Tracking the transition of others

I’ve been tracking the transition to life as an assistant professor since last fall, so it is always interesting to see how others are dealing with their own transitions.  Along these lines, pitse1eh’s recent post provides a nice perspective on the transition from a research-focused grad student to a teaching-focused professor (especially since I was never a research-focused grad student).  The whole post is recommended reading, but at the very least you should heed the message that I have reiterated in a number of my job-market posts:

Lesson Learned: Issues about what type of job do you want (R1, teaching college, etc.) is a fundamental concern that needs to be addressed as soon as possible in your grad school career.

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A little-known fact about research

Based on the terminology my students use, it appears that they think of every research project as an “experiment.”  They are often surprised to learn that there are, in fact, many different types of research and that experiments make up only a small subset of these (especially among sociologists).  My favorite is when students describe an interpretive ethnographic research project as an experiment, since I imagine the blood pressure of ethnographers rising at the mere thought of such an association.

Keep trying students, you’ll get it right eventually!

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Literal irony

Literally, a Web Log: Figuratively tearing your writing apart.

Via Daring Fireball

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An aspect of R1 life that I miss

After accepting positions at teaching-intensive universities, many are stunned by the direction their careers take and how academic roles are shaped by the institutions. Working for an Ivy League institution or a big state research university would also shape careers and lives, but new faculty members don’t anticipate the consequences of working for the “lower-tier,” “open-admissions” universities and colleges that pick them up fresh out of graduate school.  (Inside Higher Ed)

Cautionary tales such as this highlight the importance of finding an institution that matches your professional goals.  Unfortunately, the current state of the job market means that those who apply broadly and are lucky enough to receive job offers may not find a perfect match on their first attempt (this may also mean that advisers who push candidates to apply broadly are doing them a disservice).

So far, the job I received at a SLAC as the result of a more specific approach has met my expectations.  Despite this, there are aspects of my grad school days that I miss (beyond having large numbers of fellow students who are eager to grab a drink on a warm spring evening).  One thing that I recently realized that I miss are the various colloquia.  Although my coworkers are all involved in research of one sort or another, the members of a small department cannot be active enough in this area to support frequent discussions of original work.  In the R1 department where I attended grad school, on the other hand, there were several weekly colloquia on various topics in addition to occasional invited speakers.  At the school level there are still numerous outside speakers and events that I have attended as often as possible, but these occasions merely remind me of the days when it was all sociology, all the time.

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Bracketology

If you don’t pick the higher seeds when filling out your bracket then you have no brain.

If you don’t root for the lower seeds once the tournament starts then you have no heart.

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Sociology in the NCAA tournament

Even though I don’t typically take advantage of the flexibility offered by the academic lifestyle, I have made an exception this week for the NCAA tournament.  Watching Lehigh University’s loss to Kansas last night I heard the announcers note that Lehigh’s Zahir Carrington is a sociology major.  In itself, this fact is not particularly surprising since I imagine that sociology is one of the more common majors (along with communications and general studies) for athletes if for no other reason than its reputation as a “common sense” subject.  What makes Carrington unique, however, is that he hopes to become a sociology professor.  As noted by the announcers last night and in this Philadelphia Inquirer story, Carrington would like to play basketball in Europe after he graduates this spring.  Then, “”If basketball doesn’t work out, of course, I’m going to further advance my degree,” he said. “Get my master’s in sociology and eventually a Ph.D., and hopefully one day become a professor.””  I guess that if enough athletes major in sociology it makes sense that at least some of them will eventually become professors.

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There’s nothing wrong with a good lecture

Despite the arguments of some that you should “teach naked,” spending class time on discussion and shifting the  presentation of material outside of the classroom, there are going to be times that you want to present information to students in the classroom.  The classroom is like a war zone in that it is best to go in with a plan, even though that plan may be blown to bits.  Toward this end Tenured Radical posted some tips today for how to manage lecture classes.  For example:

Establish the Rules. Every social space has its own etiquette, and similar social spaces do not always have the same etiquette. While there are some things that students know they shouldn’t be doing in class (surfing the web, indulging in side conversations, passing notes) there are other things that vary from classroom to classroom (eating and drinking, leaving the room for reasons of hygiene, coming late or leaving early, cutting class entirely.) Instead of establishing a set of rules and becoming an enforcer (something that is easier to get away with when you are older and your reputation as a cantankerous old fart is well established), consider setting aside a portion of the first class to consult your students about what they think is appropriate classroom behavior.

Be warned, however, that if you ask for student feedback on rules such as these you are likely to find that a vocal minority of students feel that they should be able to come and go as they please, text during class, and use their desks as uncomfortable pillows.

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“Studying” vs. “Actually Studying”

After the aforementioned second rash of first-exam failures, scores on the second exam were significantly improved.  This fact alone does not confirm the wait-and-see approach but I can confirm that at least one student has taken this approach to my class.  When asked what she did after the first exam to improve her performance on the second exam she stated, “I actually studied this time around.”  Of course, when I asked after the first exam how long she had spent studying she reported a study time of three hours, so there is either a difference between “studying” and “actually studying” or my methods of data collection are returning invalid results.  I suspect the latter.

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Is a regular session a good thing?

I recently received notice that my ASA submission has been accepted for one of the regular sessions in Atlanta.  As a young scholar striking out on my own I know that I should consider this a good thing.  Instead of presenting at a roundtable in front of three other people I will be presenting in front of a crowd that could reach the double digits.  Even though I should be happy for the chance to have my research heard by two to three times as many people, I have to admit that I was a tiny bit disappointed to receive the news.  Obviously, I stand in front of crowds in the double digits nearly everyday, so I am not worried about my presentation skills, but a regular session likely means that I will have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and approach the whole affair a bit more seriously when my main reason for going is still to catch up with friends from grad school.  I guess there’s always next year…

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Punching the clock

Last semester I worked an average of 47.72 hours per week (50.34 hours when not counting weeks that included breaks of some sort).  Although I did not keep track of my work habits during graduate school, I am pretty confident that I have shattered all personal records for academic productivity.  This total included an average of 41.88 hours in my office and 5.84 hours at home (damn those MWF classes!).  On a typical day I arrived at my office around 7:30 and left around 4:30, with most of my work at home coming on weekends.

One of the joys of academic life is the flexibility to work when you want.  Given my problems with procrastination, this flexibility has also allowed me to go long periods of time without doing much work of any sort.  When working on my dissertation at home last year, this posed some problems.  As a result, I told myself that when I had my own office I would take full advantage of the opportunity afforded by a space with no couch on which to nap.  Now that I’ve had my own office for over six months, I can report that conforming to a regular work schedule has allowed me to be productive without constantly worrying about what else I have to do.  When I go home for the day, I am generally done working for the evening.

Of course, I could be doing more.  I reported last semester, for example, that nearly all of my time was taken up by my teaching duties.  I could have placed five or ten hours of research on top of my other work but this would have also caused me to not be home in time to help my wife prepare for dinner or to give up an hour of mental relaxation while watching TV in the evening.  At this point, all signs indicate that I can earn tenure by completing most of my research duties in the summer and winter breaks and focus on teaching and service when class is in session.  As I learned over winter break when preparing my ASA submission, however, I need to approach research with the same rigid schedule.  Some people may become academics to avoid punching the clock.  For me it is essential.

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