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?

I don't really offer anything and we make sure our department has an unwritten policy on this (i.e. we are all checking with each other we're doing the same thing).
Check with your head of undergrad/postgrad teaching as relevant?

I usually go with something like 'unfortunately, since seminars are participatory and collaborative, I would be unable to recreate the experience. We discussed [topic] and [topic], as it says on the plan'.

For the missed seminar scenario, I usually say something about how they should go over the reading, bring their notes with them and they can tell me what their understanding is of the key points in the reading and then ask questions about any specific thing they didn't understand or want to know more about. Strangely, once it becomes clear I will expect them to have done the reading and be able to talk about it, rather than expecting me to just recount points from the seminar to them, many seem to decide not to come for an appointment after all and you can have a much more productive appointment with the ones who do.

Just dropping in, by the way - SL in humanities/social science, heavy teaching load, currently enjoying the whooshing sound deadlines make as they fly by

I say no - instead, they are supposed to catch up on the reading and organise a 'mini seminar' with a couple of their classmates to discuss their ideas, and then if they have questions I will be very happy to answer them. Like LRD, I emphasise that the point of seminars is the interaction, so I can't just 'go over' that for them, they need to go and do some interaction and thinking about the material!

All good tips! Thanks

Anyone on that Women in Academia group on FB?

Things seem a bit ... heated there at the moment.

I've never been in such an enormous FB group before, am quite intrigued to watch the group dynamics unfolding.

Anyone get a link round for a Stonewall survey?

I've just answered the question "which of the following best describes your gender?" with "prefer to self-describe - My sex is female. Gender is a socially imposed construct".
Not sure if I should put "female gender" though.

It was a really obscure link in something my HoD sent round so maybe I should put this up on Feminism Chat for academics who don't lurk in here to track it down at their uni?

Oh and I've put "disagree" to "I feel I'm able to be myself in the workplace" because what woman does?

I don't know anyone in my Uni who is an academic and out as lesbian, female and bi, or trans (some gay men of course). I know/knew some single women who may well be lesbian or bi but not who were very public about it.

I am in STEM which is a bit more of a traditional culture though (or at least, we mainly don't discuss this type of issue as an academic subject).

I'm an academic and an out lesbian. It's extremely hard to miss because 1) my academic work is about lesbians in literature and history, and I relate it to my political stance and 2) I have a partner and a small baby who is manifestly not my biological daughter (well, I say manifestly: I do have a male prof colleague who apparently missed the fact that I was never pregnant ...).

But I found that survey irritating too. I get that it was concentrating on the negative side, but there was no easy way for me to say things like (for example), yes, I'm sure students and colleagues mention my sexuality behind my back, but I am perfectly happy with it and consider it quite a good thing for students to be able to see/discuss.

I also wrote a lecture about the distinction between gender and gender identity. I am intensely fed up with the tendency to slap 'queer' as a catch-all label on everyone, and I wish I could have got that in there, too.

I'm surprised that you don't know of any bi or lesbian women in the whole university, worst. It is not so uncommon in social sciences etc.

I agree that very few people admit to being anything but heterosexual in STEM fields. It's bad enough being a woman in a field where men have their careers facilitated by wives, without admitting to being a lesbian woman and facing very negative reactions (almost revulsion).

I'm glad you have had more positive experiences, LRD.

We've got a webpage at our Uni somewhere that highlights some LGBT staff (one anonymous - he indicated to protect his partner). It was sent out in an email at some point, but googling doesn't particularly bring it up.

I'm wondering if in STEM there is just less discussion of personal circumstances at all? The gay man (I know of) in our building, was there for several years before I knew he was gay, just as he had never had cause to mention his partner. I know the current pairings of some staff, usually those with partners in the Uni (all hetero) and an occasional wife (always wife) who does something like bring in cake/cookies for coffee. Although how would I know if they were bi by orientation? There are many staff that I simply don't even know if they are partnered, much less what their gender preferences are! I don't know if this is because they don't advertise it, or I simply don't pick up on things. (the latter is a strong possibility - I can be very oblivious). There's so few women at all, that I know very few of them well enough to know anything about their personal lives. I know lesbian staff at other Universities, though, my friends! :) But I honestly don't know if their colleagues know. Some things some have said have suggested they don't.

I do find everyone assumes hetero by default, and if you're a woman, hetero married to a working man, particularly if you have a child. I sometimes get a startle response if I mention that DH is SAHD.

LRD at the colleague who missed the lack of pregnancy. Although, to give him some credit, I was at meetings 8 months pregnant getting people going "You're pregnant! Really??" (while I'm standing there on crutches unable to walk due to the pregnancy - the only reason it came up - perhaps the crutches overwhelmed their senses)

user our social sciences departments are very small and isolated both geographically and physically. We are a big sciency university with a huge management department, big science labs etc.

In my previous institution science was much lower key (partly why I moved) and we were physically situated in more of an applied science/social science setting and there, yes, I knew of lesbian colleagues who were out personally but whose work didn't include this, and at least one whose research involved this (v small degree schemes meant some joint exam boards and learning a lot from their sample essays, too!)

I'm wondering if in STEM there is just less discussion of personal circumstances at all?

Could well be. I think it's seen as not as relevant to work IYSWIM. In fact rather than "your personal life can enhance your approach to work", it's more "we really shouldn't ask because that is seen as prejudiced to those who cannot fit a certain personal framework". For example, if say looking at usability of technology by one particular group in society, say those with a disability or parents, it would be crass to suggest that having a disability/being a parent would improve the way you did the research job because you can't suddenly acquire that experience. I hope that makes sense (not really my field).

