Author: Jennifer Polk
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Conferences are for networking
D’uh. But I didn’t fully realize this for myself until recently. Reflections on a few days at Congress. An excerpt: What’s striking for me about this experience is how little time I spent at actual conference sessions, and how much networking I did instead. During my PhD student days, going to a conference meant, well,…
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Beyond the Professoriate was a success!
Thank you to all who attended or spoke at the conference! It was a great event. More of my thoughts in my latest blog post for University Affairs.
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Beyond the Professoriate conference preview
Beyond the Professoriate is coming up soon! Maren and I are very excited and thrilled with the group we’ve gathered. Read the full preview here. An excerpt: My conference is coming up fast! Beyond the Professoriate will bring together 25 PhDs from a wide variety of disciplines – engineering to ethnomusicology, genetics to German – who…
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Transition Q & A: Raj Dhiman
So what does a guy with a PhD in bio-organic chemistry do outside the academy? Work in tech sales, of course! Well, that’s one option. Read about Raj Dhiman’s transition from science postdoc to corporate sales training manager over at my University Affairs blog. Here’s an excerpt: What do you do now? For the past…
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Transition Q & A: Viviane Callier
Viviane Callier has a PhD in biology and now works as a science writer at the US National Cancer Institute. Here how the interview begins: What did you hope for in terms of employment as you completed your PhD? When I finished my PhD, I had lined up a postdoc in the same field of…
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Transition Q & A: Nicholas Dion
How does a religious studies PhD wind up working as a senior coordinator at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario? Read this week’s Q & A over at University Affairs to find out! Nick spent months exploring his options beyond academia, and was proactive in his job search toward the end of his degree.…
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Transition Q & A: Daveena Tauber
Rutgers English PhD Daveena Tauber is forging a career for herself in higher education, but from the outside. Read her transition story over at University Affairs. An excerpt: What do you do now? At this point, I am an established writing consultant who specializes in working with graduate programs and graduate students. The first part…
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Striking for a better now, and a better future
This week’s post for University Affairs is my contribution to the debates about the strikes happening here in Toronto, and especially the situation at the University of Toronto, where I do my PhD in the Department of History. I quote from a marvelous open letter written by an English professor, and from a memoir I…
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Transition Q & A: Kara Santokie
My friend Kara worked as a professor in Bangladesh for a year after earning her PhD in political science, then returned to Toronto — she did her PhD at U of T — and found a job managing programs for a local nonprofit organization. Since then, she’s been promoted to executive director. Read her story…
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Book review: The Unruly PhD
Are you looking for more stories about life after a PhD, and about the experience of graduate school itself? There’s a book for that! In my latest post for University Affairs, I reviewed The Unruly PhD. This book provides a fascinating glimpse into the work and lives of people who’ve pursued PhDs in humanities disciplines…