An interesting LinkedIn post from some colleagues musing on the "expectation of free service" has been stuck in my head for a few days now. In my university, we have a workload model which captures all the tasks I do. This is largely used as an accounting tool to show the government how this kind … Continue reading Work that isn’t counted as work

I run workshops for PhD students about academic careers (HAVE YOU HEARD?), and usually run a few at my home institution each year. One PhD student in my department who I know reasonably well mentioned that they weren't planning to come because they knew that they weren't going to pursue an academic career and that … Continue reading For PhD students – is academia for you?

This post is a follow-up to one of my earliest blog posts on organizing conferences. As I’ve moved through my career, I’ve found myself organizing workshops or pseudo-conferences. Some of these are funded through internal sources (pots of money to generate research activity – a workshop/conference is an easy deliverable here), and some through external … Continue reading Making an event run smoothly

A short (let's see!) blog post about leadership, which has been on my mind lately. But first, a digression. Regular readers will have noticed I've not been posting much. This is because I've been riven with crises. Not actual crises, you'll be glad to hear. But existential crises and crises of confidence (weep for me). … Continue reading Leadership

I've written about conferencing as PhD student or postdoc, but haven't really given much thought to how this world changes when you become a lecturer. Thankfully, I've been lucky enough to have Dr. Rohan Kapitany write a second guest post for the blog, detailing their perspectives on this topic - thanks Rohan! There are plenty … Continue reading A guide to attending conferences for new faculty (guest post by Dr Rohan Kapitany) 

I really enjoy public engagement. Since 2018, I've done about 15 public engagement activities (including a three-year gap when the pandemic made me feel a bit reluctant to engage in this kind of 'work'). Public engagement is a strange activity. It's certainly not an explicit part of the job description for an academic - I … Continue reading Public engagement

Dr Chris Madan from the University of Nottingham is someone who I've known from social media for a while and recently had the pleasure of meeting him in person for the first time at a workshop. He's done a ton of impressive stuff, but to me none more impressive than writing not one, but four … Continue reading Should you write a book and why? A guest post by Dr. Christopher Madan

I'm really excited to have Dr Ashleigh Johnstone, from Arden University, contribute this post to the blog - she provides a really fascinating perspective not just on moving out to academia, but re-entering! She is also in a teaching-focussed role which really has recived very little coverage in this blog to date, so thanks so … Continue reading There and back again – moving back to academia from industry (guest post by Dr Ashleigh Johnstone)