STEM-Oriented
Faculty-Development Workshops

The Academic Life

“The Academic Life” Faculty-Development Workshops are designed for those already in or seeking to enter STEM-oriented careers in academia. We use dramatizations followed by discussion to explore potential challenges to academic success that go beyond subject matter expertise and creativity. Topics to be covered include the tenure process, scientific publications, plagiarism, microaggressions, and the imposter syndrome.


A person entering a junior faculty position may find oneself poorly prepared to deal with these challenges, especially if one is a member of an underrepresented group and lacks access to effective mentoring. Each topic will be presented using a short presentation or dramatization followed by interactive discussion sessions, in which both presenters and workshop participants can share their stories and explore together the pathway to academic success.


Announcements

Our own Prof. Stephen Senturia is featured on the inaugural episode of IEEE Microsystems Boston Chapter's podcast "The Microzone". To learn more about his careeer and how these workshops started - Click here.

June 2, 2024, A Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop, Hilton Head South Carolina, from 1:30PM to 3:30PM.  https://www.hh2024.org/


Listen to the Podcast

“The Academic Life” workshops are featured on a series of six episodes of the podcast “This Academic Life,” www.thisacademiclife.org, starting with Episode 50, released March 15, 2023.

Listen to Episode 50 Here

Interested in learning more?

Presenters

Pamela Abshire
University of Maryland

Jennifer Blain Christen
Arizona State University

Nicole McFarlane
University of Tennessee

Maira Samary
Boston College

Stephen D. Senturia Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emeritus

We use dramatizations followed by discussion to explore critical issues that can confront budding academicians.

Topics addressed include promotion and tenure, publication strategies, power dynamics, microaggressions, and the impostor syndrome. 

An expanded description of the program may be found here.