Practical advice for every step of an academic career, from preparing lectures and networking to tenure, promotion and post-tenure review.
A student asks, 'Can I use AI to help with this assignment?' You know what you intended, but the syllabus doesn't quite say it. Another student has already made a different assumption. That's a hard place to begin a fair…
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You've found a faculty position that looks promising. Then you open your last cover letter and realize half of it could be sent to almost any university. Changing the institution's name won't explain why you're a good fit for…
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You've got a slide deck, a room full of students, and fifty minutes. Halfway through, you notice that you're explaining the material clearly enough to yourself, but you're not sure what students are taking from it. That…
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You ask a question, wait, and hear the same two students answer again. The rest of the room is quiet. Are they following, confused, or just reluctant to speak? It's hard to tell from the front. Active learning gives you another…
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You've spent months on the study. Now a submission form asks you to explain it in a few hundred words, and every sentence seems to leave something out. Writing the abstract can feel harder than writing the paper. The reader needs…
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You've studied your subject for years. Now you're facing a room of students, and knowing the material suddenly feels different from helping other people learn it. That gap can be unsettling. Your first semester doesn't require a…
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The room is quiet, students are taking their seats, and you're suddenly very aware of the first sentence you're about to say. The first day can feel unusually loaded, even when you've taught the course before. You don't have to…
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You planned to write this afternoon. Then a student needed help, a meeting ran long, and your inbox produced three things marked urgent. By the time you opened the manuscript, you had enough energy to rename the file. That kind…
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Your session is next. The slides looked fine on your laptop, but now the room feels larger, the clock feels faster, and you're wondering whether you really need slide 27. Conference nerves have a way of sharpening that question…
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You probably have a lot to say about teaching. The hard part is deciding what belongs in a statement and what belongs in the supporting folder. Put everything in, and the reader gets a course catalog. Keep it too general, and…
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