academic coach

A Woman Among Men

Thanks so much for all your input on my newsletter reader's question about her students' use of Mrs. vs. Dr.

She appreciates the advice.  And I was intrigued to hear about the norms in some other countries.

By the way, the prof who asked me the question is pregnant right now. I wonder if that increases the use of "Mrs." by her students?

You've been so helpful that I'm going to ask for some further assistance.

A newsletter reader recently emailed me the following question:

I am a young academic in an electrical and computer engineering department, which has 90% male undergraduate students. I am the only female engineering professor in the department. Any tips or advice on surviving when so outnumbered? Luckily the department is very supportive, but it is taking a while for the students to get used to a female academic.

In case you'd like to read my thoughts on the topic, I've already written a response that was sent out via my newsletter.

But I'd love to hear your ideas.

Update: Be sure to check out Jane's reactions to my newsletter.  She provides superb advice (which she summarizes in a comment below - but do read the longer version.)

Doctor, Professor, Hey You

I've seen a few posts and Chronicle articles about what folks like students to call them: Doctor vs. Professors vs. "casual first name basis."

This week I got a question from of the readers of my Successful Academic Newsletter and I thought I'd throw it out to female academibloggers.

Hi Mary,

I liked reading your newsletter, as usual.

Quick thought - have you ever polled female scientists about how students address them?

Many of my students call me Ms. or Mrs. "X", even though I told them at the beginning of the semester that I am a Dr.  I have asked my male colleagues if they are called Mr.  Most of them are addressed as Dr.  I assume it is because most of the students' teachers in k-12 were Ms. so and so, but I wonder if that affects the way they look at us.

Thanks,

"X"

Female Faculty More Stressed

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some thoughts on the IHE article that reported that Community College faculty are somewhat more satisfied with their jobs than faculty at 4 year institutions.  The same survey of faculty attitudes, conducted by folks at UCLA, included comparisons of male and female responses.

The study found that a higher proportion women reported feeling stressed about a variety of different factors.  Here are some of the findings highlighted in the IHE article:

Factor	% of Men Citing as Cause of Stress	% of Women Citing as Cause of Stress
Managing household responsibilities	68.0%	81.8%
Child care	29.4	29.6
Review/promotion process	40.3	50.8
Subtle discrimination	17.9	34.2
Teaching load	61.6	70.8
Lack of personal time	68.5	81.9
Keeping up with technology	54.0	64.2
Being part of 2-career couple	31.0	41.6
Self-imposed expectations	75.0	84.4

Interesting, eh?

Trashing Tribble - With Grace and Subtlety

Bravo to Henry Farrell! 

In an eloquent Chronicle Article this week, Farrell trashes the snarky arguments of "Ivan Tribble" without even mentioning the pseudonymn of that obnoxious anti-blogger.

Farrell, an assistant prof at George Washington U, and one of the main menches behind the academic group blog Crooked Timber, has done a wonderful job of justifying the many useful, scholarly purposes of blogging.  His exact words are so compelling that I'll quote  quite a bit here.

"(T)o dismiss blogging as a bad idea altogether is to make an enormous mistake....(P)erhaps the majority see blogging as an extension of their academic personas. Their blogs allow them not only to express personal views but also to debate ideas, swap views about their disciplines, and connect to a wider public. For these academics, blogging isn't a hobby; it's an integral part of their scholarly identity. They may very well be the wave of the future."

Yeah! We're the wave of the future!

"Why are so many academics beginning to blog? Academic blogs offer the kind of intellectual excitement and engagement that attracted many scholars to the academic life in the first place, but which often get lost in the hustle to secure positions, grants, and disciplinary recognition.... As in the blogosphere more generally, there is a lot of dross. However, academic blogs also provide a carnival of ideas, a lively and exciting interchange of argument and debate that makes many scholarly conversations seem drab and desiccated in comparison. "

"What advantages does blogging offer over the more traditional forms of academic communication? Blogging sacrifices some depth of thought -- it's difficult to state a complex thesis in the average blogpost -- but provides in return a freedom and flexibility that normal academic publishing can't match. Consider the length of time it takes to publish an article in a peer-reviewed journal. In many disciplines, a period of years between first draft and final publication is normal. More years may elapse before other academics begin to publish articles or books responding to the initial article. In contrast, a blog post is published immediately after the blogger hits the "publish" button. Responses can be expected in hours, both from those who comment on the blog (if the blog allows them) and from other bloggers, who may take up an idea and respond to it, extend it, or criticize it. Others may respond to those bloggers in turn, leading to a snowballing conversation distributed across many blogs. In the conventional time frame of academe, such a conversation would take place over several years, if at all."

And who should be especially interested in the blogosphere?

"Academic blogs should be especially attractive to younger scholars, to whom they give an unparalleled opportunity to make their voices heard. Cross-blog conversations can turn the traditional hierarchies of the academy topsy-turvy. An interesting viewpoint expressed by an adjunct professor (or, even more shocking, an "independent scholar") will almost certainly receive more attention than ponderous stodge regurgitated by the holder of an endowed chair at an Ivy League university. Prominent academics who start blogging do have an initial advantage; they're more likely to attract early attention than people without established reputations. But if they want to keep readers and attract other bloggers' links over the medium term, they need to provide provocative and interesting content. Otherwise, they're likely to fall by the wayside."

