Becoming an Academic: How to Get through Grad School and Beyond

Your survival guide for graduate school.

Welcome to the university, where the Academic Hunger Games, fueled by precarious employment conditions, is the new reality: a perpetual jostle for short-term contracts and the occasional plum job. But Inger Mewburn is here to tell you that life doesn't have to be so grim. A veteran of the university gig economy, Mewburn―aka The Thesis Whisperer―is perfectly placed to reflect on her experience and offer a wealth of practical strategies to survive and thrive.

In Becoming an Academic, Mewburn, who has spent over a decade helping PhD students succeed in graduate school, deftly navigates the world of the working academic. Offering tips and tricks for survival, she touches on everything from thesis and article writing and keeping motivation alive to time management, research strategies, mastering new technologies, applying for promotion, dealing with sexism in the workplace, polishing grant applications, and deciding what to wear to give a keynote address. These essays are funny, irreverent, and spot on; Mewburn peppers her writing with wit and wisdom that speaks to graduate students.

Constructive, inclusive, hands-on, and gloves-off, this book is a survival manual for aspiring and practicing academics, as well as for students who are considering whether to stay in academia. A field guide to living in the academic trenches without losing your mind (or your heart), Becoming an Academic confirms that―no matter what your experience is in academia―you are not alone.

Inger Mewburn is an associate professor and the director of research training at the Australian National University. She is the author of How to Tame Your PhD and the managing editor of the blog The Thesis Whisperer.