Shows / The Academic Life
The Academic Life
A podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Created and produced by Dr. Christina Gessler, the Academic Life podcast is inspired by today’s knowledge-producers around the world, working inside and outside the academy. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life
Episodes
- The Academic Life
Hannah Pittard, "We Are Too Many: A Memoir [Kind of]" (Henry Holt, 2023)
What happens when you come of age in mid-life? Why is so challenging to figure out your own past? Can you find the permission to be weird? (And can you be…
- The Academic Life
Dana Rubin, "Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches by American Women" (RealClear, 2023)
From Dr. Painter restoring the words of Sojourner Truth’s original speech, to VP-candidate Kamala Harris enduring through repeated interruptions at her debate…
- The Academic Life
Studying the Pipeline to Politics for Women
When we teach about how women go into politics, how are we looking for the places and ways that women get involved? Are we giving enough consideration to small…
- The Academic Life
The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas
Like wolves, orcas have been loved and loathed throughout history. What created this complicated relationship between humans and whales? And have we changed…
- The Academic Life
The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life
When we are tethered to our responsibilities, it can feel like we need someone to give us permission to go have fun. Maybe some of us have begun to forget what…
- The Academic Life
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea
Today’s book is: The Lost Journals of Sacajewea (Milkweed Editions, 2023), by Debra Magpie Earling, which is a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges…
- The Academic Life
Academic Ghosting
Have you ever been ghosted in academia? The mentor who no longer replies when you reach out, the collaborators who mysteriously stopped collaborating with you…
- The Academic Life
My What If Year: A Discussion with Alisha Fernandez Miranda
Did we miss a fork in the road somewhere? What if our lives are going just fine, but we still want to hunt for the pieces of ourselves we’ve dropped along the…
- The Academic Life
Navigating the Community College Job Market
What makes a community college job interview different than one at a four-year college or a university? Do you need a PhD to get hired? What are they looking…
- The Academic Life
Making a “Junk Drawer” CV
How can the things you normally leave off of a CV help you navigate the job market? What if you made a list of all of the highs and the lows of your academic…
- The Academic Life
Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day
Feeling worn out by the work of resistance? How do you persevere? Why is so challenging to find wholeness? Kaitlin Curtice joins us to share: The four realms…
- The Academic Life
Do You Have Imposter Syndrome?
Why do so many students and academics worry that they are imposters? Is it normal to experience this kind of self-doubt? This episode explores: The difference…
- The Academic Life
Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires
Do we know what we really want, and what we are willing to do to get it? What if what we want doesn’t align with who we think we are supposed to be? Dr…
- The Academic Life
Ph.D. Employability: Struggles and Solutions
What happens when jobs in academia are scarce, and few of the descriptions of jobs outside academia seem like a fit? How can graduates find the right job for…
- The Academic Life
Contracts, Agents, and Editors, Oh My! Demystifying the Path to Publication
What is an advance contract? Do you need an agent? How do you know which editor to approach with your manuscript? Successfully following the path to academic…
- The Academic Life
What Do Bees, Ants, and Dragonflies Get up to All Day?
Bugs are everywhere: in every corner of the world, even the Artic. But of the estimated 10 million species of bugs worldwide, only a million have been studied…
- The Academic Life
Gay on God's Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities
Today’s book is: Gay on God's Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities (UNC Press, 2018), by Jonathan Coley. Although the…
- The Academic Life
The Connected PhD, Part Three
How can a PhD program pivot from a professoriate-apprenticeship system, to one that is mindful of students’ post-grad career goals? This episode completes our…
- The Academic Life
The Good Enough Life
Today’s book is: The Good-Enough Life (Princeton UP, 2022) by Avram Alpert. We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be…
- The Academic Life
The Top Ten Struggles in Writing A Book Manuscript (and What to Do About It)
Is writing a nonfiction book harder than you thought it would be? This episode explores: What your reader needs from you, and why. Which writing struggles are…
- The Academic Life
Overcoming the Anxiety of Giving a Presentation
Why is giving a presentation so stressful? Is your heart supposed to race? And how do you gain more confidence? This episode explores: How to feel more…
- The Academic Life
Can we Engage in Public Scholarship with Feminist and Accessible Communication?
Today’s book is: Engage in Public Scholarship: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication, by Dr. Alex D. Ketchum. Public scholarship—sharing…
- The Academic Life
Are We Done with Higher Education Rankings?
