It might not explain Jeremy’s recent behavior, as he’s still slugging through spring quarter, but I’m sure a lot of us are suffering from end-of-the-semester burnout. You know, when you need something mindless to keep you going. Omar’s on the other side of the wall, cleaning his office. I wrote my syllabi for the fall [...]
From someone who is ABD. This is a very liberal paraphrase (you will note that the language is strongly shakha’s), but still accurate, I believe.
I have two committee members who don’t get along. They pull me in different directions. They’re not really interested in what the other person suggests, and sometimes even seem to pull [...]
Not that I post often, but I haven’t been posting at all lately. Not that I need to offer an account, but I am about to do just that: I’m being bullied.
I thought that there was something wrong with me if I could be bullied by colleagues and students, but it turns out that I’m [...]
From an esteemed colleague:
What set of issues should be discussed before two (or more) people agree to write a paper together? There are obvious contenders here - order of authorship, timeline, etc. - but what else is important?
Here is a suggestion that emerged from olderwoman about our ask a scatterbrain series. This emerged as some had expressed that the series was anxiety producing. Ane one of the causes of this was that the advice often seemed to come from folks at the “top 20″ - where few sociologists actually are (and few [...]
Some questions on publishing:
What are the politics of publishing? Which journals are professional brass rings? Are there journals that might accept my articles but at the same time are so unrespected that publishing in them is tantamount to admitting I’m a lousy academic? The impact factor is one way to go about it but my [...]
From grad students, a series of questions that I have compiled into one big mess. Basically: how do you build a network and does it matter what kind you build?
People keep telling me how important it is to “build networks.” I understand why. I just don’t understand how. So, how do you go about “building [...]
A graduate student of mine is writing up a scholarship application that includes a one-page statement of proposed research. In giving this student feedback, I offered the following advice for what to include and the order in which to present it:
My proposed study is about this. Here is why this problem is important. Here is [...]
Which one doesn’t belong?
July
August
September
October
December
January
I’m sure that I’m not the only social psychology instructor that hates to show any part of the Stanford Prison Study because of the lackluster video and sound recording (especially evident about a minute into this excerpt). I mean it’s such an important and influential experiment - methodologically, ethically, and intellectually - one would hope [...]
Based on popular demand (n=2), I’m raising a question from today’s “ask a scatterbrain” comments thread from “off topic” to the topic:
Is it possible to be on the job market “on the down low”?
From a student:
I’m a few years away from the job market. But not THAT far away. What matters? Everyone I talk to alternates between telling me how hard it is to predict the job market while acting surprised that I’m not doing what I “should”. So, what “should” I do? What matters on my CV? [...]
Our question of the week: How do you “break up” with your adviser? If you feel like the relationship isn’t going well, and you’ve already made the decision to go with someone new, what is the best way to do this without upsetting the adviser?
Another of my pet peeves is starting an academic paper by referring to the dictionary definition of something. “According to Webster’s Dictionary, X is defined as…” How many times have you read that sentence in your life? I suppose it is a lousy, boring, but minimally acceptable way for an undergraduate to start [...]
I’m sitting here celebrating St. Valentine’s Day by writing decision letters (mainly rejection) for my journal. I have an editor’s tip to share with all those willing to hear it:
Do not cite Wikipedia in your literature review or to provide historical background. Even once. And certainly not multiple times. It provides a heuristic device [...]
If your job requires you to share a printer, either be careful what you print or pick up said printing immediately. Saving trees and saving face are both virtuous.
Question number two in our weekly installment:
“What are the most important things to highlight on your vita while on the job market. Follow up, what is most important to have on your vita (as in publications, conferences, training, etc.) ?”
I didn’t make up this quote.
I’ll be participating in a professionalization workshop on publishing and looking for ideas on the types of topics we should cover. When it comes to journal publishing in particular, what kinds of questions would you hope to have answered? This can range anywhere from how to select or approach a potential collaborator to deciding [...]
“Background” is several hundred times more appealing as the title of a section of a paper than either “Literature Review” or “Literature.”
I had a very interesting experience yesterday. Very interesting. Perhaps life-changing. You see a couple of weeks ago, I received a call from someone in the computer science department informing me they had a visitor coming to campus from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who wanted to meet with me. “Ah,” [...]
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