The trouble with academia is, you set out to master a field but you end up demanding perfection of yourself, forgetting that perfection is not possible. Real mastery is not an outcome but a process, ie, embracing continual curiosity and being unafraid to confront what you don’t know to open the door to learning more. Karen and Kel talk about recovering this beginner’s curiosity by asking: Who is the inner/outer critic telling you you’re not good enough, and remembering that no external validation will make you achieve “perfection” -especially when the systems of validation are racist, sexist, classist, and exclusionary. As Toni Morrison says: the goal of racism is distraction. In the end, you can say this: I don’t have prove it to you I just have to deliver it.
Karen and Kel talk white water rafting as metaphor for your job search. In rafting you can’t fight the river – it’s bigger than...
With the COVID collapse of academic hiring, catastrophic weather events, and the appalling slide into fascism in the US, more and more of us...
It’s the newest trend! Join the thousands who are saying goodbye (and good riddance?) to the academic career! If you spend any time on...