Academic Woman Amplified

I’m joined on this episode by Dr. Anatu Mahama, founder and editor-in-chief of The Academic Woman magazine. She shares her journey through academia as an ambitious and determined woman, always looking for ways to increase her knowledge and increase her reach. She launched The Academic Woman magazine about a year ago to share stories of women who are contributing to the world and not always being seen. Her vision is to create a community of like-minded women who inspire one another, share knowledge, and bring their varied knowledge and experiences to bear on the issues they all face.  Key points discussed: Growing up in Ghana as a chatty, ambitious little girl who loved to read, and going on to study publishing, information and knowledge management  Working at an NGO in the water and sanitation sector, and utilizing her knowledge management skills on each project. Getting pregnant, moving to a more forgiving schedule, lecturing, and going for a PhD with 2 small children  Realizing there were many women doin

The bros and dudes--you know, the archetype that academia was built for? Here are 5 things about academia they don’t want you to know. When I talk about bros and dudes, I’m hoping you got a little giggle, but I also hope you understand who I mean. This is the stereotypical model professor that the academic system was built for and based on. This is the reason that academia needs to change. So I’m sharing 5 things they don’t want you to know, so you can shift your mindset, choose your own path, and design a career you love. 1. There is more than one way to be successful. You don’t have to accept the ‘traditional’ path to success that the patriarchal, racist, ableist system has laid out. You get to define what success means to you, and then design your career to take your own path in getting there. The way we go about this in my programs is through putting your writing at the center.   “There are multiple paths to success, and you get to choose the one that you take.”   2. You have more power to change your car

Did you know writing can serve as a tool to help you organize your whole career? If you need a way to organize your thoughts, your time, and your career, it all starts with writing!   Writing is so much more than “currency” in academia. Writing and publishing does help you get, keep and develop your career, but it has lots of other benefits too. One of the ways writing helps you as an academic is by acting as an “organizer” in three main areas.    Writing Is An Organizer For Your Thoughts I’ve created a lot of content over the years as an academic writing coach. Before that I wrote and published academic articles as a tenured, full professor. And yet, the long form writing I’m doing for my book has taught me so much about my own best practices, and helped me clarify my thoughts and ideas around this topic I’ve been working on for years!    A poem by Antonio Machado puts it beautifully: “...wanderer, there is no road. The road is made by walking.” And through the process of writing we discover and develop our

Do you feel anxious and overwhelmed in your life as an academic? Are you on the tenure track but feel stuck or like something is wrong but you can’t put your finger on it? My guest on this episode is Dr. Danielle De La Mare, academic life coach and podcaster, and she has been there and back. She is sharing about her journey from cancer diagnosis and the clarity that gave her, her life pre and post tenure, and how she got to where she is now.    Key points discussed: Danielle’s cancer diagnosis and the clarity it gave her in realizing what she truly needed in life. [2:30] Anxiety, overwork, and never feeling good enough. [6:00] Being a HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) on the tenure track [9:30] Realizing she wanted to coach and feeling like a “coach posing as a professor”. [15:30] What coaching means, and how Danielle got there. [22:00] Danielle’s coaching focus and bringing out your inner wisdom [24:00] Danielle’s podcast and having more self-compassion [35:00] Key Quotes: “I was not living the life I wanted

Are you clear on what your own unique writing process is? Have you ever gathered data on your own practices? I’ve learned a lot during the process of drafting my book.   I shared a little bit about my journey of writing a book on a previous episode. I’m bringing you up to date on my progress, and continuing to share the insights and takeaways I’ve gained through the process, including pivoting my strategy, and a couple of ah-ha moments.   Changing Strategy & Finding a Press When I last checked in on my process, I was still navigating rejections and trying to decide if continuing to pursue academic presses for publication was the best course. Based on some of the very nice rejection feedback I got and some advice from the group I participate in, I decided to pursue independent presses. That slight change in direction produced results, and I’m happy to announce my book will be published by Morgan James Press!   Pinning Down Structure & Tackling Fear My big fear about writing a book, as I’ve mentioned in

