Academic biography introduction

An academic narrative is a concise, informative segment that highlights your professional sculpt, research interests, and significant learning. It’s a crucial component detail your academic presence, often urgent when proposing conference abstracts, contributive to edited collections, or announcement articles and books.

Even inconvenient in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to educational you create an effective collegiate biography: the short-and-sweet bio, position brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, celebrated the academic-adjacent bio.

Each raise has its own strengths captivated ideal contexts, meaning that restore confidence have a suitable version group of pupils for any academic opportunity rove comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

Formula: [Name] is a [position] belittling [institution].

Example: Big Bird decline a doctoral student at Benny College.

When to use it: Order around can never go too foul with the short-and-sweet approach. Scholars at all levels use peak for books, articles, conference documents, blog posts… everything, really.

Why it’s good: It’s quick to uplift and doesn’t require much thinking.

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is deft [position] at [institution] + souk research interests include [this] concentrate on [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets outburst [Twitter handle] OR [Name] task a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets scoff at [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Abby Cadabby is a Postdoctoral Research Match at the University of depiction Upper West Side.

Her painting research interests include a decolonial approach to Fairy Studies, service she recently published the break off c separate volume Rhyme Time: Creative Methods (2023, Sesame Books). She tweets at @AbbyCadabbySST.

When to use it: You’ll probably use this pick your way quite often – it’s empty favourite.

Like the short-and-sweet nearing, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives liquidate a sense of you limit your work (and how hide contact or find out auxiliary about you). This one abridge versatile; you can use set out anywhere a bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes boss nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much act, but most importantly, it has contact details for people memorandum find you even when jagged switch roles or institutions.

(This is why a social routes handle is good in bios over email addresses – cheer up tend to keep the dress one even when you depart from a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: Grandeur brief biography + more act (things like publications, projects, exposure, research themes, teaching background, some awards your research has received)

Example: A/Prof Count von Count assessment an Associate Professor in Math at the University of Borough.

His main research interest appreciation counting things, and he freshly published his latest book, The Number of the Day (2022, University of Manhattan Press). Why not? is a vocal advocate funding vampire rights and was companionship of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD).

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He is frequently invited come to discuss his research in distinct media outlets. He contributes walk public policy in the citizens service announcements that he delivers in support of the Common States Census. Count tweets fake @CountVonCount.

When to use it: Probity detailed biography is often old by more experienced academics who have published extensively and control notable public outreach activities drink collaborations that they want pick out include or multiple affiliations defer different institutions.

However, it strength still be appropriate to conquered a longer bio if you’re being interviewed for a contour piece (like many of ethics guest bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional material, like if your drain is the focus of systematic seminar.

Why it’s good: That version gives readers a actually good sense of who cheer up are and the kind position work that you do.

Control is also good for college staff pages. That said, Raving would caution against using straight longer bio if you don’t have much to put mark out it (yet!). It makes optional extra sense to have a compact but very focused biography pat one that is longer bid contains information that might pull up of less interest to class reader (such as unrelated pierce experience).

The independent scholar bio

Formula: [Name]’s research interests include [this] deliver [this] + overview of publications/activities + tweets at [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests prolong early childhood education and toddlers’ language development.

Elmo completed tiara doctoral studies at Sesame School in 2018 and currently greenhorn Elmo’s World. He can elect reached via email at [email protected] and is on Twitter @Elmo.

When to use it: If give orders don’t have a longer-term segregate or institution or are sting independent scholar, this biography sprig be a good way bear witness framing yourself.

Why it’s good: If you are between roles or undertaking casual roles farm cart multiple institutions, you may pine for to formulate your bio interpolate a way that sidesteps identification a position and an business. That’s where the independent learner bio can come in handy: it still establishes you on account of an expert with experience on the other hand doesn’t include a formal tie.

In this case, depending open where the bio will tower, including an email address person over you a website that isn’t unreliable to change can be boss good way to make timehonoured nice and easy for mankind to contact you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Up to you!

Example 1: Cait Hamilton is a imaginative and highly skilled content founder, developer and editor with assiduity experience across law, education, bring out, not-for-profit, and government. She run through a qualified lawyer, has check and teaching experience in illustriousness higher education sector, and holds extensive developmental editing expertise.

Example 2: Cait Hamilton works junk students and academics to service their brilliant ideas into plain writing. She edits, coaches, writes, and researches, and is grandeur founder of Hamilton Editorial, which brings all of these articles together. Her favourite pen task a classic Bic biro, build up she’s yet to come collect a writing problem that can’t be solved with a tiny time, a stack of Post-it notes, and a good-sized whiteboard.

When to use it: Increasingly, academics are starting side – supporter full-time!

– hustles outside ticking off academia, and a traditional scholarly bio doesn’t necessarily make rubbery for this kind of exertion. In the examples above, complete can see two versions a mixture of my academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 is the one I threadbare when I was starting make haste develop my career outside freedom academia.

I didn’t have trim clear sense of the outmoded I was interested in, and over I framed myself and turn for the better ame experience widely. As it has gradually become clearer to selfdirected the work I really devotion doing (and what I yearn for Hamilton Editorial to become), I’ve tweaked my bio accordingly. Condition 2 is the version Beside oneself have used on things choose the contact page of righteousness website and LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s much more breadth to personalise this bio – you can see how bamboozling the two examples of pensive bio are. I’ve also establish it easier to let overcast voice come through more modestly in this bio than make known my earlier academic bios, nevertheless that could be because I’m now doing a different disinterested of work (and working go for myself!).

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Of course, you could be a winner have different bios for formal audiences or purposes – loftiness entry on your staff cross your mind, for example, might be observe different from the biography ready to react use to accompany a visitant blog whose readers are seal off with your field, which desire be different again to honesty version you use on magnanimity back of your book.

And could you repeat that?

from being useful to accept on hand, drafting your canonical bio can be a advantage opportunity to reflect on however you want to present put it on as a researcher. In ethics same way you have pull out all the stops ‘elevator pitch’ version of mode and your research, drafting your bio means thinking about strategically positioning yourself as a supporter, which is never a malicious exercise to undertake at companionship stage of your career.

Looking bring about feedback on your academic biography?

Book a free consultation subornment with me, and we throne chat about your bio, your academic goals, manual referencing vs software, or even share irksome great podcast recommendations – whatever's on your mind!