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What does it mean to build a career in today's academy?
Drawing on the reflections of academics from universities across Canada, this volume brings together personal and critical perspectives on life in the contemporary higher education. Contributors explore the opportunities, challenges, and transformations that shape academic careers, from balancing research, teaching, and service to exercising leadership and navigating institutional change.
Many of the contributors first shared their experiences in earlier books in this series. Here, they revisit their journeys, tracing paths from tenure-track appointments to full professorship and beyond, while offering insights that reflect the diverse realities of academic life across disciplines and institutions.
While the volume stands on its own, it also serves as the capstone of the acclaimed series Lives in the Canadian Academic Landscape edited by Tim Sibbald and Victoria Handford, which includes The Academic Gateway: Understanding the Journey to Tenure (2017), Beyond the Academic Gateway: Looking Back on the Tenure-Track Journey (2020), and The Academic Sabbatical: A Voyage of Discovery (2022).
Together, these four volumes offer a rich portrait of life in the modern academy, documenting the ambitions, challenges, successes, and transformations that define academic careers in the twenty-first century.
Cecile Badenhorst is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education in the Adult/Post-Secondary programs at Memorial University. She teaches courses on academic literacies and adult teaching. She has published three books in this area: Research Writing (2007), Dissertation Writing (2008), and Productive Writing (2010).
Timothy Sibbald (Editor)
Timothy Sibbald is Professor of mathematics education in the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University. His research interests include a variety of aspects of mathematics education and lived experiences in academia. He has examined historical trends in math education, developed a framework for STEM education, and is developing a broad interpretation of interdisciplinary learning. He has edited and co-edited four books. Tim is a long-standing editor of the Ontario Mathematics Gazette. He lives in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Victoria Handford (Editor)
Victoria (Tory) Handford is Professor of education leadership in the School of Education at Thompson Rivers University. She is past chair of the School of Education and served six years as the Coordinator of Graduate Programs. Her research has spanned many areas, but primarily rests in JK-12 school and district leadership. She has edited and co-edited five books. Her current research involves internationally experienced teachers and their successes in the K-12 school system in Canada. She lives in Kamloops, British-Columbia, Canada.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Section 1: Describing Life as an Academic
1 - Four Seasons of Nature, Life, and Academia: Treasured Moments, Challenges, and Dilemmas
Pei-Ying Lin
2 - Finding Tiresias
Lyle Hamm
3 - Teaching Is What I Know: An Academic Nears Retirement
Lloyd Kornelsen
4 - Wellness in an Academic Institution: Mediators and Impediments of My Personal Journey of Wellness
Greg Ogilvie
5 - Reflections About Leadership in Universities: A Reflective Study of Leadership Approaches, Theories, and Impacts
Shelleyann Scott
Section 2: The Leaning of the Ivory Tower
6 - Eyes Wide Shut: A Longitudinal Analysis of Institutional Culture
Greg Rickwood
7 - Reflections on Growth and Change for the Academy and Myself
Kathy Snow
8 - An Academic Career Through the Lens of a Disability
Donald E. Scott
9 - Pigments of Higher Education
Victoria (Tory) Handford
10 - Unfinished: Developing an Academic Writing Career
Cecile Badenhorst
11 - Winter Is . . . Here!
Anahit Armenakyan
Section 3: Academia as Crucible
12 - Continuing an Academic Journey: An Ongoing Search for Balance and Meaning
Peter Milley
13 - Belonging and the Academy
Timothy M. Sibbald
14 - Anxiety, Acceptance, and Advocacy: Academic Career Reflections from Two Female Full Professors from Two Continents
Merridee Bujaki and Silvia Pereira de Castro Casa Nova
15 - “If I Had My Time back”: Poetic Reflections on Seasons in the Academy
Heather McLeod, Cecile Badenhorst, Jacqueline Hesson, Xuemei Li, Sharon Penney, Sarah Pickett, and Gabrielle Young
Conclusions
Book Series Conclusion
Contributors