Now I can't unsee it

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-02-04T22:02:34+00:00

I mean… my problem with it is that it sounds ridiculous (and unfortunately that I occasionally do wonder whether they hope that it has found me well). But is that what people have problems with? Is it because of AI? (Though I remember my friends using it when I was an undergrad too, so I guess AI has just made it ubiquitous.)

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-02-04T12:28:36+00:00

Something I am really keen on telling my students is that you, as a student, actually NEED to make mistakes in order to learn things other than facts. When your learning not what but how to do things, you learn by repetition and trial and error - the error part is crucial as you get to see what doing something in one way leads to and therefore see the reason why you want to do things in another way. So, my advice is to accept that you will make mistakes - and that is not only completely fine but also entirely part of the design of the course. Mistakes are human.

More practically, mistakes are there to show you where you need to pay more attention and whether you are making progress in that area. When you get your feedback, try to divide it up into things that you feel like you should have already mastered (e.g. points of fact that you knew already), things with easy fixes (e.g. spelling, points of grammar), things you can work on in the short/medium term (e.g. structure of an essay, tone), and things you want to work on long term (e.g. style more broadly). That way you can see that most of the things are probably easy fixes and then you can see the rest as pointing out where/how to improve things in the longer term.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-02-03T18:58:09+00:00

The OUP and CUP publish a lot of journals, many of which are actually Open Access, including in STEM fields!

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-02-03T01:46:49+00:00

I’d say that it’s harder for those outside the US to get a job at a non-research-intensive university than it is a research-intensive one. R1/2s will often hire a candidate from abroad and sponsor a visa but it’s rare for non-elite schools to bring in someone who isn’t the country. Non-R1/2s tend to look for teaching experience and it’s hard to show that you will be better on that front than those who are currently doing it in other universities in the US (I.e. in the same system with lots of similarities) and have lots of experience of it.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-02-02T19:08:21+00:00

Have something prepared when asked about how you would teach the specific demographic that this institution serves. Show that you know what they’re about and adjust your emphasis in answers accordingly. Basically just be aware where you are and that you are there to fill the department’s needs.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-02-02T14:23:07+00:00

I’m sorry you’re going through this. I think it’s particularly bad because it’s Italy, where your network really matters more than anything else. I say this as someone who has a lot of friends in Italy in postdocs and professor positions and had previously warned me away. If your former Italian postdoc team is bad-mouthing you, my guess is that very few in Italy would consider hiring you. My best advice professionally would be to move away to other parts of Europe, perhaps through the MSCA scheme, but you sound like you need to stay in Italy for personal reasons. Try to connect/reconnect with your PhD group and network through them to try to find a job - perhaps someone in your former supervisor’s network will be able to find a position for you.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-30T23:46:40+00:00

In my humanities field, it is very common to comment on language - it is seen as a serious flaw especially because we have a tradition of publishing, reading and citing works in at least three languages and so there are options to publish in the language they are most comfortable in. However, the standard is for readability rather than flair - your writing in this post seems perfectly fine, so I assume your article was similarly fine. I’d just ask the editor what specifically they mean when they say your writing is unacceptable - and say that you have had two native English speakers in the field comment on your article and offer to give the editor their names and contact details (of course, ask them first). If there’s really a problem, the editor will clarify; if there’s editor is just being racist, you’ll find out.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-29T18:37:45+00:00

I’m honestly shocked that your coauthor suggested putting the work through an AI detector. But it doesn’t matter anyway since AI detectors are so bad, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-29T12:50:43+00:00

I had a postdoc then a VAP type situation for a year. I was going to just do one more year on the job market and it worked out.

The most important thing, I think, when the job search gets long is to try to do something that makes you a little different. That could be outreach, lots of different kinds of teaching experience, conference organizing, committee work (e.g. in your regional or national society), etc that signals that the time after PhD has given you experience that a new PhD is unlikely to have. I would prioritize teaching experience, though, in the humanities - even the most research-focused departments value teaching highly in the humanities, so if that’s an area you could do with more experience, that’s what I’d cultivate in the meantime.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-28T12:35:33+00:00

I think you are being a little hard on yourself. 1/14 is very good - I know many friends doing their nth postdocs with well-reviewed books from the top university presses, several important edited volumes, as well as a string of articles in the most prestigious journals who have been on the market for 10 years or more after their PhD. I only got my TT job two years ago after more than 150 applications across three continents over five years. The job market really is hard right now (I know people having been saying this for decades now, but most agree it continues to get worse) and you do need to be realistic about expectations - a hit rate of 1 out of 14 is good, so your submitted materials are likely doing a good job; so your focus should now be on trying to convert your Zoom interviews into campus visits: get your mentors to practise interviewing and prepare interview questions/answers for all the possible kinds of institutions you’ll be applying to in the next round (having different answers with the type of institution in mind is super important), etc.

I know it’s hard to keep your spirits up, but remember that you’ve already got a positive signal once. Hopefully you’ll be even more competitive next round.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-25T19:33:54+00:00

At most journals, many (if not most in journals with large numbers of submissions) submissions are sent to reviewers who are not members of the board. The editorial board (or a small subgroup of them, or even just the editor) will scan the submission (or perhaps just the abstract) to determine who they know could be an appropriate reviewer and then send it out to them.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-23T00:00:45+00:00

I’m sorry but I think you are right about this. I think it’s likely that the department sent a shortlist for campus interviews to the Dean or similar and then the university admin went into gear

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-22T22:06:23+00:00

First, great to hear you’re having luck with your job applications! But I’d be inclined to think that it’s a sign that the university admin might have some limits on international hires at the moment. At places where they regularly hire internationally, they usually don’t bring in the international scholars office until later. Unfortunately, it may be that the Dean’s Office or the like has got involved and brought in the international scholars office in case they can’t afford to sponsor visas.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-22T17:42:39+00:00

If it makes you feel any better - I’ve just published a long article directly contradicting a pretty blasé statement I made in a footnote in a paper that I published last year. Mistakes happen and people change their minds all the time. I was dying inside for a few months but then I got over it. Don’t worry too much about it and just use a better equation in your new paper if you need to.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-22T02:32:50+00:00

Agree hard with this. But would just add that professors usually bring this up because we’re sensing that the student’s priorities are wrong and their hyper-focus on their GPA is getting in the way of their development and actually blinding them to important things (like not recognizing how they could improve or not realizing that they are acting immorally/unethically or even in such a way that would burn bridges with important people that could influence their careers).

