Academics Chat Thread

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

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?

Murmuration, I would definitely reply - but assume that you were included deliberately, not accidentally. You already know you're gong to be away then, so just say something like you appreciate being considered for this opportunity, it's definitely something you're aiming for as part of your career development but unfortunately you will be away at this exact time so aren't In a position to volunteer.

Blames - that is terrible that they are dicking you around like this. Unless you really need this summer school for whatever reason, I'd be inclined to say that the lack of support means you're unable to contribute to their programme and sadly, you'll have to withdraw.

OMG Blames i’d Have dropped out after they wouldn’t pay for your flight! They WOULDN’T PAY YOUR TRAVEL TO TEACH at a summer school. Jeez. I’m raging tell them to bog off

Well I sent them a snippy email and it turns out they agreed to the taxi weeks ago but didn't think to tell me. MASSIVE EYEROLL. Fills me with confidence about the organisation of the event itself, which I haven't seen advertised anywhere, I wonder if anyone will actually sign up. Only reason I'm sticking with it is because it's where we always go for our summer holiday anyway.

Hello! I hope you don’t mind me popping in but I’m looking for advice.

I’m in year 1 of a professional doctorate. I teach undergrad programmes in my discipline at a different uni. I’m wondering which named award I should go for...

DEd (my broad field is education)
DCLD (niche award in my specialism, unaware of anyone else in the entire world with it, new programme)
I’m now veering towards: DBA, my research topic looks at public sector reform so it would fit and I think it’s possibly got more mileage in it?

Any advice welcomed!

It was a case of mistaken identity. I just put the issue off (I'm not doing great at replying to emails promptly anyway) and my autoreply was on when someone accepted and the HoS replied to all - then HoS emailed me an apology for getting the wrong Murmur. I wrote back that I had wondered... so now I'll just go crawl into my little insignificant hole again...

RJ - I must say I don't know much. I have heard of DEd, but not the others. MIddle one didn't pull up anything on google (well, decompensated chronic liver disease, but I imagine that's not what you meant!), and now I know DBA is Doctor of Business Administration. Do you just get to choose? I think perhaps it depends on what you want to do with your doctorate. It seems to me a DEd could be more widely recognised in academia (going by just my exposure), and I would presume other education fields. But if you're planning to do more in the corporate world, or even in Uni administration, it seems like Business Admininstration would make you sound more business-y and less academic. Are there courses or activities related to each? If so, which ones fit more with your interests and what you hope to do in the future?

blames - well, glad they're paying! Doesn't sound like the most well organised thing... I must say there appears to be a lot of those in academia.

RJ, I went for the niche award and am now somewhat regretting it. It's all about who you want to pitch yourself to a few years down the line.

Oh dear. I just clicked that I've arranged a meeting with someone who will be on my Promotions Committee for a time after the meeting but potentially before I hear the results. About something completely different. That could be awkward. I'll just have to put it out of my mind, and not think about how she'll know. Chance I might hear beforehand - I can't figure out if I'd prefer to know or not, actually, having to face someone on the committee that made the decision so soon after!

But near done with teaching stuff. Just have a super busy summer comig up, with summer students and many trips. How is everyone doing?

I have a grant submission and a talk next week and then I am FREE until end August. Freeeee! I am going to write two papers, draft one more and plan out a mega grant to submit in October. I cannot wait 🙂🙂

I’m still marking. Bleurgh.

I'm am so jealous bigkids! My summer is chopped up into all sorts of little bits and a bunch of summer students to look after, and I'm still in the admin post I was promised relief from when I took up another. And both have big summer duties to prep teaching for the next semester.

Also getting so frustrated that I do things, and they don't actually get done! Something weird with grant funding - try to figure it out, and 6 emails and several weeks later sill don't know. Tried to book conference travel, thought I had it sorted, and just heard back the airline doesn't actually have those fares and I have to start all over again! (this happened at home, too, and we even were on the phone with the airline and they couldn't make their computers work - is something broken with airlines this summer?) Made decision with a bunch of people to schedule a big meeting, and now half the people can't make it and we need to deliberate again. And more like that. I feel like I'm doing the same things over and over...

I always refuse summer students. This is my only thinking time!

I didn't do summer school or summer students for the first time since I finished my PhD, and it feels weirdly aimless. But nice!

