Tenure Track Research Articles

472 Indiana CTSI Think Tank Program

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The Think Tanks’ aim to assist faculty innovators along the path from discovery to commercialization; serving as a one-stop-shop where investigators can access advice, pilot funds, and direction toward other available resources within the Indiana CTSI. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Faculty receive guidance from a pool of advisors in the drug and device industry, as well as their respective university commercialization offices; who serve as an essential resource for a wide range of scientific, technical, clinical, business, and regulatory questions. Investigators submit a simple intake form to connect with a project facilitator for detailed guidance prior to formal meetings. Projects are guided from start to finish with robust tracking and milestone-based funding to help generate data for Investigational New Drug (IND) or Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) applications. Project tracking is conducted using REDCap, which is used for all investigator submissions, with internal processes also tracked in REDCap. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: From Feb-Aug 2021; the Think Tanks provided feedback to 15 drug projects and 6 medical device projects. This included 12 from Indiana University; 4 from Purdue University; and 5 from the University of Notre Dame. Interestingly; drug innovations were submitted primarily by tenure track faculty (100%) with a history of NIH/NSF funding (50%); while device innovations were submitted primarily by clinical faculty without a history of NIH/NSF funding (66%). Based on first-round feedback, a total of approximately $3;400 in pilot funds were provided. Efforts are underway to obtain survey-based feedback from all applicants to date; which will be used to inform future program modifications. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The budding “Think Tank” program provides faculty with a broad perspective of the entire drug and medical device development process, helping investigators understand the critical interplay development stages. Future work seeks to enhance faculty engagement in, and understanding of the commercialization process across Indiana CTSI institutions.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: TTS-based appointments and university research productivity: a case of Pakistan

The tenure track system (TTS) program was launched by the Higher Education Commission to improve research quality and international visibility of research conducted by Pakistani higher educational institutes. The prime aim of this study is to examine the impacts of TTS policy on university-level research productivity by utilizing the unbalanced panel data of Pakistani universities covering the period of 2002–2017. The treatment variable is the ratio of TTS faculty to the total faculty, while outcome variables include the H-index, number of research papers published, and citations. Panel data analysis indicates that the TTS faculty have a statistically significant and positive impact on all kinds of research productivity (i.e. h-index, number of papers published, and number of citations) and it does not matter which type of econometrical panel data model is used. Additionally, university age and enrolled Ph.D. scholars also play key roles in boosting university-level research productivity. Overall results propose some suitable policy implications in the area of academic research productivity in developing economies.

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Gender and Racial Profile of the Academic Pediatric Faculty Workforce in the United States.

BackgroundEquity, diversity, and inclusion remain a challenge in the healthcare workforce. This study explored the current gender and racial/ethnic trends in academic pediatric positions across the United States.MethodologyThe pediatric faculty self-reported data by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) Faculty Roster from 2007 to 2020 were analyzed. The races were classified as White (non-Hispanic), Asian, Hispanic, Black (non-Hispanic), Multiple races (including both non-Hispanic and Hispanic), Others, and Unknown. Gender was categorized as male and female.ResultsThe results showed that Asian, Black (non-Hispanic), and Hispanic academic pediatricians increased in full professor, associate professor, and assistant professor positions and decreased in instructor positions from 2007 to 2020. Black (non-Hispanic) academic pediatricians relatively decreased 5.5% in chairperson positions. Women increased in full professor, associate professor, instructor, and chairperson positions; however, relatively decreased 1.8% in assistant professor positions. Men and White (non-Hispanic) academic pediatricians relatively decreased 10.5% and 16%, respectively, in all academic ranks. Women, Asian, Black (non-Hispanic), Hispanic, and Other races were underrepresented in tenured, on-track (tenure-eligible), and not-on-track (tenure-eligible) positions.ConclusionsWomen and underrepresented minorities in medicine (URiM) physicians continue to remain significantly underrepresented in academic pediatric faculty positions and tenured track positions. There is a dire need to adapt multifaceted strategies to increase the engagement of women and URiM in academic pediatrics.

