What’s Your Story? International Perspectives on Building a Compelling Career Narrative

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

A career narrative is a professional statement that describes your academic experience to date and your planned future endeavours. This statement should be a strong and persuasive case for excellence in teaching and research and make clear your valuable service contributions. In the early years of an academic career, your story may not be so long. Equally, as you attempt to gain experience in a number of scholarly areas, not everything you do will fit neatly into these discrete categories. So how do you ensure that what looks like a disparate range of research projects, publications and collaborations all form a coherent career narrative? How do you build a career narrative that is clear and succinct—one that highlights your strengths while articulating the depth and breadth of knowledge that you possess? Drawing on insights from a range of perspectives—from PhD candidates and an early career researcher to more established scholars —, this panel aims to encourage reflection and debate on the most important features of a clear and compelling career narrative to springboard you into your first and future academic posts

Sub Unit

• Graduate Student Council

Chairs

• Keisha Siriboe

• Jennifer Tatebe, University of Auckland

Participants

• Gary James Harfitt, The University of Hong Kong

• Marian Mahat, The University of Melbourne

• Blair Izard, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Andrew Gerard Gibson, Trinity College Dublin

• Howard Stevenson, The University of Nottingham