From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor

by Steven Cahn, Catharine R. Stimpson (Foreword by)

Overview

Steven M. Cahn's advice on the professorial life covers an extensive range of critical issues: how to plan, complete, and defend a dissertation; how to navigate a job interview; how to improve teaching performance; how to prepare and publish research; how to develop a professional network; and how to garner support for tenure. He deals with such hurdles as a difficult dissertation advisor, problematic colleagues, and the pressures of the tenure clock. Whether you are beginning graduate study, hoping to secure an academic position, or striving to build a professorial career, Cahn's insights are invaluable to traversing the thickets of academia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231145336
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Steven M. Cahn is professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he served as provost and vice president for academic affairs and then acting president. He has taught at Dartmouth, Vassar, New York University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Vermont, where he chaired the department of philosophy. His numerous books include Fate, Logic, and Time; The Eclipse of Excellence: A Critique of American Higher Education; and God, Reason, and Religion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Graduate School
2. The Dissertation
3. Networking
4. The First Interview
5. Dramatis Personae
6. The Second Interview
7. Tenure
8. Teaching
9. Service
10. Research
Finale
Epilogue
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Catharine R. Stimpson

Although the tone of this guide is practical and benignly ironic and wry, the book is at heart an idealistic love letter to the profession of scholar and teacher.

Mary Ann Caws

Steven M. Cahn's guide to becoming a scholar-teacher is at once wise, pragmatic, and personal. It has none of that frozen, from-a-distance tone that can be so off-putting. Cahn has been there, done that, and retained his interest in it all. His epilogue about his own mentor is particularly warming.

Leon Bramson

From Student to Scholar is an extraordinary book. I have never seen anything like it.

— Leon Bramson, founding chair, department of sociology and anthropology, Swarthmore College

Editorial Reviews

Cahn hands out solid advice for graduate students who wish to pursue a career in academia.

College & Research Libraries News

A fabulous blueprint and guiding light for post-master's degree level students in the process of becoming scholars.

— J. Edward Sumerau

Metro Spirit

A fabulous blueprint and guiding light for post-master's degree level students in the process of becoming scholars.

Metro Spirit - J. Edward Sumerau

Cahn (philosophy, Graduate Ctr., CUNY; Classics of Western Philosophy) draws on his decades of experience as a professor and administrator at a number of universities to provide a clear, concise, and informal guide to becoming a professor. Starting with the first day of graduate school and moving through the dissertation defense, job search, job interview, publication, teaching, and tenure process, Cahn dishes up no-nonsense advice that anybody who desires a career in academia should heed. This quick read is occasionally humorous and always to the point. It should be read, ideally in the first semester, by anyone in a Ph.D. program. Recommended for all academic libraries.
—Mark Bay

Library Journal