ABSTRACT
This piece is a personal expression of how the practices of doing an academic career can be carried in an embodied way such that they may be reflected in a hall of mirrors. These mirrors show both smooth images and some of the tensions and distortions that may not always be foregrounded. The piece aims to reveal the continuing challenges of paradoxes and contradictions within academic careers particularly around the themes of publishing, promotion, and teaching. It is hoped that the reflections offered may encourage academic careers to be done differently by cultivating the shadows; that by doing this, existing norms may be challenged and some of the difficulties of academic life may be eased as a greater range of successes become recognised.
