1st Edition
Thriving in an Academic Career An International and Interdisciplinary Guide for Early Career Faculty
This book provides an invaluable guide on how to achieve a successful and fulfilling academic career. Academics must balance multiple roles and responsibilities, between teaching, research, and offering services to both the department, university, and broader community. This book provides practical, research-based guidance on how to adopt a healthy and balanced perspective that accounts for these interconnections.
Research shows that faculty who achieve early balance in their academic responsibilities, work and home life, and professional relationships with students, colleagues, and in their discipline are more likely to succeed in all aspects of their career, while strengthening the quality and climate of their programs and campuses. The book’s chapters accordingly feature case studies and examples that dig deeper into strategies and principles of holistic and balanced career practice and planning. The book assists readers in understanding the relationships between their individual talents as teachers and scholars with those of other colleagues; the obligations of their department as a community nested with others contributing to the university mission; and the role and responsibility of their university and discipline in the wider society. The themes of balance and harmony underpin the book’s approach to faculty development.
Thriving in an Academic Career is for anyone beginning their academic career in geography and related social and environmental sciences, at all types of higher education institutions. The book will be of particular interest to graduate students and early career faculty in geography and nearby social, environmental, and natural sciences.
Introduction to Section I
Chapter 1 - Getting started in academic life: Advice for new hires
Francis T. Koti and Herbert Q. Hambati
Chapter 2 - Building momentum: Developing research and teaching trajectories
Daniel Sui and Dafna Fisher-Gewirtzman
Chapter 3 - Aligning personal aspirations and professional goals: Finding the ‘sweet spot.’
Juliana Mansvelt
Chapter 4 - Navigating non-tenure career tracks
Emily Murai
Chapter 5 - Time management
Patricia Price
Chapter 6 - Creating communities of care and caring for community: Building community through work-life integration
Dan and Dydia
Chapter 7 - Slowing down and saving our humanity
Shannon O’Lear and Ken Foote
Introduction to Section II
Chapter 8 - Aligning objectives, activities, and assessments: Essentials of course planning
Eric Fournier and Meg Gregory
Chapter 9 - Getting started in the classroom: First steps toward active, engaged pedagogy
Andrew Jolly-Ballantine and Ken Foote
Chapter 10 - Decolonizing the curriculum
Zuhri James and Sarah A Radcliffe
Chapter 11 - Creating a socially just classroom
Miguel Á. Hernández and LaToya E. Eaves
Chapter 12 - Teaching in the field
Douglas W. Gamble, Peter J. Haproff and Chen Wu
Chapter 13 - Integrating web mapping and geospatial technologies
Joseph J. Kerski
Chapter 14 - Using technology to promote critical thinking
Ken Foote and Chris McMorran
Chapter 15 - Teaching online: Strategies to promote engagement and learning
Brandi Gaertner, Adrienne Goldsberry, Beth Fletcher King
Chapter 16 - Internationalizing the curriculum
Gil Latz, Keiko Ikeda and Robin Matross Helms
Introduction to Section III
Chapter 17 - Planning a research career
Antoinette M.G.A. WinklerPrins
Chapter 18 - The Coherence Framework: Ten actions for crafting competitive research grant proposals
Patricia Solís
Chapter 19 - The publishing process and getting your work into print
Lynn M. Resler, May Yuan and Joshua Inwood
Chapter 20 - Promoting your work: A professional responsibility
Derek H. Alderman
Introduction to Section IV
Chapter 21 - Cultivating a collegial workplace
Shannon O’Lear, Ken Foote and Dagmar Budikova
Chapter 22 - Valuing Mentoring, or How to Think Usefully About Mentoring
Hilda E. Kurtz
Chapter 23 - Serving with a purpose: thinking strategically about service
Michael E Meadows
Chapter 24 - Moving toward promotion and beyond: Understanding and connecting institutional needs and personal aspirations
Deborah G. Martin
Chapter 25 - It’s OK not being OK: Coping with adversity
Jennifer Ho
Biography
Michael Solem is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University. He has been principal investigator on several large-scale, federally funded projects supporting geography at all levels of education. Since 2002 Michael has contributed to the AAG’s annual Geography Faculty Development Alliance workshops for early career faculty. He has twice received the Journal of Geography in Higher Education’s award for promoting excellence in teaching and learning for his research on faculty development and graduate education in geography. Michael is the 2015 recipient of the AAG Gilbert Grosvenor Honors in Geographic Education.
Ken Foote is a Professor of Geography, Sustainability, Community and Urban Studies at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on historic preservation, heritage tourism, and the commemorative landscapes of the U.S. and Europe, especially the way events of violence and tragedy are memorialized. His recent research has also focused on the spatial dimension of racialized and gendered violence in the U.S. In addition, Foote is also known for his work in geospatial technologies, especially geovisualization, as well as his efforts to improve professional development opportunities for early-career academics and department leaders. Foote is a past president and fellow of the American Association of Geographers (2010-11) and a past president of the U.S. National Council for Geographic Education (2006). He has received major national and international awards for his research, teaching, mentoring and service from the American Association of Geographers, National Council for Geographic Education, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, and the Royal Geographical Society.
Shannon O’Lear, Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas, is a political geographer with interests in environmental geopolitics, critical geopolitics, the South Caucasus, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Her recent work includes Environmental Geopolitics (2018), A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics (2019,), and A Research Agenda for Geographies of Slow Violence (2021). She co-authored a report for the National Science Foundation, Environmental Change and Human Security: Research Directions. She has served as the Councilor for the Great Plains Rocky Mountain Region of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). She holds a BA in Geography and Russian and a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Ph.D. in Geography from Syracuse University.
LaToya E. Eaves is a geographer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has been instrumental in increasing the visibility of Black Geographies in addition to her research, which centers questions of race, Blackness, gender, sexuality, and place — especially in terms of the U.S. South and Southeast. Recipient of numerous awards including the 2019 Ronald F. Abler Distinguished Service Honors for her transformative impact on the American Association of Geographers through her commitment to Black Geographies, she serves as PI on a half million dollar NSF grant for a collaborative project on Museums, Public Pedagogy, and Black Geographies in the United States. Her profoundly interdisciplinary contributions reflect her experiences, training and teaching across Africana Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Geography departments.
Jongwon Lee serves as a professor in the Department of Social Studies Education at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. Specializing in teacher education, his work focuses on the development of innovative design and instructional materials for technology-enhanced learning environments, particularly those involving geospatial technology. His approach emphasizes active learning and inquiry-based learning. Since 2016, Jongwon has also held the position of Secretary for the Commission on Geographical Education under the International Geographical Union, contributing to the field of geographical education on an international scale.
