Doodling for Academics: A Coloring and Activity Book (Chicago Guides to Academic Life) - Softcover

Schumacher, Julie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022646704X ISBN 13: 9780226467047

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2017

Synopsis

To an outsider, working as a university professor might seem like a dream: summers off, a few hours of class each week, an exchange of ideas with brilliant colleagues, books and late afternoon lattes. . . . Who wouldn’t envy that life?
 
But those in the trenches of academe are well acquainted with the professoriate’s dark underside: the hierarchies and pseudo-political power plays, the peculiar colleagues, the over-parented students, the stacks of essays that need to be graded ASAP.
 
No one understands this world better than novelist Julie Schumacher, who here provides a bitingly funny distraction designed to help you survive life in higher education without losing your mind. Sardonic yet shrewdly insightful, Doodling for Academics offers the perfect cognitive relief for the thousands of faculty and grad students whose mentors and loved ones failed to steer them toward more reasonable or lucrative fields.
 
Through forty pages of original illustrations and activities—from coloring to paper dolls to mad libs—this book traces the arc of a typical day on campus. Get a peek inside the enigma of the student brain. Imagine a utopian faculty meeting. Navigate the red tape maze of university administration. With the help of hilarious illustrations by Lauren Nassef, Schumacher infuses the world of campus greens and university quads with cutting wit, immersing you deep into the weirdly creative challenges of university life. Offering a satirical interactive experience for scholars, the combination of humor and activities in this book will bring academia into entertaining relief, making it the perfect gift for your colleagues, advisors, or newly minted graduates.

About this title

About the Author:

Julie Schumacher is professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of the best-selling Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Lauren Nassef is a freelance illustrator and artist living in Chicago.

Review:

"Schumacher is not your typical writer when it comes to depicting (and poking fun at) academic life." (Inside Higher Ed)

"Provides a satirical take on the grim reality for today’s scholars, from the lack of funding for arts and humanities to the burden of administrative red tape." (Times Higher Education)

"Better than a massage! Better than acupuncture! Better than a double whiskey on the rocks! It’s university satire, but you don’t have to teach to get the jokes. Even the copyright page is funny." (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

"Presents a satirical, academic approach to the world of coloring....a break from the grind of daily life." (Minnesota Daily)

“The wonderfully weird illustrations in Doodling for Academics brilliantly capture the bizarre highs and arcane lows of academic life. Full of fun activities to pass the time at staff meetings, this book will be a quirky addition to any academic office.” (Glen Wright, creator of Academia Obscura)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 022646704X
• ISBN 13: 9780226467047
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 87
• Illustrator: Nassef Lauren