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.

The 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' offers support and practical advice to doctoral students and early-career researchers. Covering the topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked, this indispensable series provides practical and realistic guidance to address many of the needs and challenges of trying to operate, and remain, in academia. These neat pocket guides fill specific and significant gaps in current literature. Each book offers insider perspectives on the often implicit rules of the game -- the things you need to know but usually aren't told by institutional postgraduate support, researcher development units, or supervisors -- and will address a practical topic that is key to career progression. They are essential reading for doctoral students, early-career researchers, supervisors, mentors, or anyone looking to launch or maintain their career in academia. The world of the academic researcher is changing; it used to be enough to work hard, do your research and get your results published. No so these days. Universities now expect researchers to share their work with the world, as widely as possible. 'Publish or perish' has been replaced by a new mantra, and the pressure is on. In this insightful book, Inger Mewburn and Simon Clews look at some of the most common presentation scenarios that researchers will face when talking about their work. Starting in academia with the deceptively simple art of writing a good email and working through lectures, conference presentations and lightning talks, the book then moves 'off campus' and explores talking to the media, making elevator pitches, and creating an effective digital presence on social media. Offering detailed looks at nineteen different presentation formats, Mewburn and Clews tap into their vast experience in the field to analyse the challenges and opportunities aligned with each case study and to map out the route to success. With a lightness of touch and an often humorous approach, Be Visible Or Vanish: Engage, Influence, and Ensure Your Research Has Impact will show you what it takes to achieve that holy grail of modern academia... impact. This text will be invaluable for students, academics and researchers hoping to effectively communicate complex information in a way that can be understood and appreciated by their peers, colleagues and the wider world.

Are you confused by the feedback you get from your academic teachers and mentors? This clear and accessible guide to decoding academic feedback will help you interpret what your lecturer or research supervisor is really trying to tell you about your writing-and show you how to fix it. It will help you master a range of techniques and strategies to take your writing to the next level and along the way you'll learn why academic text looks the way it does, and how to produce that 'authoritative scholarly voice' that everyone talks about. This book is an easy-to-use resource for postgraduate students and researchers in all disciplines, and even professional academics, to diagnose their writing issues and find ways to fix them. This book would also be a valuable text for academic writing courses and writing groups, such as those offered in doctoral and Master's by research degree programmes. 'Whether they have writing problems or not, every academic writer will want this handy compendium of effective strategies and sound explanations on their book shelf-it's a must-have.' Pat Thomson, Professor of Education, University of Nottingham, UK

The 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' offers support and practical advice to doctoral students and early-career researchers. Covering the topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked, this indispensable series provides practical and realistic guidance to address many of the needs and challenges of trying to operate, and remain, in academia. These neat pocket guides fill specific and significant gaps in current literature. Each book offers insider perspectives on the often implicit rules of the game -- the things you need to know but usually aren't told by institutional postgraduate support, researcher development units, or supervisors -- and will address a practical topic that is key to career progression. They are essential reading for doctoral students, early-career researchers, supervisors, mentors, or anyone looking to launch or maintain their career in academia. The world of the academic researcher is changing; it used to be enough to work hard, do your research and get your results published. No so these days. Universities now expect researchers to share their work with the world, as widely as possible. 'Publish or perish' has been replaced by a new mantra, and the pressure is on. In this insightful book, Inger Mewburn and Simon Clews look at some of the most common presentation scenarios that researchers will face when talking about their work. Starting in academia with the deceptively simple art of writing a good email and working through lectures, conference presentations and lightning talks, the book then moves 'off campus' and explores talking to the media, making elevator pitches, and creating an effective digital presence on social media. Offering detailed looks at nineteen different presentation formats, Mewburn and Clews tap into their vast experience in the field to analyse the challenges and opportunities aligned with each case study and to map out the route to success. With a lightness of touch and an often humorous approach, Be Visible Or Vanish: Engage, Influence, and Ensure Your Research Has Impact will show you what it takes to achieve that holy grail of modern academia... impact. This text will be invaluable for students, academics and researchers hoping to effectively communicate complex information in a way that can be understood and appreciated by their peers, colleagues and the wider world.

Each contributor to this book was given the remit: "If you could go back in time to talk with yourself when you began your studies, what advice would you give?" Hindsight is such a bonus, especially, when vying for your doctorate or postgraduate degree. Postgraduate Study in Australia: Surviving and Succeeding addresses this with advice from postgraduate students and recent graduates that will assure that you are not alone in your endeavors. This project follows similar editions that focus on Aotearoa/New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and is currently being replicated in Scandinavia. This down-to-earth anthology shares personal stories from postgraduate students and recent graduates, employing a practical approach and focusing on the context of postgraduate studies in Australia. This first-person approach to research about postgraduate study helps curate the current understanding, with critical reflections adding to our collective knowledge. Both prospective and current postgraduate students will find this collection insightful.

Each contributor to this book was given the remit: "If you could go back in time to talk with yourself when you began your studies, what advice would you give?" Hindsight is such a bonus, especially, when vying for your doctorate or postgraduate degree. Postgraduate Study in Australia: Surviving and Succeeding addresses this with advice from postgraduate students and recent graduates that will assure that you are not alone in your endeavors. This project follows similar editions that focus on Aotearoa/New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and is currently being replicated in Scandinavia. This down-to-earth anthology shares personal stories from postgraduate students and recent graduates, employing a practical approach and focusing on the context of postgraduate studies in Australia. This first-person approach to research about postgraduate study helps curate the current understanding, with critical reflections adding to our collective knowledge. Both prospective and current postgraduate students will find this collection insightful.

Academic work, like many other professional occupations, has increasingly become digitised. This book brings together leading scholars who examine the impacts, possibilities, politics and drawbacks of working in the contemporary university, using digital technologies. Contributors take a critical perspective in identifying the implications of digitisation for the future of higher education, academic publishing protocols and platforms and academic employment conditions, the ways in which academics engage in their everyday work and as public scholars and relationships with students and other academics. The book includes accounts of using digital media and technologies as part of academic practice across teaching, research administration and scholarship endeavours, as well as theoretical perspectives. The contributors span the spectrum of early to established career academics and are based in education, research administration, sociology, digital humanities, media and communication.

Academic work, like many other professional occupations, has increasingly become digitised. This book brings together leading scholars who examine the impacts, possibilities, politics and drawbacks of working in the contemporary university, using digital technologies. Contributors take a critical perspective in identifying the implications of digitisation for the future of higher education, academic publishing protocols and platforms and academic employment conditions, the ways in which academics engage in their everyday work and as public scholars and relationships with students and other academics. The book includes accounts of using digital media and technologies as part of academic practice across teaching, research administration and scholarship endeavours, as well as theoretical perspectives. The contributors span the spectrum of early to established career academics and are based in education, research administration, sociology, digital humanities, media and communication.