went off to Princeton, Dr. Sud was like many professional women who interrupt their careers to raise kids: should she return to her former career or try a new path? Then Shivani said to her, “Mom, why not help other kids like you helped us?” She went to Dr. Carl Harris, then superintendant of Durham Public...

May 2015

How did you end up in your career?

Interesting new post on benchfly sure to start some discussion with coming posts on the glut of PhDs in academia, and the scarcity of jobs. Before all that comes, though, Alan says: It’s very possible that only a small fraction of us actually start out with ambitions of a career in academics. If this is the case, then perhaps the scarcity of available...

May 2015

Vacation guilt

As Scicurious very sensibly noted last week, it's okay for scientists to take a vacation. The world won't end, your research won't be ruined, students will survive for a week without you, and that departmental meeting you're missing isn't really that critical, right? Yet every time I leave, even if it's for a conference, review panel or something else...

May 2015

More grad school and tenure track advice

More great grad school advice from Ambivalent Academic, via Professor in Training. PiT also has advice for young professors in this excellent post.

May 2015