Right summer undergrads (and UG projects) are how I get a lot of my research done. At some point I'll be able to hire a postdoc...

Which leads me into ARGH!!!! That complaining about doing things again and again? So something I thought was completely sorted about the big grant I was so happy about whenever-it-was is incredibly NOT sorted. Very much not sorted, and now I'm wondering what I'm going to do. I guess whatever happens happens, but I wish things would be less difficult.

Just been handed a 200-page MA dissertation. The viva is on Monday morning. FOR FUCKS SAKE.

We have summer postgrad dissertations to supervise. We never get thinking time.

I know I rarely post on here but I just need to say the following:

Fuck the NSS

Fuck. The. N. S. S.

thank you, that feels a bit better.

I think we can all join you in that Maud And fuck module questionnaires.

I have very rarely posted on here but I just want to echo Maud.
Fuck the NSS
I am sitting here crying into a large glass of wine.
I have worked so hard. This can't be a good way to do things.

Students are given power without responsibility. They don't think before venting on an NSS form.

Whilst I on the other hand have responsibility without power.

You're right they don't think at all. Objectively the students on my course have had everything they paid for and more. It's a vocational course and they have high contact hours, loads of staff, extra talks and master classes, loads of industry links. Every single one has already gained some professional work in our field. But their perception is they are hard done by.

The irony (well one of the many ironies of the annual farce that is the NSS) is that they absolutely slaughtered us in Assessment and Feedback - and yet in two months time at our exit board I will have to find 'an explanation' as to why a significant percentage of them have left with a First Class degree and every single one of them is walking into their first-choice job

Because we can't possibly actually be doing a good job with them. We must be inflating their grades. We can't actually be teaching them anything. They can't be learning, or thinking. Because, we're shite. The NSS said so.

Sorry. I may have had too much wine.

Ivy

And d'you know what I said to dp when I got home this evening?

'I need to work harder.'

And to you too Maud.
I am so tired I don't have any fight left. But I'm also thinking 'must try harder'.
We've had a lot of criticism for too many higher degrees etc but I know from employer feedback we're doing all the right things. And I can see the Students are learning and thinking so much better than years ago.
I have a 19 year old son at Oxbridge. He is very bright and academically gifted. In no way does he have the understanding and maturity to fairly evaluate the teaching on his course. And that's from his mum who thinks he's brilliant!

Oh dear. I don't think I want to look. It really sucks - and the amount of effort we make in first year to respond to all the things, when by the time they leave they don't even remember, is massively frustrating. But the way our School works, first year is much easier to top-down give guidance than final year, which is all small classes run by scattered people.

My news is I just heard - I didn't get Professor. Sigh. Basically, the Internal Committee were exactly right. I'm actually not too upset, but still a bit mad at the Internal Committee: it was billed as something to help us, but didn't - and several people declined to give me feedback because I'd be getting that "great" feedback - and I've also learned it also fed into the HoS's assessment - so kind of a self-fullfilling prophecy. They decided I wasn't good enough for a particular reason, advised the HoS who wrote me a letter assessing my suitability relaying this information, and lo-and-behold, that's the exact outcome of the Promotions Committee. And when they gave feedback with less than a week to the deadline, several weeks after I'd lined up high-profile international referees - it wasn't like I could back out at that point.

I think perhaps I'm not too upset as I've been expecting this for a while - basically, ever since I learned the HoS took the advice of the Internal Committee! They totally didn't tell us that was what it was for. So more frustrated with the School 'support' than the Uni process, if that makes sense? If I hadn't used the Internal Committee (as it was, in fact, optional) I might have gotten stronger support from my Head, as I know he had a much more positive attitude regarding my research than came out of the Internal Committee. Also very frustrating that the Internal Committee had some misconceptions that I corrected when I finally was able to back-think their feedback, but that wouldn't have been passed to HoS.

And also, I knew it was my research that was the weakest anyway - so all the above could have still happened, but I think the process just made it much more likely. Slightly frustrating that people can get to Prof on "research only" as research stars, with truly crap teaching (or, in some cases, complete lack of teaching), but someone like me with really good teaching and 'pretty good' research can't. I had been banking on a balancing out with the new words about respecting teaching and such, but I guess it is still very research-focussed anyway.

And, sorry for going on so long, I think I'm working out my thoughts live here.