Thriving in an Academic Career

This book provides an invaluable guide on how to achieve a successful and fulfilling academic career. Academics must balance multiple roles and responsibilities, between teaching, research, and offering services to the department, university, and broader community. This book provides practical, research-based guidance on how to adopt a healthy and balanced perspective that accounts for these interconnections.

Research shows that faculty who achieve early balance in their academic responsibilities and home life are more likely to succeed in all aspects of their career, while strengthening the quality and climate of their programs and campuses. This book’s chapters accordingly feature case studies and examples that dig deeper into strategies and principles of holistic and balanced career practice and planning. This book assists readers in understanding the relationships between their individual talents as teachers and scholars; the obligations of their department as a community nested with others contributing to the university mission; and the role and responsibility of their university and discipline in the wider society. The themes of balance and harmony underpin this book’s approach to faculty development.

Thriving in an Academic Career is for anyone beginning their academic career in geography and related social and environmental sciences, at all types of higher education institutions. This book will be of particular interest to graduate students and early career faculty in geography and nearby social, environmental, and natural sciences.

Michael Solem is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University.

Kenneth Foote is a Professor of Geography, Sustainability, Community and Urban Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Shannon O’Lear is a Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas.

LaToya E. Eaves is an Associate Professor of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Jongwon Lee is a Professor of Social Studies Education at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.