Softcover

ISBN 10: 0230100333 ISBN 13: 9780230100336

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

In a straightforward manner, Semenza identifies the obstacles along the path of the academic career and offers tangible advice. Fully revised and updated, this edition's new material on advising, electronic publishing, and the post-financial crisis humanities job market will help students negotiate the changing landscape of academia.

From the Author:

Five characteristics distinguish Graduate Study for the 21st Century. First, this is a book designed solely for graduate students who wish to become professors on the tenure track; it does not spend time on alternative career paths for terminal M.A.s or Ph.D.s. Second, the unique focus on building a professorial career means that this book dedicates a significant amount of attention to professional development issues, including publishing, attending conferences, and job searching. In a straightforward and non-condescending manner, it emphasizes how a smart and informed "streamlining" approach to graduate study and teaching can lead to both a meaningful (and relatively short) graduate career and the sort of professional accomplishments that will make you a standout on the job market. Third, Graduate Study for the 21st Century is the only guide that recognizes the specific needs of students in the humanities. It does not assume that the concerns of a history student (or professor) are the same as those of an individual specializing in chemistry or engineering. Fourth, this book deliberately counters the tendency of the aforementioned guides to present an image of graduate school as unrelated to and unaffected by the brutal realities of late 20th-century and 21st-century politics and corporate economics. One gets the impression from previous graduate school guides that academe is no different today from what it was fifty or seventy-five years ago. Finally, this book operates at a level of detail simply not found in any of the aforementioned works. Focusing in depth on such important practical matters as selecting the right seminars, making the most of exams, and constructing effective CV’s, teaching portfolios, and job applications, the emphasis of this book is very much on how to succeed in graduate school.

About the Author:

Gregory Colón Semenza is Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA. He is the author of Sport, Politics, and Literature in the English Renaissance and, with Laura L. Knoppers, Milton in Popular Culture . He has also published numerous essays on such popular culture topics as Tim Blake Nelson's 'O,' children's versions of Milton's Comus , and Shakespeare: The Animated Tales .