21st Century Scholar

Peter Scott uses the metaphor of “the angle of repose” in his nice new book, Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent. The angle of repose is an engineering term, but I know it as the title of a book by one of my favorite authors, Wallace Stegner. In engineering an “angle of repose” is the angle at [...]

The lack of academic coaching highlights how little regard the academy has for mentoring scholars. Assume you’re an assistant professor in your second year and you’re worried. You only have published one paper, another you have resubmitted, and three others have just been rejected. You also submitted a proposal for funding and they didn’t even [...]

Naomi Schaefer Riley does not like tenure. I do not like this book because it is poorly argued. What do these two sentences tell us? The first statement is factually correct; I assume that anyone who reads The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get The College Education You Pay For will come [...]

I have written about the changing nature of tenure and what gets expected of someone who is going from assistant to associate. I also have been thinking a great deal about promotion to full professor. During the summer I am asked to review a lot of dossiers for tenure-track candidates, and candidates who are up [...]

by Randy Clemens Every night, I try to find at least 10 minutes to sit at my practice pad. I drill rudiments. I work on my double-stroke roll. I sight read–my least favorite exercise. If I have a little more time, I move to the drum set. There I work on some speed and coordination [...]

by Randy Clemens Last year, after attending AERA’s conference in Denver, I wrote about the need for a digital makeover. I made several suggestions for the meeting: (1), provide free wifi, (2), embrace microblogging, and (3), stream symposiums online. My blog was mainly focused on uses of technology to not just improve the experience but [...]

Part 2:  The Life as an Assistant Professor After the idealism of why people enter academe, today I tackle the life of the assistant professor.  For my research, I use my own experiences coupled with interviews with 8 current assistant professors around the country.  Although life as an assistant professor is one of looking to [...]

by Bill Tierney I have two regrettable worries here, both signs of the current times, and both likely to decrease the quality of academic life.  Both stories revolve around academic appointments. Case #1: Who appoints professors? Ultimately, the Board and President do, just as they are responsible for everything else at the institution.  But it [...]

by Randy Clemens During a recent meeting, Bill and I discussed different ways to present data. Being a skilled and socially responsible researcher is not simply about designing and executing an elegant study. Presentation matters. The reasons are multiple: Researchers now need to search for funding; asking for money from a foundation includes a level [...]

by Bill Tierney When do I get to speak out as a ‘professor at USC’ as opposed to speaking out as an individual?  In the former I am calling upon my rights as a professor who has academic freedom and the protection of tenure, whereas in the latter I am using my first amendment rights.  [...]