academic adventures

Toward the end of last year, being in possession of two novelties - a girlfriend and a steady job - I decided to spend my free evenings crafting a very special piece of jewellery. I was inspired by a visit to Barometer World in the late summer, where I discovered the curious material known as storm glass (tragic backstory recounted here). In short, a storm glass is a weather divination tool so old that nobody really knows where they came from. It's likely they were borne out of alchemy experiments performed during the medieval period. Inside a sealed glass tube, crystals bloom, wither and…

I did a not-so-stellar job of meeting my not-so-stellar goals for writing and research in November, but I did get some stuff done. Done! Accepted!!!!! Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 13) Done! Internal release time application (due November 18) Read some, but not nearly enough. Read around proposed grad student topics enough to ensure we're not reinventing the wheel/pursuing proven dead ends (amorphous, I know) Made progress, not enough to strike-through. Finish GIS work left-over from 2008 AGU poster. Done! Draft abstract that is due in early December, so that I…

This week we are reading Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. This video was produced with a dedication to Kate, who explained to me why kids like this book so much even before they understand everything that's happening in it. She wisely told me that it's because kids rarely get to hear a story about a kid getting really mad, expressing their feelings, and without a neat fairy-tale or moralistic ending. Alexander just has a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day, and he's not afraid to tell us about it. I'd also like to dedicate this post to all of…

I am not in charge of SciWo's Storytime. Sure, it might look like I'm the one reading the books and operating the video camera, but Minnow exerts the ultimate executive authority as editor-in-chief. Some weeks no videos whatsoever are allowed to be made, some weeks she's content to let me pick the book, and some weeks she is quite happy to make a whole string of videos, so long as she chooses the content. With that proviso, Minnow presents this week's edition of SciWo's Storytime featuring the book Little Squire the Fire Engine by Catherine Kenworthy and illustrated by Nina Barbaresi. Now…

I'm not going to apologize about lack of posting over the last month or so, and I'm not going to make any promises for the future. That said, here's what I'm up to for InaDWriMo this month. Here's what I wrote at ring-leader Dr. Brazen-Hussy's kickoff post: Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 6) Internal release time application (due November 15) NSF proposal (due ~December 1) After one week, I haven't finished the revisions, but I'm 90% done. No question as to me getting it done this week. I've got 3 pages of first draft of the 5 page release time application. This…

A few days ago I arrived at my office in the morning and was greeted with an unpleasant surprise...someone had scratched a cross into the bulletin board just outside my office door. (Apologies for the terrible cell-phone picture.) While I'm able to cover the image with a strategically placed advising schedule, I'm haunted by a terribly icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was someone trying to send me a message? Why a cross? Why my board and not the boards of my male colleagues along the corridor? I'm not offended by images of crosses in general, but it is not something that I want…

Are you a person in industry who is thinking about a transfer into academia? This ADVANCE-sponsored program might be something you're interested in: Our first annual On-Ramps into Academia Workshop will take place this October 18-20th, 2009 in Seattle, Washington. The purpose of this workshop is to assist women currently working in industry to transition into positions in academia. As part of the resources we will provide to On-Ramps participants, we are planning on building out a list of open faculty positions in STEM departments. If there are any open positions at your college or…

Yesterday I wrote a post where I laid out reasons why I am opposed to night school courses in my graduate program. As I said yesterday, "I am against accommodating our full-time worker, part-time graduate student students by moving a significant number of our classes to evening hours." That post sparked a number of wonderful comments providing a variety of valuable perspectives on the role of night classes in serving various student populations. I didn't mean to come across as down on part-time grad students or the over all concept of night school. Let's see if I can lay out a more general…

Plagiarizing from Profgrrrrl, the translation would be "Oh Shit, I must write! week." In a week and a half, I'm going out of town for a week and a half. In between now and when I get back, there are a number of important things with external deadlines that must be met. Write and submit invited abstract Submit paperwork to university compliance office Write letter of intent for a big grant (and make progress on the grant app itself) Write volunteered abstract, get co-author input, revise and submit Get student working on hir abstract, revise as necessary, make sure zie submits Write draft of…

Amazing momma-scientist Janus Prof asked me to ask y'all how many hours you really work. Janus Prof is just completing her first year on the tenure-track at a prestigious university, and in the course of that year, she also gave birth to her first child and was diagnosed with an uncurable, chronic illness that limits her work hours. Yet she's also managed to get her lab up and running, recruit students, teach, and write a CAREER proposal. (I get out of breath just thinking about it.) So Janus Prof was understandably inspired to read a recent post from Dr. Mom, in which she admits that she…

