By Jennifer Polk. My friend Lisa Munro, a fellow history PhD who works as an academic editor and writing consultant, cut right to the chase in a recent blog post. “Sticking to a writing schedule is difficult because it requires me to prioritize myself,” she wrote. More...

By Melonie Fullick. Recently on Twitter and Facebook I’ve seen more articles on taking care of ourselves and the practice of “self-care” in academe, which makes a lot of sense at a time of year when (in the Northern hemisphere) the combination of colder weather, anxiety and exhaustion at the end of the semester—and the potential added stress of the holiday season—means that many academics and students are feeling worn out and in need of a break. More...

By Brent Davis. Poor souls – if a legal issue arises on campus, chances are it will find its way to a chair’s desk. More...

By Jonathan Thon. There are problems with academic science. We all know this to be true. After roughly eight years of maintaining The Black Hole blog, and three decades having experienced academic science from the ground up — as curious kids, volunteers, undergraduates and then graduate science students, postdoctoral fellows, instructors, professors, thought leaders and mentors — Dave and I have accumulated a comprehensive list of changes the system desperately needs. More...

By David Kent. Last week, a series of articles came out in Nature that highlighted the need for urgent change in PhD education. This is not a new call, but in one of the articles, Julia Gould does an excellent job of drawing attention to some serious efforts that are underway to both understand and address the problem. More...

By Jessica Riddell. The following is an email exchange I had with one of my students who was profiling community members for a weekly column in the local newspaper. At the time, I was seven months pregnant with my first child. More...