Progressive Geographies

‘Pushing pennies‘ – an interesting post from Rob Kitchin on working on multiple projects, structured rest and general organisation.

Several times a year I’m asked: ‘how do you get it all done?’, ‘Are there two of you?’, ‘Do you sleep?’ and similar variations concerning productivity.  I always find the questions awkward and embarrassing to answer. In part, because from my perspective I don’t particularly feel overly productive, though I’m fully aware my output profile is different to most. In part, because some of the answers are not really what people want to hear: I think they’d prefer it if I said I worked all-hours and didn’t sleep, whereas I probably work no more hours or maybe less than they do. Anyway, I thought I’d write a post I can refer people to, which elucidates how I work and why I manage to get things done relatively efficiently. They are certainly not my ‘rules’ for others to follow or aspire to, nor an attempt to promote a way of working. They are simply an explanation. They are not in any particular order, though I think the first, second, and the last are key. [continues here]

It’s important to note his disclaimer – both in this opening paragraph, and in the final lines – that this is not a set of rules or guidelines for others, but lots of interesting ideas here.

Navigating the Academic World: A Professional Development Workshop in Urban Studies 

28-29 March 2019

Graduate School for Urban Research

Brussels Centre for Urban Studies, VUB

Brussels, Belgium

We are excited to announce that the Brussels Graduate School for Urban Research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is organizing a 2-day professional development workshop in urban studies, Navigating the Academic World. The workshop will take place 28-29 March 2019 at the VUB Etterbeek campus in Brussels.

This is an exciting and unique multidisciplinary workshop on academic publishing, grants and jobs, specifically tailored for doctoral students and early-career academics working on urban issues. The workshop is led by well-known academics who have been part of scholarly journal editorial boards and hiring committees at different European universities.

The program of the workshop consists of two days with lecture sessions in the morning (10:00-12:30) and short individual feedback sessions in the afternoon (2:00-4:00pm). The first day will be focused on academic publishing. We will have three editors, professors Pushpa Arabindoo (University of London, City), Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch (University of Grenoble Alpes, ACME), and Alex Loftus (King’s College London, IJURR) providing us with insights about choosing the right journal, editors’ expectations, review processes, rejections, and more, followed by Q&A. In the afternoon session, participants will get feedback on their papers from the editors.

The second day of the workshop is allocated to academic job market and hiring processes. We will have professors Miguel A. Martínez (Uppsala Universitet), Monika Grubbauer (HafenCity Universität Hamburg), Yuri Kazepov (Universität Wien) providing us with inside knowledge of academic job search, applying for grants, hiring politics and processes in Europe and at their respective universities, followed by Q&A. In the afternoon session, participants will get feedback on their CVs during one-to-one sessions.

The workshop is free for participants. For quality purposes we can accommodate up to 20 people. Those who are interested to participate need to send their application to Parastou Saberi (parastou.saberi@vub.be) by 20 February 2019. The application consists of: 1) a copy of your CV, 2) one-page motivation letter, briefly explaining your interest in the workshop, the stage of your academic career, 3) for those who would like to have one-to-one editorial feedback, a draft of their paper. Parastou Saberi and Bas van Heur will adjudicate the applications and will send out the results by 25 February 2019. A more detailed program of the workshop will be available closer to the event.

Lunch and beverages will be provided during the workshop.