Please Respond! Publish or Perish (Part II)

We have to publish our research. Particularly if we are junior scholars who just finished our PhD or are still working on our PhD, our publications often decide whether we have a chance to stay in academia—or if we have to leave. I talked about the difficulties to find the time and the material in …

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The Joys of Mansplaining

Thank you, dear men, for your endeavors to explain the world to me. Thank you, dear men, for explaining my research topics to me. Thank you, dear men, for approving of my decisions. I had no idea what I was doing for years before you came around and explained everything in one or two sentences! …

About Gardening: Publish or Perish

I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind …

Sexual Harassment In the Field: On Academic Assholes (Part II)

A few days ago, I talked about academic assholes and elaborated on supervisor assholes. Today, I want to talk about those saddening peer assholes. Everyone met them. Competitive, judging, arrogant, selfish, self-centered, self-involved (basically every word that begins with ‘self’), nonempathic. The list is endless. I started avoiding these people, but sometimes, you don’t have …

Stop Being Such Assholes

Before getting to my main argument, I want to highlight two things: The term ‘asshole,’ as I understand it, is gender-neutral. To make sure it is, I googled it and found this convincing post by redw6452. FYI: it’s quite difficult to google ‘asshole for women.’ Most hits explain how to be a perfect asshole to …

Youthful Enthusiasm vs. Reality Sets In

I started thinking about my (academic) future during my last one or two years of high school. Or, rather: I started seriously thinking about it, after I realized that 'I can not do anything I set my mind to.' I got a list with possible degree courses from my chosen university (by post! printed on …