Claim OwnershipThe Contingent Professor | Tenure? They still do that? | News, Commentary, and Interviews for PhDs Trying the Professor Life
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© Daniel M Martinez
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The Contingent Professor | Tenure? They still do that? Join Contingent Nation as we take you into the bizarre reality of surviving and thriving in 21st century academia, where tenure and tenure-track positions are being "re-evaluated." Designed for new and mid-career faculty - heck, all faculty - looking to break free of the Adjunct title or navigate the tenure/promotion/re-appointment process, which includes research, teaching, advising, service, working with colleagues, and dealing with administrators that have their own agendas. Contingent Prof Daniel and his Department Chair Rob provide news, commentary, and interviews with academics trying to live the Professor Life. (Yes, even highly educated people make poor choices.)
43 Episodes
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Perfect Enemies: Rob and Daniel catch up after another long hiatus. Points on perfection, online fatigue, and Daniel's ever growing hair.
Cov-Ed. Daniel and Rob talk (remotely) for the first time since lockdown. Listen to them catch up, talk covid, and discuss issues related to teaching and community in the bizarre year of 2020.
Empty Halls. Daniel and Rob sit down to talk about the trend of working outside the office during "business hours" to get things done, and what it means to university culture. (Standard disclaimers)
Daniel and Rob do some overdue venting as a new academic year moves along. From getting to do a faculty search to isolating 5 student classroom types. A little catharsis goes a long way. (Standard disclaimers)
Just a blurb. Daniel and Rob try to make a blurb for another podcast and fall into an episode ranging from past lab experiences, to debriefing another end of semester, to new attempts at online programs. Needless to say, the blurb didn't pan out. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)
Bleeping New Material. Daniel and Rob with a new SD card and an almost end of semester podcast. When do you stop introducing new material in class? And what's the point of academic publishing? (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)
Copywrite Error. Bonus Episode. Daniel starts ranting and Rob grabs the microphones for a shortened episode about figure captions and attribution in books. Daniel notices a "write error" on the recorder and tries to save the episode. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)
Spring Break. Daniel and Rob finally have some time right before spring break to chat up on what's been happening during the semester. Daniel talks about what it's like to teach a no-prerequisite quantitative reasoning course, while Rob is keen to speak on the college admission scandal. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)
Listen to my podcast. Daniel and Rob squeeze one last podcast into the year. In this episode they talk about the many roles of the professor, student evals, with a quick Q&A from student X or Y, and Rob's welcome message to new faculty--which involves telling them to listen to the podcast. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)
Pop-up podcast. Rob makes Daniel make a podcast. In this episode they talk about pop-up courses and a controversial one that caused a slight national stir. What place do these have in different fields and do contingents dare run them? (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)
Attention span and other things. Daniel and Rob make another podcast! This time about the attention span myth (TED talks? Blah) and a little bit about how your brain processes information. Plus, Rob gets distracted by his phone. (Standard disclaimers. Especially the part about our views and our employers' views. Not necessarily the same.)
Daniel and Rob find some time before the semester to podcast about winding up a new academic year. Standard disclaimers.
Daniel and Rob dust off the mics to wind down another semester. (Standard disclaimers.)
Daniel and Rob catch up as the semester starts and work through some rust to talk about the student as consumer model. (Standard disclaimers.)
Daniel and Rob start a new season talking about the end of another semester and trials and tribulations of trying to get a new class enrolled. The big theme for this episode is the role of math testing in determining class placement and why it matters to departments outside of mathematics. They end with a small preview of the upcoming season. (Standard disclaimers.)
Rob takes over the show and talks about Russia every chance he gets. Daniel tries to refocus on more academic topics, like promotion, more student engagement, and potential teaching activities. With only moderate success. Standard Disclaimer Applies.
Daniel and Rob come together for an in-between season podcast to catch up. Keeping the riff to about an hour this time, Daniel and Rob talk about what it takes to write a book, what you can try to negotiate if you are lucky enough to secure a tenure-track contract, and briefly about the BLS and what we can tell our students about employment potential based on current hiring stats. Standard disclaimer (eg. opinions our own, meant to entertain).
Daniel and Rob sit down to talk about controversial and taboo topics faced in the workplace and in the classroom by adjuncts, non TTs, and TTs. They spend a good chunk of time talking about an adjunct account and the learning style myth, ending with a top 10 of topics to consider. (Standard disclaimers apply.)
Daniel and Rob, stemming from a not so great student evaluation, discuss the state of etiquette in the classroom and (perhaps) the need for more detailed and explicit guidelines for how students should expect to behave in the class and out. Everything is laid out, from salutations, to email form, to the employer's desire for better soft skills from recent graduates. (Standard disclaimers apply.)
Daniel and Rob start out the summer break with a discussion on how to plot out trajectories for research and teaching and the implications for those on and off the tenure track. After the regular back forth on the topic, they finish off with a little bit on tenure myths. (Standard disclaimers apply.)
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