"By the same token, less-well-known academics, and nonacademics with interesting things to say, have a real opportunity to speak to a wider public and to establish a reputation over time.... This openness can be discomfiting to those who are attached to established rankings and rituals -- but it also means that blogospheric conversations, when they're good, have a vigor and a liveliness that most academic discussion lacks."

And how does this allow us to impact a larger community?

"Most important, the scholarly blogosphere offers academics a place where they can reconnect with the public. The links between academic argument and wider public debates are increasingly tenuous and frayed. It's far harder than it used to be for academics to become public intellectuals (not that it was ever very easy, or very common). This has malign consequences, not only for the quality of debate on both sides of the divide, but also for public perceptions of the academy. It's also a source of considerable frustration to many academics, who either believe that their academic expertise could be valuable to a wider audience, or resent the distorted public perception of what they do. Blogging democratizes the function of public intellectual...."

"Some academics view them as an unbecoming occupation for junior (and senior) scholars... (they are) not exactly dignified; a little undisciplined; carnivalesque. Sometimes signal, sometimes noise. But exactly because of this, they provide a kind of space for the exuberant debate of ideas, for connecting scholarship to the outside world, which we haven't had for a long while. We should embrace them wholeheartedly."

When I emailed Henry Farrell to thank him for his eloquent contribution and to exult in his excellent put-down of Tribble tripe, he replied as follows:

          

"Glad you liked the piece - as you obviously guessed it was intended as an implicit rebuke to the Tribbles of this world."

Go Farrell!

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P.S.

I want to thanks my colleague and friend Gina Hiatt, Ph.D., another academic coach, for alerting me to this article.  Let me plug her services: she not only provides individual coaching to grad students and faculty, but has telephone coaching groups as well.  I highly recommend her services.

As I expected, the academogosphere is checking in...

Comments about Farrel's pro-blogging piece seen at Professional Lurker, 11 D, David Adesnik at Oxblog, Ross Scaife at the Stoa Consortium, Instapundit, Why Not Blog, Steven D. Krause, The Elfin Ethicist, John Holbo at The Valve, Cosmic Variance

(Do let me know about others, please. I'm sure there will be many.)

Why No "Quotation" Marks?

Help me out, all ye literary types and English profs.

Why do some authors decide to disregard punctuation norms?

I read David Guterson's novel "Our Lady of the Forest" with high hopes.  I loved "Snow Falling on the Cedars" but had chosen to skip Guterson's second novel because it was about a 73 year old widower with terminal cancer.  I don't know, the old-man-dying theme put me off a bit, even though I've enjoyed similar old men when described by masters like Wallace Stegner.  So, having passed up "East of the Mountains," I was pleased to find "Our Lady of the Forest" on the library shelf (and proud to be borrowing rather than buying a book for my nightly novel addiction.)  Young mushroom picker turned Madonna visionary. OK, I'll try it.

I liked "Our Lady..." -- but not nearly as much as "Snow Falling...".  I'll omit a review because there are some good ones on Amazon (good because I agree with them, of course.)

But... Guterson has chosen not to use quotation marks in this book.  There's no "he said," or "she said."  You have to keep track of who's saying what by keeping track of the context.  You have to figure out when characters are thinking and when they are talking.  And sometimes, just like IRL, the characters have thoughts while they're talking with other folks.

Don't get me wrong: Guterson pulls off this difficult task with aplomb.  You can figure out who is saying what to whom in 99% of the passages; even when more than 2 characters are conversing at once.  Wow.  Masterful.

But I found the omission of quotes quite irritating.   It.  Slowed.  Me. Down.  Sometimes I had to go back and reread a paragraph or two.  Sometimes it just slowed me down, well, because it slowed me down.  Much the way I get bogged down by the use of odd fonts.  (And I really hate odd fonts in children's picture books because there is no better way for a new reader to enjoy her new prowess than to go back and read a virtually-memorized old favorite. Grrrrrr.)

As an unreflective novel gobbler, while trying to gulp down "Our Lady...," I hated taking those extra seconds to figure out things that my brain usually processes automatically.  Plus, I was annoyed because I felt that somehow Guterson was inserting himself into the narrative -- "Hey, lookit me!" -- even though I suppose he might have intended the opposite.

Why would he have done this?  Why do authors choose to flout rules?  What good reason might Guterson have had for choosing this path?  I'd really like to find an adequate justification because I think he writes beautifully and I love being led into the Northwest -- a part of the country I've never visited. 

Maybe I'll see if David has a blog.  If so, I'll ask him myself.

(And in case you haven't noticed, punctuation, grammar and spelling are not my forte -- I always appreciate copyediting comments -- though for pride's sake I'd appreciate having my mistakes pointed out by email rather than via posts....)

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Update:  I love Google.  Check out this news article:  Guterson suffered massive writer's block after 9/11.  Somehow I find it comforting to know that even great writers struggle.  Plus, I never knew that he was a highschool English teacher when he published "Snow Falling on the Cedars."  I love that he was teaching adolescents, struggling to write after work (or maybe before work) and counted himself among the vast underpaid heros of this country (public school teachers.)  And then, he wrote a brilliant book and got Famous.  And Rich.  Just in time to put 4 kids through college.  Great story.  Plus, in "Our Lady..." he's writing about a young priest's masturbatory fantasies -- turns out Guterson is an agnostic, Jewish mensch.  Plus, you can go to this site, and if you live near Bainbridge Island, you can submit a manuscript to apply for Guterson's 8 student fiction writing workshop.  Now I really want to visit Washington State!  Like I said, I love Google.