Why do most of the institutions of higher education in the United States participate in a rankings system? What do the rankings do? And what does it mean when…
- The Academic Life
Who Gets Believed? When the Truth Isn't Enough
Why are people judged on whether or not they are compelling? Why isn’t telling the truth enough? What are people really listening for when others share their…
- The Academic Life
The Connected PhD, Part Two
How can PhD programs prepare graduate students for future paths beyond academia? This episode explores: The positive effect on students when they are prepared…
- The Academic Life
A Primer for Teaching Digital History
Today’s book is: A Primer for Teaching Digital History: Ten Design Principles (Duke UP, 2022), which is a guide for those who are teaching digital history for…
- The Academic Life
We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States
Today’s book is: We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States. The “Dreamer narrative” celebrates the educational…
- The Academic Life
The Connected PhD, Part One
Why do PhD programs assume students will become professors, when most people find careers outside academia? How can we better prepare graduate students for the…
- The Academic Life
The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature
Today’s book is: The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature, which is the 2022 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award Winner. The Diné Reader…
- The Academic Life
The Climate Change Scientist: A Conversation with Dr. Shuang-ye Wu
What is the difference between global warming and climate change? This episode explores: What led Dr. Wu into STEM, and to the study of climate change. Why the…
- The Academic Life
Why Did 48,000 UC Workers Go on Strike? A Conversation with Dr. Trevor Griffey
Why did thousands of workers at prestigious universities in the United States go on strike in 2022? How did we get to this historic moment, and is it really…
- The Academic Life
You Do Have A Right To Remain Fat: A Conversation with Virgie Tovar
Why are women judged for their size? What if you decided that you had the right to remain fat? This episode explores: Our born desire to like ourselves as we…
- The Academic Life
Archival Kismet: Lessons in Launching An Online Conference
What is the feeling of archival kismet? And how can we reimagine the format of academic conferences to better support scholars? This episode explores: The…
- The Academic Life
Belonging: A Conversation with Geoffrey Cohen
Why do we feel the need to belong, and what happens when we don’t? This episode explores: What it takes to belong. Why it physically hurts to be excluded. How…
- The Academic Life
Finding Yourself in Difficult Conversations?
Why do so many difficult conversations happen over a school break, a holiday meal, or at an important family event? How can we better prepare ourselves, and…
- The Academic Life
Misrepresentation on Campus: A Conversation with Michelle Cyca
When a professor is not who they say they are, what does it take to get them to resign? This episode explores: How an anonymous twitter account and a media…
- The Academic Life
When Your Professor Asks You to Cheat: A Conversation with Dr. Joel Heng Hartse
We all know that academic integrity matters. But do we all agree on what academic integrity really is? Somewhere beyond the nuances and gray areas is blatant…
- The Academic Life
Books, Antisemitism, and a Viral Tweet: A Conversation with Library Director Susan Kusel
Need help curating a list of Holocaust books for your students or library patrons? What’s on your shelf? What should be there? This podcast episode explores…
- The Academic Life
Scholar Skills: Unraveling Faculty Burnout
“I’m burned out” is a familiar phrase in higher ed these days. This episode explores: What burnout is and is not. One scholar’s personal experience with…
- The Academic Life
Where Does Research Really Begin?
Today’s book is: Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World) (U Chicago Press, 2022) by Thomas S. Mullaney and…
- The Academic Life
Making the Most of Academic Conferences: Insights and Tips from Dr. Thomas Tobin
You’re going to an academic conference—and maybe even presenting a project! Whether you are going virtually or in person, for the first time or the tenth…
- The Academic Life
Night of the Living Rez
How does identity and experience inform your writing? This episode explores: Professor Talty’s journey from community college student to college professor. The…
- The Academic Life
Scholar Skills: Managing and Re-Envisioning the Academic Mid-Career
Ever felt uncertain about how to manage the academic mid-career stage? This episode explores: Why the mid-career stage is so important to mid-career faculty…
- The Academic Life
Far From Home: A Conversation About Academic Relocation with Clare Griffin
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: What inspired Clare Griffin to move far from home. The hidden curriculum of academic…
- The Academic Life
The Fight to Save the Town
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why we need to write about difficult topics. Four American towns trying to save themselves…
- The Academic Life
The Surprising World of Wasps
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: What inspired Professor Sumner to study wasps. That time she ate a slug. Her grad school…
- The Academic Life
Scholar Skills: Communicating Through your Online Presence
Is there a strategy to communicating your research online? This episode explores: What an academic communications strategist does. Why having a strategy to…
- The Academic Life
College Baseball in the Offseason: Meet the Savannah Bananas
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The hard work of balancing academics and sports when you attend college on an athletic…
- The Academic Life
Hope for the Humanities PhD
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why a humanities degree actually opens many career paths. The importance of curiosity. The…
- The Academic Life
The Two Keys to Student Retention: A Discussion with Aaron Basko
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why Aaron Basko thinks we are looking at student success backwards. How asking alums why they…
- The Academic Life
What is a Tomboy?: A Discussion with Lisa Selin Davis
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: How journalist Lisa Selin Davis became interested in tomboys. The questions that arise when we…
- The Academic Life
Opening Up the University for Displaced Students
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) operating out of Central European University. The…
- The Academic Life
The Journal of Higher Education in Prison
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: How both of today’s guests became involved in higher education in prison. Why this work is…
- The Academic Life
Writing Beyond a Limited Narrative: A Conversation with Hari Ziyad
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Hari Ziyad’s journey through higher education. Why they became editor of RaceBaitr after…
- The Academic Life
Do You Need a Developmental Editor?
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer’s own experience getting her first two academic books published. An…
- The Academic Life
Considering Museum Work? A Conversation with Curators From the Smithsonian
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Our guests’ career paths at the Smithsonian, their work to help create a new Women’s history…
- The Academic Life
The Cornell Sweatshirt Tweet
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Ruby Tapia’s viral Cornell sweatshirt tweet. How witnessing domestic violence, and the…
- The Academic Life
Bookends: A Conversation about Grad School, Loss, and Books
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Zibby Owen’s experience in grad school of losing her best friend. What she did to regroup and…
- The Academic Life
Dissertations Wanted! A Conversation with the Editor of University of Wyoming Press
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why Robert Ramaswamy wants to see your revised dissertation submitted for publication. What…
- The Academic Life
Exploring Public-Facing Humanities
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Ellen Synder-Grenier’s career as a curator and public historian How Henry Street helped its…