Through Theory and Action: Finding Academic Identity and Ontological Security as Faculty of Color in Science Education

ABSTRACT Science education faculty occupy a unique position allowing us to advocate across multiple stakeholders for all students to access science learning and careers. As an immigrant woman of color entering the tenure track in 2016 whose scholarship centers on this advocacy, I find myself frequently reaching for good and critical theories to grow into an academic increasingly secure in her intellectual positions and pedagogical choices. Framed by the concepts of identity and ontological security, this paper uses counter storytelling to discuss the reciprocity between theoretically informed academic actions and my development of ontological security as a critical academic in science education. The discussion highlights the importance of this reciprocity in enabling my sustained advancement of a critical body of scholarship in research and teaching over time. The relatively positive perspective I discuss juxtaposes against a cross-section of contexts and events with potential to disaffirm my scholarship and right to belong in academia. My hope is academics who share some of my lived experiences use these stories—as I have used the stories shared by others—as one source of support on their journey to finding a secure, unified academic identity; an identity freeing them to engage with stakeholders in ways that affirm the value of their critical scholarship in the academy.

Perception and Conceptualization of the Land-Grant Mission at a Land-Grant Institution

While the three-part mission of the land-grant university has been a pivotal component of agriculture and natural resources in the U.S., the land-grant mission is not always well understood by all audiences, including faculty members who are the key deliverers of the land-grant mission. As such, it is important to understand how faculty members view the land-grant brand identity. A series of focus groups were conducted with tenure and non-tenure track faculty members at [university]. Faculty members’ perceptions of the university’s brand came out in four themes: overall description of the brand identity, connections to [City], university values, and increased emphasis on research. How faculty members conceptualized the land-grant mission presented two themes: aware but uninformed about the land-grant mission (subthemes: concerns about public awareness and stakeholder priorities, and unawareness of Extension) and having varying definitions of the land-grant mission (subthemes: land-grant is about the land, the land-grant mission is for more than agriculture, the land-grant is successful when serving the state, the land-grant mission is intended to improve society, and the land-grant mission is delivering equal opportunity education). Recommendations for universities included providing faculty members with a full understanding of the land-grant missions and ensuring students are taught about the land-grant mission. Future research was recommended to assess perceptions of faculty members at other land-grant universities and perceptions of non-faculty audiences such as students and external stakeholders. A quantitative survey was also recommended to provide a more generalizable view of faculty perceptions of the brand of land-grant universities.

Off the tenure track: experiences of PhD graduates in academic administrative positions

ABSTRACT Advice for PhD graduates seeking to leave academia has proliferated over the last decade, but little attention has been paid to those who continue to work in universities in administrative positions. This study employs a phenomenological qualitative approach to explore the lived experiences of twelve people with PhDs who have taken this alternative career path. Although participants expressed satisfaction with their careers, they also revealed that they faced obstacles to obtaining administrative positions because of misconceptions about the value and purpose of a PhD. The study concludes with policy recommendations for universities and avenues for future research.

Career planning courses increase career readiness of graduate and postdoctoral trainees.

Background: Given national calls for intentional career development during graduate and post-graduate scientific training, this study assessed career readiness development within the context of academic career courses. The current study evaluated the effects of academic career courses offered at two institutions that were specifically designed to increase career awareness, interest, and career-related confidence among doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Methods: Participants enrolled in a career course at trainees' respective academic institutions and responded to pre- and post-course surveys (n=32, n=148). The paper offers a thematic analysis of each of the two courses using an individualized learning plan career development framework and describes the results of their respective pretest-posttest evaluations which indicated increases in career readiness. Results: Though the format and content provided in each course varied, participation was associated with increases in career readiness. Participants reported increased career-awareness including a greater familiarity with different types of careers overall. Furthermore, interest in tenure track faculty careers increased in both samples, which may assuage fears that exposure to diverse career pathways could reduce interest in academic careers. Transferrable skills, including career planning and awareness also significantly increased. Course participants reported an increase in the number and type of mentors they interacted with beyond their principal faculty mentor (other faculty, professional PhDs, peers, and administrative staff). Conclusions: Findings provide supporting evidence for the benefits of implementing structured career development efforts during PhD training; even with varying content, delivery methods, and instructor type, both academic career courses led to significant gains in career awareness and readiness. Successful development and delivery of academic career courses, with a focus on career planning skills, suggest that institutions can utilize these and are an effective way to prepare PhDs for their transition from training positions into careers.

Diversifying Faculty Leadership in Academic Medicine: The Program to Launch Underrepresented in Medicine Success (PLUS).

