Syracuse University Gradcast

Many folks looking for academic jobs struggle to figure out the "two-body problem," in which both members of a couple are seeking academic jobs at more or less the same time. What do you do? How do you prioritize? How do you talk about this issue as a couple? I'm joined this week by Laura Coutts, Associate Director of Career Services in Biostatistics at Duke University to discuss this thorny issue--and, we hope, to offer some ideas as you pursue your academic career(s).

Leonard Cassuto, Professor of English at Fordham and author of Academic Writing As If Readers Matter. He is a leader in innovative graduate education, and his book is essential reading for all writers, whether for academic audiences or otherwise.

He is visiting Syracuse On Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st, giving two talks:

How to Go Public: Writing for People Outside Your Specialty

September 30, 2024 at 2:15pm – 3:30pm EDT

Bird Library, 114

Academic Writing: How to Do It Well and Why We Must

October 1, 2024 at 12:00pm – 1:45pm EDT

Schine Student Center, 304ABC

The Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O. International) is the most important funding agency for women that you've never heard of. P.E.O. supports women in all fields with two awards, one for U.S. citizens, and another, the International Peace Scholarship, for international students. This podcast, with P.E.O. representative Lisa Blystone, focuses on IPS and gives a sense of the organization generally.

Melissa Welshans, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA), walks us through the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Award, a generous and unusual award for early-stage doctoral students.

This award is meant to support early-stage doctoral students pursuing innovative approaches to dissertation research in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, and I asked Melissa to join me to talk about the award and what the funders are looking for.

Among other reasons for applying: the award is $42,000 base stipend for the fellowship year, plus up to $8,000 for project-related research, training, development, and travel costs! The award also provides a separate $2,000 stipend for external mentorship.

If you’re writing a dissertation, it’s likely you’re incorporating at least some material that is under copyright and thus requires permission to reproduce. In this episode, Dr. Dylan Mohr, Syracuse University’s Open Scholarship Librarian, discusses copyright issues that dissertation-writers are likely to encounter, including identifying, approaching, and perhaps negotiating with copyright holders; how the concepts of fair use and the public domain come into play; and reproducing your own previously published work in your dissertation. Dylan also considers the questions of whether to formally register copyright on your dissertation, whether to make your dissertation available on your institutional repository, and what resources exist to help you. Don’t let ignorance of your dissertation’s copyright context trip you up at the finish line!

I'm joined today by Maren Wood, PhD, CEO and Director of the Center for Graduate Career Success. A longtime friend of Syracuse University, Dr. Wood has created a platform, Beyond Graduate School dedicated to preparing Master's students for their careers after graduation, from career exploration, to networking, to resume prep, to closing the deal in an interview. Maren joins me today and tells us all about the platform. I hope you enjoy it and, more important, give Beyond Graduate School a try!

I recently sat down with my new collegue, Claire Perrott, PhD, Professional Development Postdoctoral Fellow in Syracuse's Office of Research, to learn about her transition from her doctoral program and from tenure track roles she held to higher education administration. Claire offered an honest, unsparing picture of her transition, and I think you'll learn a great deal from that perspective. If you are a postdoc (or will be one at Syracuse soon), you'll also be pleased to know that she is here to support you and to grow our efforts in the postdoctoral area. Listen in!

The founder and owner of the consultancy Data Dozen, Erin Waldron leverages her expertise in data analytics to help grad students, postdocs and faculty communicate their research with compelling visualizations. Erin discusses her career path, reviews the state of play with data visualization, and gives a preview of her two upcoming workshops, “Data Visualization 101: Visualizing Data with Tableau” (February 16, 2024) and “How to Communicate Effectively with Data” (February 23, 2024).

https://calendar.syracuse.edu/events/2024-feb-16/visualizing-data-with-tableau-109707/

https://calendar.syracuse.edu/events/2024-feb-23/how-to-communicate-effectively-with-data/

Ariel Ash-Shakoor, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineer at FDA in their Cardiovascular Devices division, sits down with me to talk transitions from her PhD program in Bioengineering to her role in the federal government. Along the way, Ariel shares about her experience in building community at Syracuse University, making hard decisions in choosing the right job for her, and succeeding in her demanding role.

Nneka Eke, PhD, a graduate of Syracuse's Political Science department and a current Research Associate at SEIU Local 721, joins us to discuss her career exploration journey. From a graduate to doing great work outside of academic, Nneka's experience is instructive for us all.