It’s The Great Resignation, and people are departing their shitty jobs in droves. This includes academics, and not just adjuncts. Tenured and tenure track faculty are proactively departing to a degree never before seen. (Find many of them on the Professor Is Out private FB group!) Karen and Kel talk about ways that perfectionism–always the bugbear of academia–can hamper your transition out of the academy just as much as it might hamper your process of finishing that paper, dissertation, or book project. It’s all kind of the same thing: you feel like you have to know EXACTLY where you’re going and EXACTLY what you have to do, before you take a step. But, you don’t. You only need to take the first step. And that first step may well feel like a “misstep” but that is not a mistake, it’s just more information! Opening yourself to process – through Kel’s method of always asking, “….and…?” relieves you from the outcome-centrism of academic thinking, and frees you to move forward.
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Recorded the day after the Breonna Taylor verdict was announced, this episode talks about productivity. if you can’t get your work done right now, it’s ok. If you CAN work, why can you work? Why are white people so “ok” in the face of this anti-blackness? And more broadly, who does productivity serve? Karen and Kel talk about the dangers of chasing belonging in a system that despite its gaslighting stories about itself, does not exist to save or protect or nurture you. ...
We are delighted to host Fobazi Ettarh, who first created the term “Vocational Awe” and has written extensively on its threats to the health and well being of librarians in particular and those employed in “calling” fields in general. Vocational awe refers to “the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique.” In today’s conversation Fobazi illustrates how the idea of a “sacred calling,” so often ascribed to librarians and faculty alike, mystifies the fact that it is labor within a capitalist system, and makes it almost impossible to push for fair compensation, or non-exploitative working conditions. In addition, it prevents acknowledging the degree that libraries are, like other institutions, foundations of white supremacy. Fobazi breaks down all the ways that racism permeates both access to libraries (and the academy more broadly), and working conditions of the professionals who staff them. [Become a subscribing member for just $3.99 a month and get access to our subscriber only goodies like free webinar recordings, AMAs, the chance to suggest topics, early access to the podcast video that we record in our house in Oregon, and — new from this week – live videos with Karen and Kel on Friday mornings, all on our dedicated podcast member page on Mighty Networks! Not ready to subscribe? ...
The academy despises the IDEA of self-promotion while rewarding those who do it in properly academic ways. This is just one of the many classist elements of academia. Those who decide to leave the academy need to face and overcome the shaming around self-promotion. In this episode, Karen and Kel tell you how, with special attention to LinkedIn. We get it, it feels yucky at first. But LinkedIn is no different than your academic cover letter–it puts your skills and aptitudes out there, for potential employers. Don’t hesitate to use it, and more importantly, don’t allow yourself to be stymied and quelled by elitist academic value judgments – others’ and your own. ...