PLUS (Program to Launch Underrepresented in Medicine Success) is a 2-year cohort program at Indiana University School of Medicine providing professional development, funding and skills to produce scholarship, and a community to mitigate social and/or professional isolation for underrepresented in medicine (URiM) faculty. In year 1, scholars participate in leadership and professional development seminars and regular meetings with their mentor(s). They are assigned a PLUS Advisory Council advisor with whom they meet 2 to 3 times annually. In year 2, scholars participate in monthly seminars focused on research methods, writing productivity, and wellness. Additionally, scholars engage in a writing accountability group and practice reflective writing. Connections events, designed to combat isolation and cultivate community, occur monthly. At program completion, scholars complete a project resulting in a scholarly product for submission and dissemination in a peer-reviewed forum. To date, 3 cohorts, totaling 24 people, have participated: 20 (83%) Black, 4 (17%) Latinx; 12 (50%) females. Five scholars have completed the full program, whose pre- and postsurvey results are described. Program surveys demonstrate significant gains in scholars' confidence to secure leadership opportunities, connect with colleagues, and advocate for themselves and others. Scholars reported statistically significant increases in confidence to pursue leadership roles (t = -3.67, P = .02) and intent to submit their dossier for promotion (t = -6.50, P = .003). They were less likely to leave academic medicine (t = 2.75, P = .05) or pursue another academic appointment (t = 2.75, P = .05) after PLUS completion than at baseline. All scholars adequately met requirements for their third-year review (tenure track only), were promoted, or achieved tenure in less than 3 years since program completion. This article describes PLUS program objectives, evaluative components, and lessons learned during implementation, as a model to support URiM faculty at other institutions.

DOING GENDER AND RACE INTERSECTIONALITY: THE EXPERIENCES OF FEMALE MAORI AND NONWHITE ACADEMICS IN NEW ZEALAND

Several studies that focus on Western settings like Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand have found that gendered institutions within academic careers are still preserved through various means. These studies have verified that fewer women are in tenure track positions than men. Additionally, women have been receiving a lower salary and are seldom promoted. Several issues such as mobility, parenting, and gender bias in application and evaluation rate as well as gender citation gap are highly correlated with women’s challenges in pursuing professorships. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of studies pertaining to the impact of the intersection of race and gender on the experiences of people of colour and minority groups in academia. The current study aims to explore the role that gender and race play among female academics, which includes the careers of Maori academics (the indigenous people of New Zealand) and non-white academics in New Zealand. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with 15 academic staff, including Maori and non-white academics in New Zealand, the current research corroborates the existing literature regarding the interplay of race and gender in advancing academic career. Furthermore, this research also finds that the merit-based concept or objective indicators of academic excellence do not necessarily apply in New Zealand. On account of their gender and racial identities, women of minority groups and non-white academics frequently experience multidimensional marginalisation while pursuing their academic careers.

Tenure Undone: Faculty Experiences of Organizational Justice When Tenure Seems or Becomes Unattainable

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions and faculty have vested interests in fair tenure processes. We explored perceptions of fairness from the perspective of faculty who did not obtain tenure. Our 22 participants indicated that they experienced organizational justice violations related to distributive justice (fairness of decisions), procedural justice (fairness of processes), and interactional justice (fairness of interpersonal treatment), which they reported hindered their ability to succeed on the tenure track. Recognizing that women and Black, Indigenous, and people of color faculty face unique barriers on the tenure track, we explore how race and gender shaped participants’ experiences in an effort to understand issues of inequity in higher education tenure and promotion processes. We conclude with a discussion of reforms that could improve perceived and actual experiences of organizational justice and equity while on the tenure track.

Career planning courses increase career readiness of graduate and postdoctoral trainees

Background: Given national calls for intentional career development during graduate and post-graduate scientific training, this study assessed career readiness development within the context of academic career courses. The current study evaluated the effects of academic career courses offered at two institutions that were specifically designed to increase career awareness, interest, and career-related confidence among doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Methods: Participants enrolled in a career course at trainees’ respective academic institutions and responded to pre- and post-course surveys (n=32, n=148). The paper offers a thematic analysis of each of the two courses using an individualized learning plan career development framework and describes the results of their respective pretest-posttest evaluations which indicated increases in career readiness. Results: Though the format and content provided in each course varied, participation was associated with increases in career readiness. Participants reported increased career-awareness including a greater familiarity with different types of careers overall. Furthermore, interest in tenure track faculty careers increased in both samples, which may assuage fears that exposure to diverse career pathways could reduce interest in academic careers. Transferrable skills, including career planning and awareness also significantly increased. Course participants reported an increase in the number and type of mentors they interacted with beyond their principal faculty mentor (other faculty, professional PhDs, peers, and administrative staff). Conclusions: Findings provide supporting evidence for the benefits of implementing structured career development efforts during PhD training; even with varying content, delivery methods, and instructor type, both academic career courses led to significant gains in career awareness and readiness. Successful development and delivery of academic career courses, with a focus on career planning skills, suggest that institutions can utilize these and are an effective way to prepare PhDs for their transition from training positions into careers.