There are many staff that I simply don't even know if they are partnered

Yes, this. I could also be oblivious! But for example a former colleague was female, single as far as I knew, but for all I knew could have had either a string of girl/boyfriends or a steady male/female partner at home.

I do find everyone assumes hetero by default
I try not to but it is a general assumption I agree!

the colleague who missed the lack of pregnancy
I have a colleague at another university whose department colleague missed an actual pregnancy - they are at opposite ends of a very long corridor - my colleague came in with her DS aged 5 months and the other colleague (female) was very surprised to say the least, and they worked out she'd only ever seen her face on at the end of the corridor, for the latter 4 or 5 months of the pregnancy. And then just thought she was working from home during her mat leave!

Oh, yes, I agree it's much harder if the subject doesn't come up 'naturally' in your work. It probably also makes a difference that there's a big college culture of bringing your partner to events.

In my faculty there are a few lesbians. I don't off-hand know if any of my male colleagues is gay, actually. But there's a reasonably active LGBT staff network (though it's always cocktails in pubs and stereotypically 'gay man' activities ...).

I know DP, who is non-academic but is a research assistant in a university lab, is more circumspect than me and has had more negative reactions. But whether that's STEM or simply bad luck, I wouldn't know.

I have occasionally had reactions from students (I had one make comments about the apparent contrast between by 'dykey' haircut and the baby toys on my office shelf recently, but the student in question almost certainly didn't realise I could hear her). I think for colleagues it's just so much part of the territory of this bit of English Lit that it's not surprising. Funny fact, though: the person my faculty hired immediately before me was a woman who, when she interviewed, was married to a man and quite feminine in her dress style. She turned up for work a few weeks later having divorced him, come out, and begun to dress in a masculine style. Then they interviewed me, and I was married to a man, whom I likewise divorced in short order before starting my job and coming out.

I think they put something in the drinking water.

I'm wondering if in STEM there is just less discussion of personal circumstances at all?

That too. But there is certainly negative reaction to people being gay as well.

Hardly any of us bring partners to events!

Actually now I think about it - conversation between two postdocs - one male one female - both getting married in the near future. This was at someone's leaving do, dinner out but no partners there. Neither of these postdocs had ever brought a partner to anything (but I am also antisocial and don't go to informal drinks because they are not child-care friendly either ).
Turns out both of them are getting married to women, and it may just be my cluelessness that means I didn't know a) that they were both getting married and b) that one of them is lesbian.
But neither of them are my FB friends (I don't friend colleagues in general) and neither of them have any "relationship" status visible to non-friends so they may also just both be quite private.

(So - yes we did have a lesbian in my department - but she's left now!)

On a different note, maybe a difficult question, but how many coursework students do you have over each year? By this, I mean not how many are in your lectures, but how many students are you responsible for marking the papers of? If you teach students in more than one course count them for each time you teach them yes I do want to know if I am hard done by.

Hardly anyone has signed up for my 3rd year module (I must have put them off somehow) but I have a large MCQ set for 1st year (not counting them though). So a massive 9 undergrads.

Masters: 50 on a module where I'm marking one short assignment (not completely sure of format but not as long as an essay - they have at least 6 or 8 throughout the year).
Sharing 25 essays on a second module with someone else
And another module with the same format: 25 students, sharing marking with someone else.

I am aware I have it somewhat lightly (not least because the strand of 1st year I'm teaching doesn't attract an essay, though they do exist in my subject).

Ah, that is a tough one, yetanother. Not sure we do it the same way you do? Marking is usually spread out among staff members, so I can't even count 'by course'. And papers can range from full essays to 1-page-like assessments to pages of calculations. But this year, I've got less than last, at least during the semester (having ditched first year!), leaving me with only: during the semesters ~30 full essays + ~40 1-pagers; during exams ~60 full essays, ~650 (oh, yee, gods, this is a new thing - double what it was before - not quite sure what will happen here...) 1-pagers + ~40 calculation-based exams.

Oops I forgot exams BUT I suspect only for my mini 3rd year module - so I'll be marking about 20 and moderating a selection of another 20 - and maybe I'll be moderating someone else's module.

Yes, it's hard to cross compare across different courses and institutions. However, like penances, I want to know what everyone else got.

Spartacus, you also need to name your subject area, at least approximately, because of the huge variations in types of marking.

I am in a subject where making 200-500 exam scripts for a given course is not uncommon but each script does not take that long to mark. (Nonetheless I believe that the teaching load in my subject is quite high relative to other subjects, not least because we typically do a lot of service teaching for other departments.)

This year I will mark: 240 first year essays, 150 second year essays and 16 UG dissertations. I have refused to take on 60 additional first year essays and 40 additional second year ones. I felt bad about it, but my workload is horrible enough without it.

I know lots of lesbian (and gay academics). One of my PhD supervisors was a lesbian. My current HoD is a lesbian, as are several colleagues in the department. At least half of the academic staff in DH’s department are gay or lesbian (which is probably unusually high). We are both in the humanities/social sciences. I’d be very surprised indeed if I got a job and everyone I worked with was heterosexual.

I have 714,000 words to mark this year (give it take 10%). Plus several cohorts of an overseas collaborative venture to —re-mark— ‘moderate’.

I turned down and additional 240,000 words of marking. And I fully intend to refuse to have anything to do with masters dissertations.

Ah, the new iOS X update has rendered the MN strikethrough impossible (or at least more effort than I’m willing to go to). That’s a shame.

Oh, I forgot about dissertations! See, we all forgot bits. That is very variable - some years I get 10+, others only 2-3.