Rebuilding my conception of the academic life

A professional (and personal) update

For any subscribers who didn’t catch my announcement on Twitter or Facebook: I’m thrilled to report that I’ll be joining the UT Austin psychology department as a clinical associate professor this Fall (while wrapping up my teaching/mentorship responsibilities at YU/Ferkauf remotely).

This decision reflects an important evolution in my understanding of the academic life and the kinds of choices it affords. At the heart of that evolution has been my effort to reexamine every aspect of my life through a builder’s lens. That’s why I want to share some of the relevant thinking and data-gathering with you here, lest it offer inspiration or comfort to any of my kindred spirits looking to build their own idiosyncratically functional, win-win relationships with whatever mainstream institutions they find themselves entangled with.

What I’m giving up

To any fellow academics reading this, what likely jumps out most immediately and eyebrow-raisingly in my new title is that little word “clinical” in …