Increasing Pediatricians' Scholarly Productivity on and off the Tenure Track.

Physician faculty have increasingly been appointed to nontenure track positions, which provide limited support for scholarly activity. We evaluated how a centralized departmental research group affected the scholarly productivity of faculty on and off the tenure track. A research team providing both mentorship and logistical study support was implemented in 2018. We identified a pre-intervention cohort of physician faculty employed in July 2016, and a postintervention cohort, employed in July 2018. A publication search was conducted for these cohorts in the period 2017 to 2018 and 2019 to 2020, respectively. Seventy-five faculty were included in the analysis, with approximately two-thirds appointed on the clinical (nontenure) track. In the pre-intervention cohort (n = 59), 15 faculty (25%) had at least one publication in the period 2017 to 2018. In the postintervention cohort (n = 59), 33 faculty (56%) published at least one article in the period 2019 to 2020 (P = .001). Multivariable random-effects regression analysis confirmed that postintervention, odds of publishing in a given year increased for both clinical-track and tenure-track faculty. Both clinical and tenure-track faculty contribute to the academic mission at medical schools, yet scholarly activity is supported and rewarded for tenure-track faculty more often than for clinical-track faculty. Our centralized research team successfully fostered scholarly activity among both clinical-track and tenure-track faculty.

FACULTY INITIATIVE AND LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE IN A U.S. UNIVERSITY IN INTERNATIONALIZING THEIR CURRICULUM TO FOSTER STUDENT GLOCAL COMPETENCE

This study contributes by informing on the strategies that faculty uses to internationalize and integrate their curriculum to foster student glocal competence. Phenomenological processes such as epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis were developed to recognize, appreciate, and derive meaning from the perceptions faculty hold while internationalizing their curriculum. We expound on classroom activities and diverse curriculum contents that are utilized to internationalize in classroom settings. Purposive sampling and snowballing were used, and the sample size is based on the largeness of the sample while the selection of participants included a purposeful selection of 16 faculty members. Also, the “open coding” technique was used to identify instances of interviewees’ perceptions of faculty internationalizing their curriculum at the glocal level. The study adopts a phenomenological qualitative single case study that used individual interviews using open-ended questionnaires and document analysis for data collection. The sample focused on tenured track and instructional faculty only in internationalizing their curriculum. Findings revealed that most of the faculty mentioned the importance of involving students in the internationalization of the curriculum. Participants also state that student involvement cannot be taken away because student background, and previous and current experience from their different locals around the globe, will enrich internationalization.

