s*UH*bbatical. Emphasis on the "uh?"

 Sabbatical. I love it. I wasn't sure how I would feel. And I am surprised I love it. BUT. I. DO. If you read my first post where I laid out my goals, you saw that my to-do was ambitious (or, some may say, crazy) with around 9 projects. I am so glad I made that list to keep me accountable but also to track my progress. I, being so visually-oriented, also put the list up on our living room chalkboard wall. Tah-dah! By the end of February, I had FOUR DRAFTS SUBMITTED! Two are book chapters of edited volumes and two are peer reviewed articles. When I checked off those boxes, I had an epiphany. I AM GOOD. If all I get accomplished on my sabbatical is these 4 publications, I am still well ahead of what is expected of me. And, I hit that "requirement" at the end of February! Now, that doesn't mean these 4 are finished. I will likely receive revisions, as I explain below. Since then, I have worked on 2 other projects in tandem and supported my husband through a new movie pre...

  JANUARY: ​​ s-UH?-bbatical. Emphasis on the “uh.” A weary academic documents her quest. One month down. Really? Today’s blog is partly about the sabbatical process and partly about my research!   THE MECHANICS OF SUHBBATICAL: So far, it is not what I envisioned regarding writing, timing, and wellness. I had this idea that I would wake up and write for 3 hours every weekday. This is really quite funny because I am not new to research. But, for some reason, for sabbatical I didn’t envision all the other parts of research. Reading. Emailing. Searching. Attending lectures. More reading. All the reading. Note taking. Printing. But I just had this image of waking up and writing. Don’t get me wrong. I have written, but I have invested far less time writing than doing the other aspects of research.   Also, timing is interesting. The waking up for 3 uninterrupted hours of research is not turning out to be realistic thus far. It works several mornings a week, but for others I ha...

s-UH?-bbatical. Emphasis on the “uh.” A weary academic documents her quest. GOOGLE "sabbatical" and these are the images that pop up. What the what? What does this mean?!? In academia we are lucky to still have the idea of sabbatical, but only for some. In most cases, you have to be tenured. Then you can apply for this “break.” During this time, one is supposed to focus on their research. But that is all they tell you. So. Here. I. Am. I applied for and received sabbatical. And the idea terrifies me. And I don’t know what to do. You mean I won’t be slammed by emails? Teaching overloads? Chair duties? Committees? Commuting? Event planning? Grading? Independent studies? Rec letters? The idea of having unstructured free time, frankly, freaks me out. So, I have decided to blog. I am inspired to blog during my sabbatical because of 2 individuals and one big science-based motivator!  One, Dr. Rosalie Aldrich has a regular blog about academic life. She updates it monthly! I d...