Tim Kenyon, Brock’s Vice-President, Research, recently had his third article in a three-part series published in University Affairs  about difficulties faced by mid-career faculty members in relation to their research.

He writes:

“In my previous two articles, I outlined some difficulties that mid-career faculty members may experience as part of a real or perceived research slowdown. I also proposed some strategies and tips that might help one avoid or quickly reverse such a slump. What can be done, though, when a research slowdown has progressed beyond that point – when a researcher worries that there is a glaring gap in their CV, or that they have fallen far out of contact with the state of research in their field?

Some of the strategies already canvassed can be ways of backfilling CV gaps. What does this mean? It means adding information to your CV about the research success of students, for example. It means ensuring that your many forms of engagement with research are appropriately noted, including refereeing for journals and manuscripts, reviews for tenure/promotion dossiers, or commentaries on papers at conferences – so much labour at the time, but so easy to forget after they are submitted! You should also take a hard look at other things you may have been doing, including public activism, media outreach, or voluntarism, and ask to what extent those activities comprise forms of applied scholarship or knowledge mobilization. Even if you mentor others in pluralism regarding manifestations of scholarship, it’s tempting to craft your own CV worried about how an uncharitable or parochial reader will view it. The existence of some such readers in the academy is a reality, but let’s not entirely defer to them.”

Continue reading the full article here.