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Scholarship July 3, 2025

Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons from the First Year

The Wabash Center

Author
Lang, James M.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
ISBN
0801881021
Table of Contents
Prologue : before (and after) the beginning

ch. 1 August : beginning
ch. 2 September : teaching
ch. 3 October : writing
ch. 4 November : serving
ch. 5 December : grading
ch. 6 January (and a bit of February) : hiring
ch. 7 February : living
ch. 8 March : relating
ch. 9 April : figuring it out, parts one & two
ch. 10 May : housecleaning
ch. 11 June : settling in (or just settling?)
ch. 12 July : affirming

Epilogue : August redux, beginning again
Resources for first-year faculty : a brief annotated selection
This lively account provides guidance to college and university faculty as they plot their course to tenure. Written in journal form by a regular contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Life on the Tenure Track recounts many of Jim Lang's own early struggles in the classroom, at the department meeting, and around the halls of academe. Lang uses wit and anecdote to lighten the burden of a journey that is often lonely and confusing. Engaging and accessible, Life on the Tenure Track will provide insight to administrators, graduate students seeking their first appointments, and junior faculty on their own tenure track. (From the Publisher)