I am grateful to dean Shaila Mehra in the College of Liberal Arts and the Grad School at V-Tech for inviting me to lead programs to illuminate the profound links between PhD career versatility and wider efforts to foster equity and inclusion. The consensus from Higher Ed Careers Beyond the Professoriate (linked here) is clear: when we promote one-size-fits-all professional development in academe, we fail to see the existing diversity of vocational aspirations and fail to own the math: only a quarter of the faculty nationally is in the shrunken tenure system and only a quarter of entering doctoral cohorts will land a faculty role. Let’s talk about supporting diverse people on diverse pathways, since defining success broadly brings positive returns to both individuals and institutions. Learn more about all five programs at this link: curated for graduate/department administrators, DEI practitioners, graduate students (all), those from historically marginalized groups, and women of color faculty. As HECBP contributor Alyssa Canelli wrote in her marvelous essay “Contingencies and Possibilities,” ignorance and shame fester in the silent dark: let’s throw open the windows and let in air and light to see myriad pathways! If you have connections at V-Tech, make sure they know these fruitful gatherings are coming up!
NEW BOOK! Higher Education Careers Beyond the Professoriate (Purdue UP 2024)
Whether you are a graduate student, faculty member, mentor or higher education leader, you MUST avail yourself of the powerful collective insights amassed in this rich volume of 19 essays by 23 contributors representing diverse disciplines, institutions, identities and roles in higher education. Together they reveal that supporting PhD career versatility is a crucial means of affirming equity and inclusion: current hierarchies of value and a one-size-fits-all model of professionalization is both unrealistic in today’s disruptive economies and exclusionary, while transparent encouragement of diverse vocational desires fosters belonging in academe. No matter how familiar you are with the current state of doctoral education and/or academic careers, the creative, critically reflective and actionable insights in HECBP will provide fresh insights to help you chart new ways forward and/or help others do the same. Access the collection at the Purdue UP website, browse enthusiastic reviews and read more about its illuminating contents in this Q and A with the co-editors.
COMING 2025! PHreeD: A Guide For Academics Who Want to Get a Life
In the 1970s three quarters of the professoriate were in the tenure system, expecting lifelong employment. Today those proportions are inverted: the faculty majority is contingent and only a quarter of today’s doctoral student cohort will end up on the faculty. With the crises in higher education as a microcosm of diminishing returns of patriarchal racial capitalism, even tenure system faculty now wonder, How can I survive as an academic? and Is there something better out there for me? For anyone at a crossroads, here comes the first comprehensive guide to support creative and holistic exploration across sectors. Karen Cardozo will show you how to reclaim your own inherent authority through authentic and brave career design (ABCD), the most fitting and flexible process amidst disruptive change. Now is the time to be PHreeD: to trust your own instincts and get a life! With ABCD, you don’t have to choose “a” career or decide up front whether To Ac or Not to Ac? You just need take your best NEXT step with integrity. A series of authentic steps leads to meaningful work in a fulfilling life. Stay tuned for updates on the book's release!
ADVANCE PRAISE for PHreeD
I am so excited that Karen is writing this book! It really resonates as something that would appeal to academics at all stages of their careers who are searching for something more than what they've seen as the available options. Karen's is a much-needed voice in the academy, helping individuals to trust themselves rather than outside structures and "experts" alone. Her approach begins by challenging dominant ways of thinking about the PhD job search and career options. I love the idea of "careering" as a dynamic process, not an outcome. But Karen doesn't stop with the big ideas, transformative as they are: she also provides a unique blend of practical strategies. My husband (who works in the finance arena) and I know first hand from working with her that the combination works wonders, inside and out.
--Deborah Shine Valentine, PhD, Founder, Thriving4Equity and former Exec. Director of Early Care and Education at UCLA
Academic Labor: Who Cares?
One of the reasons I have steady work as a PhD career and life coach is that the turn to casualization in academic labor has left many in need of alternative, better paid, and more stable work. In addition, career advancement for women and women of color in higher ed is also disproportionately impacted by the emphasis on research productivity - which is hardly supported when one is in a contingent teaching position or mired in service engagements while on the tenure track. I brought together issues related to contingency, diversity and care work in the first article to explicitly frame higher ed teaching and service AS caring labor. That article drew many eyeballs around the globe during the pandemic as the burden of “who cares” became painfully apparent when schools, childcare centers and geriatric care services were closed, yet academics were still expected to be productive at work while privately having to meet significant care gaps. Here are just a few resources on this timely and voluminous topic (with embedded links):
Karen Cardozo, “Academic Labor: Who Cares?” (2017)
Ginny Boss, Christa Porter, Tiffany Davis and Candace Moore, “Who Cares? (Re)Visioning Justice for Black Women Contingent Faculty” (2021)
Leslie Gonzalez and Kimberly Griffin, “Supporting Faculty During and After the COVID-19 pandemic: Don’t Let Go of Equity” (2020)
Seth Kahn and Amy Lynch-Biniek, “From Activism to Organizing, From Caring to Carework” (2022)