Category Archives: academic life

you expect what? hyper performativity and academic life

Posted on July 30, 2018 by

This is a guest post from Dr Julie Rowlands, Deakin University, Australia. Julie is concerned about problems created by institutional demands for academic hyper-performativity. Perhaps you are too.  Recently my university’s central research office promoted a workshop for PhD students seeking … Continue reading →

Posted in academic life, academic writing, career, early career researchers, hyper performativity, Julie Rowlands | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

a ‘good academic day’

Posted on March 9, 2017 by

What is a good academic day? What happens to make you go home/leave the office and say to your partner or cat/dog/budgie – I had such a good day today. I’ve come to the rather obvious conclusion that my good … Continue reading →

Posted in academic day, academic life | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

2017 – the year of the ‘to do’ list

Posted on January 2, 2017 by

Social media folk delight in discussing the organisation of academic work. How to manage time. How to organise all that information that comes in and out. How to sort and select tasks in order of their urgency and importance. How … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, academic writing as work, to do list, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

I still call australia/england home

Posted on December 7, 2014 by

A version of this post was recently published by the Guardian HE network. It seems appropriate to post it now, given that I’m just back home from five weeks in Australia. Some academics are now highly mobile. We are internationally … Continue reading →

Posted in academic life | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

stress and the writing body

Posted on July 8, 2013 by

There are suggestions that academic life is pretty stressful compared with other professional occupations (see The Guardian HE Network on this). And it is a truism to suggest that the process of doctoral and post doctoral education is stressful. It … Continue reading →

Posted in academic life, academic writing, computer, stress, stretching | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

writing like those I admire

Posted on March 18, 2013 by

That half conscious state between sleeping and waking seems to be the time that I begin to compose a blog post. I often wake up relatively early with a half formed idea. I then work on it idly, gradually waking … Continue reading →

Posted in academic book, academic life, academic writing, argument, authority in writing, de Certeau, reading | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

who enjoys academic work? (sshh, I do)

Posted on February 11, 2013 by

I found myself this week wondering if it is acceptable to come clean about what’s good about being in higher education. And just as I was thinking this three other things happened. The first was that I hung around #ecrchat, … Continue reading →

Posted in academic life, motivation, pleasure, time | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments