Category: Reflection

  • Academia’s many worlds

    My latest reflection is now live on my University Affairs blog. In it, I ponder the many possibilities within academia: Take a handful of tenured professors, even in the same or closely-allied disciplines, and you’ll find a handful of worlds represented. One may use her position to create community between scholars across departments, universities and…

    Read more

  • My manuscript

    I recently wrote about embracing the word “scholar.” In that post, I told you that my dissertation manuscript is in a pile on my floor. It’s moved around a bit in the year-and-a-half since I handed in the final version of my dissertation. I have worked at it, making changes big and small to the…

    Read more

  • Scholar

    Several weeks (months?) ago, Brandy Schillace asked me to contribute to her Rogue Scholar Salon. I haven’t yet. I started but then got stuck. Where? At the word “scholar.” Brandy herself, a former tenure-track professor, is very much continuing as a medical humanities scholar despite going rogue—quitting her academic job! But me? Well, I never…

    Read more

  • Confidence

    Last week I was interviewed by David Austin Walsh from the History News Network; you can read the transcript of that here. David titled the interview, “Recent PhDs Need to Have their Confidence Boosted,” which it seems is something I said during our conversation . . . and I was right! I was reminded of…

    Read more

  • Needs inventory

    Needs, necessities, non-negotiables. These have come up a few times in my coaching calls with others. One woman realized she needed to take a “vacation” from a big writing project, but could read novels, something she loves doing and doesn’t always make time for. Another, who recently relocated to South Asia, decided to hire a…

    Read more

  • Working on it

    My life’s changed a great deal over the past year. In mid-June 2012 I received my diploma, my PhD in history from the University of Toronto. It was a big moment, getting that piece of paper. I’d been through some less-than-pleasant administrative experiences, and did not fully trust that I would actually graduate. So even…

    Read more

  • Chris Peterson: “And then the rest of my life began”

    Like many academics, I spent my young adult years postponing many of the small things that I knew would make me happy, including reading novels for pleasure, learning to cook, taking a photography class, and joining a gym. I would do all of these things when I had time—when I finished school, when I had…

    Read more

  • Why I started my PhD

    I was recently asked why I did a PhD if I didn’t now want to be a professor. The question was posed by a friendly acquaintance and was meant genuinely, out of curiosity. The assumption he made—that a doctorate is a prelude to a professorship—is common inside and outside the academy. I’m not surprised by…

    Read more

  • Thank you!

    I’ve had a great time with this blog over the past 6 months—my half-year-iversary is coming up this weekend on Thursday! When I began, I was excited to write about my own transition process, reflect on what I’d learned, and provide support and helpful resources for others in my situation: PhDs trying to figure out…

    Read more

  • Self-help for PhDs (by PhDs)

    During my undergrad I worked part-time at a Chapters bookstore in Ottawa, a big-box retailer similar to Barnes & Noble. My area of the store was the “Lifestyles” section, assigned to me because that’s where the opening was when I was hired. That section included many of the store’s non-fiction books, including self-help titles. Anyone…

    Read more