ABSTRACT
Should academic careers always unfold in exactly the same way? Is there one best way of being an academic? This book says no. Assumptions about who academics are and what they should do are becoming increasingly narrow and focused on achieving so-called ‘excellence’ in teaching and research above anything else. This book problematises this and explores the scope for doing academic careers differently.
Authors paint individual or group portraits of their academic careers, working with metaphors which challenge the dominant discourses of how academic careers should be led. From rejecting the pressure to focus on ‘one big thing’, to prioritising nurture and care, transcending disciplinary boundaries, reshaping own daily practice, connecting with communities, and being academics outside academia, the chapters in this book offer those considering, starting, or developing an academic career a treasure trove of many alternative possibilities.
Presented as a portrait gallery through which readers are encouraged to meander at will, this compilation of insights into alternative academic lives will help to inspire and encourage current academics to re-think and take ownership of their careers in their own terms, according to their own strengths, weaknesses, and circumstances.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|40 pages
The meandering gallery
chapter |6 pages
The all-over-the-place academic
part II|44 pages
Against careerism
chapter |16 pages
Collectively creating conditions that nurture
part III|50 pages
Navigating belonging
chapter |9 pages
Before you decolonize, let me into the game
part IV|45 pages
Nurturing careers
chapter |9 pages
A room for three
part |48 pages
The hall of mirrors
part VI|59 pages
The transgressive gallery
chapter |10 pages
Meeting the threads that pull
part VII|23 pages
The late entrance
part VIII|48 pages
The living precariously gallery
chapter |5 pages
The happy and smiling, but inwardly crumbling gig academic
chapter |9 pages
The “sack-race” academic
part IX|50 pages
The haunted gallery