What is a writing sprint, and how can it help you move an article from almost done to out the door and submitted? In this episode, I’m chatting with my two coaches, Gina Robinson and Rocío Caballero-Gill, all about writing sprints. We also share about my Writing Sprint Blueprint tool, which will help you move your article out the door in the next 2 weeks. As you near the end of the semester, each coach has some advice for you as you manage this moment and look forward to the summer!   Key Points Discussed: What is a writing sprint is, how to do it, and the value of a community moving towards the same goal [4:15] The logistics of a sprint, the commitment, and the community aspect [5:35] The reason writing sprints work and what not to do [9:35] Stories of client wins, and how they used the sprint to achieve their goals [13:15] The Momentum program, and what happens in a co-writing session [19:15] Mindset for academics and why it's important for implementing changes [22:00] Advice about this particular moment i

If you’ve been on the fence about joining this cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap, you’ll want to listen closely to these experiences from two real-life Navigate alums.   Enrollment is open for just a few more days for the Radical Change Cohort of my Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap program. To help you decide if the program is right for you, I’m interviewing two past participants to find out how Navigate impacted their careers and made a difference in their academic lives.    Participant #1: Nicole Why did she join? Nicole was in her first year of a tenure track position when she joined Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap. She found balancing all the demands of a heavy teaching load while keeping her research and writing robust was a big challenge, and she wanted some support.   What part of the program was most impactful for her? Going through the exercise of breaking down her time and collecting the data of where the time went each day empowered her to advocate for herself with her department, say no when s

What do I mean by radical change, and how does it happen? I am sharing 10 systems for enacting radical change for your writing, your career, and academic culture as a whole.     Womxn prioritizing their chosen career activities, their own needs and their own writing practices over the demands of others is radical. I’ve talked about the radical change and what it can mean for us as individuals and as a community on the last few episodes of the podcast. On this episode I’m sharing the 10 systems you need in place to help you accomplish those changes.    #1: Mission Method To enact change, you need to be able to set intentions, and use tools and strategies to follow through on them. The first system you need helps you get clear on your mission in order to set those intentions.   Think purposefully about what you want out of your writing and your career. Draft an academic mission statement that will guide you in keeping the things that are most important at the center of your career. This statement will change ov

Is your career 90% awesome? Do you spend most of your time doing things that are important for your scholarly work? I can show you how to get there. In my last episode I talked about what radical change in academia looks like. The outcome of that radical change is that we build careers that are 90% awesome. Careers in which we do things we love 90% of the time.  When you first wanted to become an academic, you got into it for the act of creation, the making of knowledge that had the potential to change the world. But what happened to this aspiration when it came in contact with reality?  Our ruthless academic culture--the one that exploits contingent faculty and graduate students, squeezes tenure-track faculty into more and more teaching and service, and more and more unpaid admin, and more and more minutiae--has led you to believe something I’m not ok with.  It led you to believe that you have to suffer to do the scholarly work. I’m here today to tell you the most important message you need to experience rad

Why do we struggle to find  time to write while the academic establishment requires publications in order to maintain or advance our careers? It’s time for radical change.   Designing your career with intention is a radical idea. Securing your writing at the center of your career is a radical idea. And friends, radical change is what we need in academia! It’s time to move away from the scarcity mindset we’ve been socialized into, and start making decisions from a place of intention instead of a place of fear. To do that, we need to see what needs to change (radically) and then step into our power to make that change. Let’s go! Scarcity vs. Intention We are led to believe that there is never enough in academia. And that we are ‘on’ 24/7. Right off the bat in grad school, there is no time that is off limits. We are urged to find our own funding and told there is no money for anything. This scarcity mindset continues as we move through our careers. The way it manifests:   Never saying no. Any project that might

