How to Be an Academic

Welcome to the world of university academics, where the Academic Hunger Games, fuelled by precarious employment conditions, is the new reality – a perpetual jostle for short-term contracts and the occasional plum job. But Inger Mewburn is here to tell you that life needn't be so grim. A veteran of the university ‘gig economy', Mewburn – aka The Thesis Whisperer – is perfectly placed to reflect on her experience and offer a wealth of practical strategies to survive and thrive. Here, she deftly navigates the world of the working academic, from thesis and article writing and keeping motivation alive, to time management, research strategies, new technologies, applying for promotion, sexism in the workplace, writing grant applications and deciding what to wear to give a keynote address. Constructive, inclusive, hands-on and gloves-off, How to be an Academic is a survival manual for aspiring and practising academics that will confirm that no matter what your experience in academia, you are not alone. Sales Points: Inger's The Thesis Whisperer blog (https://thesiswhisperer.com/) and Twitter feed (@thesiswhisperer) are hugely popular; she has 31,500 Twitter followers (May 2017) Short articles are easily navigable – readers can dip in and dip out Full of examples from real people in real situations, grappling with research, teaching, committees, grant-writing and publishing, and real life Plenty of humour and a light tone make the text really enjoyable to read Despite permanent positions being hard to come by, the university sector and the PhD business are booming – so there's a huge potential readership for the book Relevant to the university academic experience internationally, and at all levels, form those starting out to those who are squarely on the track to tenure Relevant across all disciplines Emphasises the importance of diversity, as universities have traditionally been mainly white, male spaces

Inger Mewburn (@thesiswhisperer) is an associate professor and research educator who is the managing editor of the Thesis Whisperer blog. She has been working with PhD students for over a decade, and in her role at the Australian National University she provides training to students of all disciplines and studies the experience of research students.