In this episode, we discuss whether prestige matters in academia and how it shapes academic hierarchy. This topic is based on a paper published recently in Nature entitled “Quantifying hierarchy and dynamics in US faculty hiring and retention” authored by Daniel Larremorem et al, which presented an analysis based on a large dataset from US faculty census collected in the past 10 years. Reference list:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05222-x
• https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/02/university-hiring-if-you-didn-t-get-your-ph-d-at-an-elite-university-good-luck-finding-an-academic-job.html

Contact list: If you have any comments about our show or have suggestions for a future topic, please contact us at [email protected]. You can also find us on the webpage https://thisacademiclife.org and on Facebook group “This Academic Life”.Cast list:

• Prof. Kim Michelle Lewis (host) is a Professor of Physics and Associate Dean of Research, Graduate Programs, and Natural Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University.
• Prof. Pania Newell (host) is currently an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Utah.
• Prof. Lucy Zhang (host) is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

Editing team:

• Music by RuthAnn Schallert-Wygal ([email protected])
• Edited by Angella Chen
• Edited by Jared Duffy
• Artwork is created using Canva (canva.com)