Do you set intentions for your career and have the skills to follow through with them? I’m sharing a little bit about my own story to shed some light on the difference between control and intention.   I have a pretty long history with trying to control things. I did my undergrad, with 2 minors, in 3 years. I white-knuckled my way to graduation and I did it through carefully strategizing my next steps, leveraging one course into the next, meticulously placing summer sessions in the mix.    What my undergrad experience taught me was that I could do that. I could strategize and control my way to making an outcome occur. And I would do that over and over again throughout my career.  This was an invaluable lesson. The choices I make and strategies I employ for my career trajectory don’t involve white-knuckled control anymore, but they do involve intention.   When I created Navigate, I had been strategically steering my career for almost 20 years.  Creating Navigate In Spring of 2017 I launched the first cohort of

Does writing keep falling to the bottom of your list? Do you think you need accountability to hold you to your goals? I want to show you why you need community instead.   Accountability, or the idea that you need an external person to “hold you” to your goals, is rooted in patriarchy. Entrenched social structures in the culture of academia have given rise to womxn who are not trusted to hold themselves to their own standards and who perhaps do not trust themselves.    A lot of womxn who come to my writing programs are looking for accountability at first, and I get it. But I challenge you to explore new ways to get writing done that aren’t sending a message to yourself that you are weak, can’t hold time for yourself and are not to be trusted with your own work. So what else can we do? We can feminize the concept of accountability in 3 ways. 1. Practice Self-Trust Self-trust is a muscle you strengthen by using it. Practice listening to and relying on your inner voice to know what is right for you alone. Give yo

The solitary nature of writing can perpetuate the image of the “typical” professor, a lone (male) figure, doing it all alone. But writing together, as womxn, is a radical act! The image of a typical professor is usually as a lone (male) intellectual, head down, wrestling the big ideas of academia all on his own. And academia perpetuates this vision. We are socialized to be toxically self-reliant. Not a lot of value is placed on asking for help, sharing your wisdom with a community, or making sure the voices of others are heard. There’s an unspoken implication that if you aren’t “smart enough” to figure it out on your own, maybe you shouldn’t be here.   Writing itself can encourage the ‘lone wolf’ academic ideal. After all, it’s your brain, your ideas, and the blank page. Even if you’re co-writing a piece,  it’s usually a back and forth kind of collaboration, not an in-person activity. And sometimes all this solitariness can make it difficult to keep dates you set with your writing. So my team and I decided to

Have you ever struggled with where to publish your interdisciplinary qualitative work? Have you received feedback questioning the rigor of your research or your ability to express it? My guest on this episode is Maira Quintanilha, creator of Qualitative Research Blueprint. Whatever your struggles, questions, or curiosities about qualitative research, Maira has got you covered. She shares her own qualitative research journey, what prompted her to create Qualitative Research Blueprint, and why she thinks this kind of research is especially important.  Key points discussed: Maira’s journey with qualitative research: from having it assigned to her as a grad student, to flourishing with an excellent mentor in her PhD program [3:00] Learning by doing [5:00] First attempts at publication, and how feedback shaped her work [9:30] Submitting work that might not be perfect in order to be open to new perspectives [11:30] Embracing discomfort in the review process in order to learn and move forward [14:00] The importan

Has your qualitative research article been rejected or given a painful revise-and-resubmit? Here are the 5 things you should do next.   What should you do when your article gets rejected, or you’re given a painful revise-and-resubmit? I’m talking specifically about qualitative research here, but the basic principles can be applied for all kinds of research and writing. In episode 9 I lay out the step by step plan I use to process and respond to feedback and writing criticism, so check that out if you haven’t yet.  5 Things to Do After Receiving a Rejection or Revise and Resubmit for Your Qualitative Article   #1: Think About Fit Some journals might seem like a good fit by topic, but you’ll want to delve a little deeper. Who is on the board and what kind of work have they published? What kinds of things has the journal been publishing in the last 2-5 years? Can you tell if the journal has an aversion to qualitative research in general?    #2: Analyze Feedback What is the feedback really saying? Is it trying to