Miriam Fuchs, Life Writing, and Life

Miriam Fuchs, Life Writing, and Life Craig Howes (bio) Others contributors to this collection will movingly and accurately capture what Miriam was like as a coeditor, coauthor, crew member, and dear friend. Except for the paddling, I knew her in all of these roles, but I will begin this Biography tribute with some words about her as a researcher and scholar. Her biography on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa English Department website listed her principal interests as modernism and modern American literature, twentieth century women’s literature, autobiography theory and criticism, and “all modes of life writing.” Her academic journey explains how her interests became her recognized expertise. She received her BA in 1970 from SUNY Buffalo, a major center for the study of modern and contemporary literature. The title of her 1979 NYU doctoral dissertation was “‘Persistent Pattern and Significant Form’: The Conceptual and Formal Impact of The Waste Land on Selected Anti-Realistic American Novels,” and she would go on to publish essays on T. S. Eliot, William Gaddis, Nathanael West, and Hart Crane. What she soon became best known for, however, was her work on women and modernism. She published extensively on Djuna Barnes and H.D. She edited and included her own work in Marguerite Young, Our Darling: Tributes and Essays. And in 1989 she coedited with Ellen G. Friedman the collection Breaking the Sequence: Women’s Experimental Fiction. Their introduction has been called “practically a monograph” in itself, and the volume played an important role in “the continuing feminist project of the recovery and foregrounding of women writers.” This landmark collection was reprinted in 2014 by Princeton University Press as part of its Legacy Library series. In the mid-1980s, Miriam’s interest in modernism brought her to Hawaiʻi for a seminar conducted by the noted William Butler Yeats and Hart Crane scholar John Unterecker. Shortly afterwards, she resigned her associate professorship at Elizabeth Seton College and settled permanently here. For Miriam, moving to a world center for modernism studies like Honolulu after years of toiling in the literary and cultural backwater of New York City was an easy decision to make—after all, Jack Unterecker and Leon Edel had already done the same thing. But I suspect that someone named Alan Holzman probably had something to do with it as well. She [End Page 135] spent her first years as a visiting assistant professor in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa—she always remembered who was collegial, and who was . . . otherwise. She came on the tenure track in 1989, in 1993 she was tenured and promoted early, and she became a full professor in 2003. As a lifewriting scholar, Miriam’s status is indisputable. Part of the University of Wisconsin Press’s renowned Studies in Autobiography series, her 2004 book, The Text Is Myself: Women’s Life Writing and Catastrophe, fulfilled Susanna Egan’s prophetic assessment: “Miriam Fuchs is breaking new ground. Her remarkable exploration of catastrophe writing will be important in autobiography studies and fascinating to all who care about self-representation as a mode of survival.” This book brought Miriam’s many interests together—modernism, women’s literature, autobiographical fiction, art, and Hawaiʻi and the Pacific—in her outstanding opening chapter on the diaries of Queen Liliʻuokalani, but also in the book’s dedication: “To the women paddlers—Lanikai, Kumulau, Bora Bora.” I’ll let other contributors to this tribute address the autobiographical dimensions of a book entitled The Text Is Myself, mentioning only its major theme: “however much the past may be shaped into a discernable storyline, it is the uncertain present that preoccupies these writers.” And of course, Miriam had a long and profoundly influential impact upon Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly and the Center for Biographical Research. Cynthia G. Franklin offers some personal and detailed remarks on their collaborations as coeditors and friends; let me set the stage with an origin story, and a few personal notes. When I took over as editor of Biography in 1994, I asked Miriam to replace me as one of the literary editors; a year later, she was listed as “literary editor in chief...

The Experiences of Black Faculty at Predominately White Institutions in Minnesota

The body of research focused on the recruitment and retention of black faculty members at predominately white institutions (PWIs) has continued to evolve throughout the years. Colleges and universities have found it challenging to not only recruit black faculty, for a variety of reasons, ranging from the location of the institution to the faculty member not finding a sense of belonging and community. In this paper, we conducted a case study of three black faculty members who are in tenure track positions at a PWI in northern Minnesota. We interviewed each faculty member to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences being at a PWI, and identify what types of resources, university, and community support they need that could aid in their retention. The results from this study can be used by university administrators to aid in having discussions pertaining to the recruiting and retention of black faculty at their institution, and how it can align with the institution’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

Positionalities of Precarity

The ongoing neoliberal restructuring of higher education has led to the growth of contingent and temporary non–tenure track faculty positions. Drawing on the rich and growing literature on the academic precarity produced from this contingent labor, this autoethnography examines how the author sought to find an academic home while navigating the neoliberal university. First, the author discusses autoethnography as a method of resistance and situates positionalities of precarity as a state of chronic instability. Second, the author details experiences as a contingent faculty member working in different institutions. This section includes dealing with heavy workloads, juggling multiple contracts, and handling self-doubt, guilt, fear, exhaustion, and disposability. The third section analyzes the internalization of these contingencies while handling bullying and microaggressions from students and colleagues. Last, the author discusses reflections and opportunities for transformational resistance in hopes to work toward a more equitable educational and working environment. As an Asian American academic, the author also aims to add a voice to under-represented faculty in the academy.

Care Work and Academic Motherhood: Challenges for Research and Tenure in the Canadian University

In Canada, women are earning an increasing number of doctoral degrees; yet, they are less likely to secure a tenure-track position. A feminist thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 20 academic mothers from two Canadian universities reveals the range of challenges that mothers encounter in relation to care on the tenure-track. First, the theme of “fear of post-partum academic erasure” captured faculty mothers’ experiences of feeling compelled to assert their physical and intellectual presence in post-partum during peak periods of infant care. The second theme, “the mommy tenure track and care choices,” encapsulated academic mothers’ experiences of feeling unsupported by the university in their pursuit of promotion and tenure given care responsibilities associated with motherhood. The final theme, “research while caring,” captured the tensions academic mothers experience between the research process and caring. The findings of this research are particularly relevant in a pandemic and post-pandemic environment, where academic mothers have seen their care work swell to unprecedented proportions.

What Is the Relationship between Higher Education and Neoliberalism in the United States?

What Is the Relationship between Higher Education and Neoliberalism in the United States?

Introduction: the secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements.

Introduction: the secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements.