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Academics Chat Thread

999 replies

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/09/2017 22:32

I believe the old Chat thread has fallen off the front page of this section, and I thought it might be time to reinstate it. I know it's only sporadically useful, but sometimes it's nice, right?

I am a lowly postdoctoral English Lit type. Finished my PhD in 2014, teaching associate for a couple of years, and now part-time while DD is a baby. I'm currently working frantically to get my book manuscript to the publisher by my deadline (October), and also trying to regain enthusiasm for the job market.

Who else is lurking around here?

OP posts:
worstofbothworlds · 26/02/2019 13:36

I've had 3 word feedback "try again next year" "no outputs from grant"

(that was basically it - the grant didn't start till after the promotions committee met i.e. was about 9 months in when the next one met and obviously had no outputs but I still got it next time).

Another time, I would push for more detailed feedback and complain loudly if I didn't get it.

impostersyndrome · 26/02/2019 21:43

That sounds like a very frustrating process, murmuration. I’d also have applied if I were in your position, despite my username!

Decormad38 · 28/02/2019 05:37

Hi just found this thread. Im a lecturer in a RG uni- Nursing. Lovely to hear about other departments as I just seem to work in a bubble.

MaudBaileysGreenTurban · 01/03/2019 11:01

Hi decor8 - I'm also in a nursing faculty, so you may not wish to talk to me Grin

I agree it's really good to hear from academics in other depts though. My PhD proposal is purposely inter-disciplinary as I am quite keen to escape the bubble and branch out into other things that interest me!

ghislaine · 01/03/2019 16:02

I found out this afternoon that I have made it past the first promotion hurdle at departmental level, and my application will now go to the faculty committee. Phew. The agony endures.

Welcome decor8!

murmuration · 03/03/2019 17:12

Excellent, ghislaine! Good luck!!

I'm feeling pretty proud about my applicaiton (even with the neg feedback), and feel that I put I good document in. I know that there are weaknesses, but things only time will fix, and I'd like to have a better idea of the goals if I'm to use that time to the best - we do get to have an interview with a member of the Uni committee if we fail, so I should get more than 3 words :)

Welcome decor - yes, it's good to see the way things work elsewhere. I'm coming to realise that my (small) Uni is very weird, and its good to hear what the wider world is like sometimes!

murmuration · 02/04/2019 09:53

Woo! I got SFHEA. That application was a lot of work. So at least I've had one big positive this year even if my promotion doesn't go through...

How is everyone? It's really hectic here, I feel like I'm more scattered than normal. Worried I'll make mistakes. Like forgetting things, or giving wrong dates, and so on. Have a trip coming up that involves teaching in the AM, going straight to a train, have a meeting the next day, back late that night and teaching first thing again the next morning. And I haven't finished the lecture yet...

ghislaine · 03/04/2019 09:30

Congratulations! SFHEA is one of the good-to-haves for a Chair application at my institution so I am gearing myself up to do in a couple of years.

I have just finished a big load of marking and am trying to catch up on all the things I planned to do last week. On bright spot is that I misread a deadline for a book chapter I have to write so I have gained myself an extra year to get it done!

murmuration · 03/04/2019 10:46

Year? Did you really mean year? I can see how one might misread that deadline...

ghislaine · 03/04/2019 11:17

Yep. I saw 2020, and misread it as 2019.

murmuration · 03/04/2019 13:18

Wow, that's amazing and amusing. Can I have an extra year on something? (anything? :) )

Although just got programme for a conference I was invited to a special session for - apparently I'm the only one in my session who actually sent in an abstract like they asked! I wonder if I perhaps do more than I need at times.

SarahAndQuack · 03/04/2019 16:00

Congratulations, murm!

I sent my book in to my publishers a late, but I am delighted it's off my desk. Currently writing a book chapter I promised to write in 2016 (it's not late; the editors had a long process of getting things moving). I have done an awful lot of thinking since I wrote the abstract!

NeverEverAnythingEver · 03/04/2019 16:46

Congratulations murmuration! I have some HEA application that has been sitting on my desktop for about 5 years now ...

And well done SarahAndQuack!

purplepandas · 09/04/2019 21:42

Just popping by as have been really absent. Not feeling the love for academia at the moment but need to get back there. Congrats to those who are submitting promotion apps. Mine has gone for feedback and suspecting it will come back with not now but some directions for future work. That's okay as feeling pretty jaded atm (so poss not a good time to apply!)

impostersyndrome · 17/04/2019 16:50

Good luck with the application purplepandas. Let's hope they confound your expectations.

Anyone else enjoying the hiatus between teaching ending and holiday proper starting? I've managed some uninterrupted writing today (helped by closing email down and only checking hourly, the minimum my addiction will allow). Bliss.

purplepandas · 17/04/2019 21:50

Thanks imposter, I doubt it. Had a major grant reject today. Hard to not take it too personally, agghhhh.

I sadly don't have any time as doing all the childcare do badly balancing work and home. Well done on achieving a nice balance this week imposter. Email is a killer indeed. I need to be better with that :)

brizzlemint · 18/04/2019 13:04

Just popping in with a question if I may?

I'm writing a research paper and citing an individual with an Indian name like Ms Name1 Name2 Name3 where name 3 is one that I would assume to be a first name like Sarah. The other two, I have no idea but in her biography she is referred to just by Name2.

Does anybody know which is likely to be the surname? I think it's name1 but I'm not sure and I want to get it morally correct.

thanks.

brizzlemint · 18/04/2019 13:05

^ I say Indian name because she is from Bangalore according to her biography and not because I'm making assumptions.

impostersyndrome · 18/04/2019 13:35

Has anyone already cited her? Are her publications online so you I can see how journals or books list her?

brizzlemint · 18/04/2019 14:01

She is cited online yes but as several different variants!
I think I'll find another reference but maybe I am overthinking this.

purplepandas · 18/04/2019 18:20

Google scholar profile? I always look to other papers to check if not sure either

bigkidsdidit · 18/04/2019 19:33

Could you email her and ask?

murmuration · 05/06/2019 14:07

Oh, wow - I got included in a message alongside two other people asking for volunteers to be acting Head of School (School! not Dept!) for two weeks this summer. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I won't be able to do it, as I'm travelling those dates. But... I had talked myself into believing that my HoS report was going to be pretty mediocre for my promotion (given I found out he took advice from the committee who told me to wait a year), and my chances were pretty low overall. Could this mean different? Argh! I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but clearly I'm grasping at straws here. And also just a bit stunned that I'd be included on that list (maybe it was a mistake?).

murmuration · 05/06/2019 14:18

Actually, thinking more it was a mistake. I have the same first name as a Dept head Prof, and one of the others was a Dept head (but the other not??? But I was the only non-Prof on the list). So, should I query if it was a mistake (showing my low self-esteem to HoS who will be asked for one last report on me in the next month before promotion decisions) or just stay quiet until someone else volunteers (potentially not giving Dept-head Prof the chance she should have)?

BlamesFartsOnTheNeighbour · 05/06/2019 20:46

Name changer here from upthread. Somehow I got unsubscribed. Tricky one murmuration, I'd probs just write and say a breezy thanks but no can do because busy doing important stuff.

I'm popping back in for a moan. I was invited last year to teach at a summer school hosted by the uni of X. X happens to be close to where I have family, so I said yes and I can get family to put me up so save you the cost of the hotel, can you pay a bit towards the (cheap) flight instead? They said no to that not to set a precedent, which I was already quite Hmm about. Then about six months later it transpired that the event isn't actually in X, but somewhere else about forty miles away that is a complete PITA to get to. I asked them to at least fund a taxi for the day I'm teaching. That was about three weeks ago and I still haven't had a response. I'm pretty fucked off with the whole thing.