Are you comparing where you are in your scholarly journey to where others are? Do you feel like your career isn’t progressing the way you thought it would? I’m sharing part of my story that I hope will inspire you.   If you’ve ever felt like you just can’t get the hang of this writing and publishing thing, this episode is for you. I’m sharing a little bit about my (very long) qualitative research publishing journey to show you that developing as a scholar and as a writer is an ongoing process. I encourage you to see your own journey as a process of growth, and to think twice before you compare where you are on that journey to someone else.    My Journey Begins I was a very lucky PhD candidate. I had a wonderful experience. I worked with talented and supportive advisors, I loved my research, and I was even awarded a grant to complete my dissertation.    So as I got ready to submit for my first published work after receiving my Phd, I was feeling pretty confident. I pulled a chapter from my dissertation and got

The calendar changing from 2020 to 2021 isn’t what will make this year different. What will make this year different is YOU. 2020 is over! But sadly, there has not been much change in the world in 2021. Circumstances and world events are actually not that different...mutating strains of the virus, insurrection at the US capital...things are definitely still feeling rather "2020-ish" in 2021. So what is going to make a difference in 2021? You are. We just finished a virtual “mini-treat” that we put on for our Navigate program enrollees, and I felt so inspired by the energy and transformations that were happening there. The experience really drove home the idea that you will be the driving force for a different 2021...how you show up, how you view your own career, how you move forward.  Here are some of the ways our Phoenix Cohort in the Navigate program illustrated this idea:   Making Choices for Their Writing Practice Many of our participants shared their pride and surprise at being able to clear the decks to

When writing is at the center of our careers, it’s powerful. Here are 5 clues that you might not be putting the priority on writing that you think you are.   We’ve talked many times about the importance of centering your writing to help build your best career. And you might want to do that… but are you really? Here are 5 clues that point to writing being on the sidelines in your life and career.   Clue #1: You are doing your writing early in the morning, late at night, or on the weekends. There are a couple of caveats to this. If your soar state happens to be early in the morning, and you happen to be one of those lucky people whose children don’t wake up at 4:30am, then by all means, write early! Whenever your most focused and energetic times are, you should be using them for writing.    But, if you’re pushing your writing outside of your working hours because you don’t have time during the day, you’re telling yourself: writing isn’t the work, it’s something extra. But it is the most important work! So it sh

I’m diving into the idea of “publications as currency” to both debunk the idea and show you how you can make it work for you and your academic mission. If you’re in academia, you’ve probably heard the idea that publications are currency. And that’s true...but what does it really mean for us as womxn academics operating in systems that are not built for us? Publications add value to the world, represent our work, and give us something tangible to take forward with us. But it’s time to reframe the “currency” idea.   I want to show you how you can use your writing as the currency to get you where you want to go in your career, rather than as a proscribed idea of what you have to publish where to “pay” your way forward. Some of the ideas I’m going to put forward might seem scary, but I think they are vital to our individual satisfaction in our careers, and to the collective work we’re doing to change norms in academia. Publications Are Part of Your Creation What is currency? Something that has value no matter whe

You know you need to schedule time to write, but keeping those dates is the key to creating a successful writing habit. I’ll show you how.   We’ve probably all heard the writing advice to “make a date with your writing”, get it scheduled and on your calendar. This is great advice...as long as you keep those dates and actually get the writing done! If you consistently blow off your writing times, or find yourself filling them with other tasks, this episode is for you.    I’m helping you find ways to keep those writing dates, strengthen and flex your boundary-setting muscles, and build a writing habit that works.   Be Consistent In order to help yourself stay committed, be consistent. Be sure to put your writing times on your calendar for the same times every week. As always, I don’t recommend trying to write every day, but pick your once or twice a week and make it consistent.   “Go for consistency and start super small.”   Start Small To help yourself hold that time and use it for writing, make sure your cons