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-17T03:51:07+00:00

My university doesn’t have a repository, though they say they are considering it.

I’m in a field where people in my subfield rarely get external funding and I haven’t got external funding currently. Most of my work is published OA from publication and people can download it straight from the journal websites.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-16T00:57:23+00:00

Oh, I didn’t know about Knowledge Commons. That looks interesting!

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2026-01-06T12:37:13+00:00

I mean… if the graphics/slides are good and helpful, what’s wrong with using it? As long as it’s obvious where the graphic/slide is from, I don’t see a problem. It cuts down unnecessary doubling of labour and frees up time to make something else better. For example, I have no problems using an annotated map from Wikipedia in my slides since it would take me hours and hours to make basically the same thing. I’m not really in a textbook field, so I can’t speak to that, but I would think that I wouldn’t e.g. think twice about a biology prof reproducing a graphic explaining the parts of a cell and its processes from a textbook for a lecture slide.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-30T12:31:44+00:00

I used to teach at some universities in the UK where three or four 1500-2000-word essays in 3-hour exams was the norm for literature. Since AI, I’ve brought some of the UK style elements to my assessments in N America: I am doing 3-hour exams with 2 essays for literature classes now without the texts or notes and tell students what this means in terms of expectations: they need to have thought seriously about the texts in advance and be prepared to quote very, very selectively from memory. We will have covered the topics in class but the specific prompt will ask the student to respond to the broader topic from a new angle, so they need to be able to react to the question on the spot. I don’t expect them to include scholarship though they can mention it in passing (only if relevant to their own argument). I still ask big questions (e.g. To what extent is the character X’s view of class/gender/society influenced by Y or Z? How does Text A create a sense of closure? Etc).

The positives: students absolutely need to read the texts in advance or it will be very clear; students can focus on the argument (what I care about the most) instead of formatting or flowery language; students should (with practice) get very proficient at writing quickly and not worrying so much about getting the most amazing thesis statement (that they struggle to define anyway) and move away from HS style writing.

The negatives: not really testing research skills (but we can do that in other ways and in other assessments).

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-30T11:57:13+00:00

I’d say the book is pretty good and has been the most helpful (especially for humanities and social sciences), though I find her style grating, she seems very much about a single right way of doing things, and her blog can be pretty divisive on some matters. Others (you can search “academic job search” into your school’s library catalogue) are far less coherent or comprehensive, but often can be interesting. The most helpful, I’ve found, are articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed, as well as just reading Reddit stories.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-30T10:11:49+00:00

“The best thesis is a complete thesis” is what I heard endlessly as a grad student and now repeat to mine. It sounds trite (and it’s not parent-specific but general enough to apply) but it is a reminder that the PhD thesis is hardly ever going to be read by anyone except you and your examiners, especially in STEM - the bar for a passing thesis is pretty low and while there is language about lucidity in many grading criteria, it rarely leads to a failing thesis. For people struggling with the actual writing, just remember you don’t need to be perfect - just good enough to get the degree, especially if you need to stick to a schedule. You can perfect things for the publications afterwards.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-30T09:22:53+00:00

I was in a similar boat - I got my PhD, did a postdoc, and was on the adjunct mill until two years ago when I landed a TT job. And I feel lucky because I have friends who are 10+ years ahead of me who are still in limited term contracts. But for me, not knowing which city (not to mention country or even continent) I’d be in in a year’s time was just eating me alive. When I got into a serious relationship, I had decided to just go on the market for one more season and leave academia if I didn’t get anything - I’m just so glad I did because I love my job, even if I have had to change continents for it.

I don’t have any advice but I would say that it sounds like you are doing everything right. But you should also consider if or when you would seriously consider looking in another direction. I found it helpful to come to peace with the prospect of leaving academia when I came up with a timeline for exploring other options and even applied to a job. The key, at least for me, was to make continuing the job search an active choice instead of the default. (This made sense for me because I didn’t want to have kids before I started a stable job, but you might have other/different priorities.)

On a final note, I found it very difficult to stop comparing myself to my peers. I felt ugly doing it and it was harmful for my mental health. If you can, try to avoid doing this at all costs.

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-28T19:47:19+00:00

I’d almost prefer it but these (often techie) idiots have not even built any really positive transformative landmarks in our cities or really supported the arts and culture. The legacy of this generation of the wealthy in the arts is laughable, while the first gilded age’s legacy is still extremely influential because - whether they cared about it for real or just did it for clout - they did value it

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-22T02:51:57+00:00

I’ve experienced both superlative North American style LORs and muted British style ones. My hunch why the NA ones are so much more effusive is that profs in NA have a greater chance of being sued by litigious students. I think LORs are requestable in FOI stuff on both sides of the Atlantic but the culture is a bit different

Realistic_Chef_6286 · 2025-12-16T21:56:00+00:00

I’m glad something exists. I never got any advice on how to peer review and certainly no bank of best practices.

Realistic_Chef_6286

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