The PhDictionary: A Glossary of Things You Don’t Know (but Should) about Doctoral and Faculty Life

290 Pages·2016·1.633 MB·English

by  Herb Childress

The PhDictionary
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The PhDictionary
A Glossary of Things
You Don’t Know
(but Should)
about Doctoral
and Faculty Life
Herb CHildress
The University of Chicago Press · Chicago and London
Herb CHildress is cofounder of the consulting firm Teleidoscope Group
LLC. He has extensive professional experience as a teacher and administrator in
higher education, most recently as dean of research and assessment at the Boston
Architectural College. Childress is the author of Landscapes of Betrayal, Landscapes of
Joy: Curtisville in the Lives of its Teenagers.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2016 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2016.
Printed in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 35914- 4 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 35928- 1 (paper)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226– 35931- 1 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226359311.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Childress, Herb, author.
Title: The PhDictionary : a glossary of things you don’t know (but should) about
doctoral and faculty life / Herb Childress.
Other titles: Chicago guides to academic life.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2016 | Series:
Chicago guides to academic life
Identifiers: lCCn 2015036893 | isbn 9780226359144 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn
9780226359281 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226359311 (e-book)
Subjects: lCsH: Doctoral students—United States—Dictionaries. | Doctor of
philosophy degree—United States—Dictionaries. | College teachers—United
States—Dictionaries.
Classification: lCC lb2386 .C455 2016 | ddC 378.2—dc23 lC record available at http://
lccn.loc.gov/2015036893
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
Contents
Note: When describing the insider language of a community, defining one
unfamiliar term sometimes requires the use of other, equally unfamiliar, terms.
As you read through this glossary, you’ll occasionally come across words in
boldface. These words are the subjects of their own glossary entries.
Thanks ix
Why Does This Book Exist? xiii
A
ABD 1 Administrator 15
Abstract 2 Age 17
Academic freedom 3 Alt- careers 19
Accreditation 5 Anonymity and confidentiality 20
Acronym 9 Assessment 22
Adjunct faculty 9 Assistant professor 24
Administration 11 Associate professor 25
Administrative assistant 14 Author/coauthor 27
B
Biographical sketch/statement 29 Burnout 31
Book review 30 Buyout 32
C
Candidate 33 Children 37
Career 34 Chronicle of Higher Education 38
Chair 35 Citational power 39
Chancellor 37 Citational system / style guide 40
Cohort 42 Course development 54
Committees 43 Course/teaching evaluation 56
Comprehensive exams / comps 45 Cover letter 58
Conference 48 Curriculum 59
Conference interview 50 Curriculum vitae, or CV 62
Contracts: nine- , ten- , and twelve-
month 52
D
Deadline 66 Discipline 74
Dean 67 Dissertation 76
Defense 69 Dissertation chair/committee 77
Department 71 Doctorate 79
Development/advancement 72 Dress code 80
Director 73
E
Edited volume 81 E- mail 86
Editor 83 Emotional balance 87
Elevator/airplane talk 84 Endowment 89
F
Facilities 91 Failed search 95
Faculty 92 FERPA 96
Faculty handbook 94 First generation 98
G
Grades 101 Gray literature 106
Graduate School, the 104 GRE 107
Grant / grant proposal 105
H
Hard drive 108 Honorific 108
I
IACUC 110 Intellectual property 116
Indirect costs rate / overhead 111 Interdisciplinary 118
Inside candidate/hire 113 IRB (Institutional Review
Intellectual 114 Board) 121
J
Job posting / position Job search 129
announcement 121 Journal 130
L
Learning management system / Library/librarian 135
course management system 133 Literature review 137
M
Master’s degree 139 Method/methodology 144
Mentor 140 Minority preference 146
Meritocracy 141
N
National search 150 Networking 153
O
Offer 155 On- campus interview 162
Office 160 Online journal 166
Office hours 161 Open access 167
P
Partner 169 Principal investigator / PI 183
Peer review/reviewer 170 Priority/prioritization 184
Placement 172 Professional expenses 186
Plenary 173 Professional society 188
Popular press / trade press 174 Professor 190
Portfolio 175 Program rankings/ratings 191
Postdoc 177 Provost 193
Poster / poster session 179 Publication 194
Presentation 180 Publication contract 195
President 182 Publisher (trade/academic) 198
R
R1 (and other Carnegie Research agenda 208
designations) 201 Research assistant 210
Recommendation, letter of 202 Research center 211
Regalia 205 Research misconduct 213
Rejection letter 205 Research question 214
Research 206 Résumé gap 215
S
Sabbatical 218 Soft money / hard money 223
Scholarship / scholarly activity 219 Sponsored research 223
Seminar 220 Start- up costs 225
Short list / shortlist 222
T
Teaching 226 TIAA- CREF 241
Teaching assistant / TA 229 Time suck 242
Teaching load 230 Travel budget 243
Telephone/video interview 233 Two- body / two- career /
Tenure / P&T 236 trailing-spouse problem 244
Tenure track 238 Two- community problem / the two
Terminal degree 240 cultures 246
Thesis 241
U
Undergraduate research 249 Union / collective bargaining unit 250
W
White paper 252
Afterthoughts 253
Bibliography 257
Index 263
Thanks
There are impossibly many people to thank for a project such as this. Some
played a direct role in its creation; some supported its creator; some pro-
vided wisdom; and some played the role of the cautionary tale, the example
of higher ed practices that I could best honor through being their 180-d egree
opposing force. I will limit my thanks here to those whose positive public
recognition is necessary. Private recognition will be held for elsewhere.
First, thanks to my mother and brothers, who read to me, and read to
me, and read to me, until finally at age three I started to read back. You
cannot imagine how important it was to grow up with words.
I cannot overstate the importance of our Sylvania black-a nd- white con-
sole television, which later kept me company in the hours when no one
else was available, and which taught me how to tell stories myself. Nor the
spiritual power of WTRU- AM disc jockey Tom Andrews, whose focused
loneliness helped me focus my own.
I appreciate a life of magazines and newspapers that taught me the power
of topical attention and authorial voice. From Boy’s Life through The New
Yorker, from Hot Rod through the San Francisco Chronicle, I learned how to
invite a reader into a conversation rather than essay at them.
And then, of course, there have been teachers. In the entry in this book
on teaching, I recommend that you all make a list of the handful of teachers
who changed your trajectory. Here’s mine.
• Pastor John Beem, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Muskegon
Heights, Michigan
• Paul Klemp, sixth grade, Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School,
Muskegon Heights, Michigan