From Where You Stand: Stories of Academia

people-307088_640From the day I launched The New Academic in 2012 to the moment I’m writing this post, my website has had 120,000+ visitors, and its number of monthly visitors has reached almost 7,000. It’s not much by some people’s standards, but it’s a whole lot more than I ever thought it would be. Its content has been shaped by 67 guest bloggers, ranging from doctoral students to early-career researchers, senior lecturers, and professors. They have shared stories that range from inspiring and heartwarming to devastating and dispiriting. Their posts reflect on the best and the worst aspects of academia, and of those that lie somewhere between the two.

What all their contributions have in common is that they believe in and actively support the aim that lies at the heart of The New Academic: to openly discuss and share our experiences in academia and the conditions which shape them.

To keep these debates alive and to broadcast a body of voices as diverse as possible, I want to call on you to contribute your stories of academia. They may be stories of celebration. They may be cutting critiques. They may explore your very own experiences, or reflect on wider tendencies and developments in the profession. They may concentrate on teaching, research, job hunting, mental health, funding, working conditions, discrimination, or any other aspect of academia, from the good to the bad, and the ugly. They may highlight the shared plight of workers inside and outside the academy. They may have your name stamped allover them, or be entirely anonymous. In short, share your views on what academia looks like from where you stand.

contact-us1If you would like to contribute to The New Academic with a post, please email me your piece of up to ca. 1,000 words via admin@nadinemuller.org.uk. If you would like your name to be attached to your post, please also send a photo and a biographical note. There are no deadlines. Your post will be reviewed and lightly edited for style and errors by me, and you post will not go live until you have approved the final version. If you are unsure whether your idea or story fits the bill, or if you have any other questions about contributing, do get in touch via email.

As always, without your contributions this site wouldn’t be what it is, and I doubt I would have found the motivation to continue this project without your messages of encouragement. Thanks for reading, writing, and sharing!