A few weeks ago, I blogged a self-assessment of my progress towards tenure. It seemed like an apt time to reflect in the hours before my annual review meeting with the department chair(s) and in the months before my packet for reappointment is submitted. Reappointment is the first and only gatekeeping between me and submitting that tenure dossier in three years. I feel OK about reappointment, but less so about tenure. So that's the focus of the navel-gazing. (I suspect such gazing will only get worse as the next few years wend on.) In my self-assessment, I identified a number of areas where…

Reader science newbie poses a great question to me and asks for the collective wisdom of our readers: Dear Sciencewoman, I have been reading & loving you blog for some time now. Thanks! You rock! Ok, I have a question.... I have interviewed for, and been given a verbal offer for my first assistant professor position. We are negotiating startup funds, salary, etc right now. Due to state budgetary constraints, I have been informed that all of my startup funds (excluding salary) will have to originate from the department's funds, not university or state money. I have found some information…

Here at Mystery U, we are evaluated on a calendar year basis, so in early January I turned in an up-to-date CV to our departmental review committee. Then I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally, a few weeks ago, I got a chance to see what the review committee thought of me, and I got to meet with the incoming and outgoing departmental chairs. I was actually one of the first people to see my reviews, because at the end of the summer I submit a dossier for the reappointment process. I'll be in the third year of my three-year contract, and the reappointment process for a second 3-…

Purdue is now on summer time, which means it is a time for day-long retreats, meetings, and types of work. I've experienced two flavors of day-long meetings, and have one or two insights to share with you about each. My first meeting was one scheduled months in advance, with various academic heads of state (ok, not really) and leaders from across campus. The day was organized to get some specific kinds of work done, and I had high hopes; however, as it turned out, half the attendees had not read their email, and therefore had only done half of the preparation for the first activity (a…

Another PSA from the good folks at Rice University's ADVANCE program. Please help them out if this applies to you. Dear Colleague: I'm writing to ask you if you would be willing to participate in a study that I am conducting at Rice University. It is important research and is attempting to understand the experiences and decision-making processes that occur when talented faculty voluntarily decide to leave their academic institutions and go elsewhere (e.g., either another academic institution or a nonacademic alternative). If you have EVER been employed at one university/college and…

The email below announces this year's "Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position" workshop run by Rice University's ADVANCE program. I've heard great things about this workshop and they've run it for several years. In fact, I applied two years running and didn't get in, so it must be popular for a reason. Dear Colleague: A recent study of diversity in engineering notes that "the most accurate predictor of subsequent success for female undergraduates is the percentage of women among faculty members at their college [1]." At Rice University we are strongly committed to increasing the diversity of…

Alice is right, I have been locked in grading jail. For my amusement, and for the sake of posting something, here's a look at how I've been doing my hard time: Number of intro-level papers graded: 72 Number of intro-level papers to go: 0 (WooHoo!) Number of multiple choice questions ready to go in Blackboard for the final exam: 60 Number of emails received from intro-level students in the last week: greater than 30 Number of those emails asking how to calculate their grade or when the final exam is: greater than 20 Number of upper-level papers submitted: 22 Number of upper-level papers…

My students tell me that there are only 20 days of class left this semester. I've been too busy to count. Unfortunately, it's been too-busy-with-things-that-don't-make-a-compelling-tenure-case. But, maybe, just maybe, I can salvage this mess of a semester by learning some lessons for how now to conduct future semesters. So in RBOC-fashion here's what I've discovered. Loading up my teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays did not actually produce "free" days for research. First Tuesday got filled up with student meetings and class prep for my marathon Wednesdays. Then Thursday got filled up with…

This is not a belated April Fool's joke, though I'll admit to having sat on this since Wednesday so that my readers wouldn't think I was making this up. Here is the correspondence I found in my email account on Wednesday morning: Hi! I've been reading your blog now for the past 18 months- and love it. Thanks so much for sharing! I'd just like to say how much it really helped me, as I'm at the same stage as you. Last July, I went from being a post-doc to a faculty member. Your comments about applying for jobs, how the process worked were of great assistance... And it's great reading how you…

In early February, I received a letter from my university president. A hand-signed letter, addressed to me. In it, she reported how she had been reading this blog and my personal work website. (!) She was very complimentary of this blog, and SW and my contributions to engaging more women in STEM fields. I confess I was rather gobsmacked, verklempt, overwhelmed by the letter. I've scanned it to my computer so I can keep a copy of it, and put the paper copy in my "good things" file that currently remains rather thin. I wrote it up a bit in my P&T file (that was due at the beginning…