Establishing and sustaining a Scientific Career
Prerequisiti
Open to all PhD and master students
Programma
This is a professionalising course that includes practical advice on how to develop and navigate the challenges of an academic career in the social sciences. It addresses key aspects of professional career development, including: finding your academic community, choosing international conferences and networking; applying for research funding and engaging in collaborative research projects; writing and peer-reviewing academic articles,publishing in international journals; CV writing; gearing up to academic job market interviews; awareness about challenges of neoliberal and de-democratising academia, intersecting power inequalities of gender, race, class, sexuality and academic position, attacks on academic freedom, and the importance of safe spaces and practices to promote individual and collective wellbeing and creativity.
Obiettivi formativi
The course aims at offering practical advice to navigate the challenges of developing an academic career in a skilful, safe, and joyful way. Through interactive exercise between participants and with a variety of instructors, the course provides researchers with practical knowledge of the main activities and practices involved in the process of developing an academic career: community-building through networking and conferences, applying for research funding, writing and publishing, job seeking, and constructing safe and creative academic spaces. Activities in class include, among others, preparing a CV, doing a job interview, reviewing an academic paper, and offering reciprocal mentoring.
Riferimenti bibliografici
Almasri, Nasir, Blair Read, and Clara Vandeweerdt. 2022. Mental Health and the PhD: Insights and Implications for Political Science. PS: Political Science & Politics 55 (2): 347-353.
Belcher, Wendy Laura. 2009. Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success. London: Sage.
Bourabain, Dounia, Zehra Colak, Zakia Essanhaji, Onur Sahin, and Daudi van Veen. 2025. Private: the (im)possibility of joy in academia for racialized scholars: reflections from a podcast project on Education. On_education Journal for Research and Debate 21 (April).
Essanhaji, Zakia, Onur Sahin, Zehra Colak, Daudi van Veen and Dounia Bourabain. 2024. Joy in Academia. Podcast. Utrecht University. https://open.spotify.com/show/1CirZAbGqJYrfUBE0epBt6
Fligstein, Neil D. 2019. Publishing in Modern Times. Sociologica 13(1).
Della Porta, Donatella. 2024. Moral Panic and Repression: the contentious politics of anti-Semitism in Germany. Partecipazione e Conflitto. 17(2) 2024: 276-349. DOI: 10.1285/i20356609v17i2p276
Johansson, Janet, Grace Gao, Ingela Sölvell, and Carolina Wigren Kristoferson. 2024. Exploring caring collaborations in academia through feminist reflexive dialogs. Gender, Work and Organization Early view https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13115.
Lombardo, Emanuela, Manuela Naldini and Barbara Poggio. 2024. Special Issue eds Gender Inequalities in Academia: Multiple Approaches to Closing the Gap. Sociologia del Lavoro 168/2024.
Miller Beth, Jon Pevehouse, Ron Rogowski, Dustin Tingley, and Rick Wilson. 2013. How To Be a Peer Reviewer: A Guide for Recent and Soon-to-be PhDs. PS: Political Science & Politics 46(1):120-123. https://politicalsciencenow.com/how-to-be-a-peer-reviewer-a-guide-for-recent- and-soon-to-be-phds/
Murray, Rowena. 2013. Writing for Academic Journals. Open University Press.
Paternotte, David and Mieke Verloo. 2020. Political Science at Risk in Europe. Frailness and the Study of Power. In Boncourt, Thibaud, Isabelle Engeli, and Diego Garcia eds. Political Science in Europe. Achievements, Challenges, Prospects. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 287–310.
Rutherford Amanda. 2015. Conquering the “Lumbering Dinosaur”: Graduate Student Experiences at Political Science Conferences. PS: Political Science & Politics. 48(2):324-327. doi:10.1017/S1049096514002261