The Compleat Academic
Chapter 1~11
Edward Huang
Agenda
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Welcome to the PhD Program
Need a Job
Surviving Skills
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Teaching
Researching
Writing
Show Me the Money
A Guide to PhD Graduate School –
How They Keep Score in the Big Leagues
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What we should know
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Rules changes
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Learn What -> learn How
Faculty members wants to show you How to do research and
scholarship
You don’t have to be a genius, but you have to be motivated
What we should do
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You are your vita.
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The most important line – Publications
Starting at day one.
Agenda
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Welcome to the PhD Program
Need a Job
Surviving Skills
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Teaching
Researching
Writing
Show Me the Money
After Graduate School –
A Faculty Position or Postdoctoral Fellowship
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Attractions
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Enhanced Marketability
Broadening your research
domain
Facilitating the transition
from dependence to
independence
Developing scientific skills
Balancing personal and
professional goals
Research Utopia
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Disadvantages
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You cannot be your own
boss
Not a fast-track career
Short-term appointment
Financial support
The Hiring Process in Academia
Preparation
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Job Search
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Don’t set limitations
References
 Vita
Research plan  Publications
Teaching experience and evaluation
Preparation
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The talk
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Materials
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Networks
Visit
Travel plan
Learn about them
What to talk
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45 mins
Your classification
5 mins drill
Teaching
Idv. Meeting
Get answers
Decision
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Wait
Make decision
Take the offer
Jobs Outsides of Academia
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Job opportunities
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Private company, Government, Self-employed
Agenda
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Welcome to the PhD Program
Need a Job
Surviving Skills
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Teaching
Researching
Writing
Show Me the Money
Tips for Effective Teaching
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Preparing your courses
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Goal setting
Choosing a textbook
Creating a syllabus
Evaluating student performance
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Matching evaluation tool to your goal
Applying the psychology of learning to student evaluation
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5 Minute University
Long-term retention can be improved by helping students
more exams!!  Engage in numerous study sessions
more exams!!  Realize what they really know
more exams!!  Retrieve past and current course material and present them randomly
Tips for Effective Teaching
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Preparing your courses
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Setting up a grading system
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Establishing student communication channels
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Accurate, fair, consistently
Office hour, email
Others
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Developing your teaching style
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Be yourself as long as you care about teaching
Faculty-Student relationships
Assessing and improving your teaching
Setting Up Your Lab and
Beginning a Program of Research
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Analyzing Your Situation
 Is research possible?
 Hire work-study students
 Do the basic research with good ideas (no tool needed)
 Review paper
 Find available supports from other institutions
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Start-up Package
 Making your decisions
 Investing to the most important things
 Saving money for later
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Starting a small lab first
Setting Up Your Lab and
Beginning a Program of Research
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Features of a strong junior faculty research program
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Collaborate with your mentor
Develop independent research
Keep developing your PhD research track
Integration
Write it up
General principles
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Make the most of what you have
Invest your resources
Invest your time wisely
Collaborate
Writing the Empirical Journal Articles
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Analyze data first and then report your findings
How should you write
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Accuracy and clarity
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Good organization and standard format
Write simply and directly
Good writing is good teaching
Writing the Empirical Journal Articles
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Shape of an article
Introductions
Literature Review
System Design and Results
Discuss Section
Future Research
Agenda
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Welcome to the PhD Program
Need a Job
Surviving Skills
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Teaching
Researching
Writing
Show Me the Money
Obtaining a Research Grant
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Why should you apply for a grand?
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To do research
To support students
To free your responsibility
To pay summer salary
To obtain tenure
Who fund research?
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Government, universities, businesses, organizations,
and foundations
Obtaining a Research Grant
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Finding your funders
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Marketing your research idea
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Get more advice
Make the most rumors
Hedge your bets
Road less traveled
Preparing irresistible applications
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Choose ideas carefully
Think broadly about the applications of your work
Call the relevant program officers
Staffing
Clarify, Clarify, Clarify
Peer Review & Aftermath
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Revise and resubmit?
Obtaining a Research Grant
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Process of getting funded
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Think up an idea
Operationalize the idea
Find out who might be interested in your idea
Write your proposal
Solicit feedback on your proposal
Get the proposal approved by your institution
Send out the proposal on time
Revise the proposal, if necessary; otherwise, abandon it by now
Resubmit and explain what you have changed
Get funded, or if not, start over
The Compleat
Academic
LI FAN
Power, Politics, and Survival in
Academia
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Research university
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Doctoral/Research universities – extensive
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More than $20 million of federal research
expenditures in a year
Award 50 or more doctoral degrees per year across
at least 15 disciplines
Doctoral/Research universities – intensive
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Award at least 10 doctoral degrees per year across
three or more discipline, or at least 20 doctoral
degrees per year overall
Power, Politics, and Survival in
Academia
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Power and Money
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Power is money and money is power
Faculty who can generate large amounts of
grant money are powerful
Teaching is a local market and research is a
national market
Department’s power
Power in a department rests with a
department’s faculty, or at least some of
them( Head, Chair, Senior Prof.)
– Relationship between Head and Junior Prof.
(Child and Parents)
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Managing the Dep. chair and
navigating the Dep. power structure
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Follow the leader
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Identify who is the leader
Chair is the administration representative
Head is viewed as an agent of the university
management
Becoming known and well-known
Make yourself available (Spend more time in
office, Have lunches together, Attend
department events)
– Make yourself valuable (Teach, Research,
Service)
– What would the department lose if you left?
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The Dialectics of Race: Academic
Perils and Promises
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A cultural competence approach
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Possessing a strong personal identity
Having knowledge and facility with the
culture’s beliefs and values
Displaying appropriate sensitivity to affective
processes
Communicating clearly in the language of the
culture
Maintaining active social relations with the
group
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Women in Academia
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Women in psychology Department
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1920-1974: 23% vs. 1996: 66%
Still small number of tenured women
Some major issues
Self-Presentation (Smart, Productive or Kind,
Quietly? Only the first set will get you tenured)
– Family Issues (When to have children)
– Is Academia right for You?
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Varieties of College and University
Experiences
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Types of Departments
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Large vs. Small
Pure vs. Mixed
Mature vs. Immature
The Department Culture Effects the New
Faculty Member
Academic and Social Climate
– Resources Availability
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Which one fit you better?
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Keeping Your Edge: Managing Your
Career Over Time
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Getting Started
Managing Your Teaching Load
 Get guest lecturers, TAs
– Administrative Work
– You Remember Research?
 You do not have to go on your thesis topic
 Working on new area
 Reading: Staying on Top of the Field
– Learn from faculty colleagues
– Do not say ‘Yes’ to everything
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Keeping Your Edge: Managing Your
Career Over Time
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Hitting Your Stride
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You should carve out your own field
Getting reviews and providing reviews
Self-promotion
 Send out the paper you are proud of
 Increase the chance people will read your
paper
Dealing with the press
Dealing with student
 Impose limitation on the number of student
you supervise
Make some money if you need
 Write books or teach in summer school
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Keeping Your Edge: Managing Your
Career Over Time
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Hitting Your Stride
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Manage your time
 Pick your conference carefully
 Never read any email you do not have to
Get rest and gain perspective (Sabbatical)
Enjoy private life
Hitting The Wall (And the Rest of the Race)
Beware of Curmudgeonly End
– Keeping Your Career Vibrant
 Branch into new field
 Create a new course
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Managing Your Career: The Long
View
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Thinking About The Future
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Short-Term Planning
 Keep a to-do list
Medium-Term Goals
 One semester? 6 months? One year?
Long-Range Goals
 what you want to do with your whole
academic life
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Q&A