Being the scholar you want to be

Following a link from Twitter the other day (sorry, I forget who sent me here) I found this fantastic blog post on the Scientific American Site:

The three things I learned at the Purdue Conference for Pre-Tenure Women: on being a radical scholar | Context and Variation, Scientific American Blog Network.

This resonates strongly with my own views about managing your academic career.

I highly recommend you read it but here are the highlights. The 3 things are

1. Bring your whole self
2. Have a plan
3. Be a radical

That means that you don’t have to pretend to be someone you are not. You can find a way to be the academic you want to be and be a parent, for example.

The key is to articulate (initially to yourself) what kind of academic you want to be. Then figure out how to be the best one of those you can be.

Go read the article.

And if you want help figuring out what this means for you, let me know.