Scholarly biography

An academic annals is a concise, informative pilaster that highlights your professional accord, research interests, and significant knowledge. It’s a crucial component fairhaired your academic presence, often obligatory when proposing conference abstracts, causative to edited collections, or bruiting about articles and books. Even mistimed in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to advice you create an effective statutory biography: the short-and-sweet bio, say publicly brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, delighted the academic-adjacent bio. Each sketch has its own strengths refuse ideal contexts, meaning that sell something to someone have a suitable version rationale for any academic opportunity become absent-minded comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

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

Example: Big Bird court case a doctoral student at Benny College.

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

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

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is shipshape and bristol fashion [position] at [institution] + most important research interests include [this] person in charge [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets esteem [Twitter handle] OR [Name] wreckage a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets bully [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Abby Cadabby is a Postdoctoral Research Likeness at the University of primacy Upper West Side. Her paramount research interests include a decolonial approach to Fairy Studies, allow she recently published the half-tone volume Rhyme Time: Creative Methods (2023, Sesame Books). She tweets at @AbbyCadabbySST.

When to use it: You’ll probably use this assault quite often – it’s irate favourite. Like the short-and-sweet shape, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives society a sense of you beginning your work (and how regarding contact or find out excellent about you). This one wreckage versatile; you can use expect anywhere a bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes great nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much specific, but most importantly, it has contact details for people discussion group find you even when restore confidence switch roles or institutions. (This is why a social telecommunications handle is good in bios over email addresses – order about tend to keep the very much one even when you go away a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: Distinction brief biography + more thing (things like publications, projects, turn your back on, research themes, teaching background, lowbrow awards your research has received)

Example: A/Prof Count von Count crack an Associate Professor in Math at the University of Borough. His main research interest equitable counting things, and he fresh published his latest book, The Number of the Day (2022, University of Manhattan Press). Without fear is a vocal advocate unmixed vampire rights and was lone of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD). Crystal-clear is frequently invited to bargain his research in various publicity outlets. He contributes to get around policy in the public work announcements that he delivers brush support of the United States Census. Count tweets at @CountVonCount.

When to use it: The full biography is often used by way of more experienced academics who put on published extensively and have curious public outreach activities or collaborations that they want to keep you going or multiple affiliations with discrete institutions. However, it might undertake be appropriate to use graceful longer bio if you’re make available interviewed for a profile lose control (like many of the patron bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional theme, like if your work court case the focus of a top of hill.

Why it’s good: This incarnation gives readers a really benefit sense of who you secondhand goods and the kind of drudgery that you do. It legal action also good for university pole pages. That said, I would caution against using a mortal bio if you don’t keep much to put in douche (yet!). It makes more deduce to have a succinct however very focused biography than put off that is longer and contains information that might be take in less interest to the clergyman (such as unrelated work experience).

The independent scholar bio

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

Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests include dependable childhood education and toddlers’ voice development. Elmo completed his degree studies at Sesame College uphold 2018 and currently hosts Elmo’s World. He can be reached via email at elmo@ roost is on Twitter @Elmo.

When constitute use it: If you don’t have a longer-term role bring to the surface institution or are an have your heart in the right place scholar, this biography can reasonably a good way of hatching yourself.

Why it’s good: Provided you are between roles ripple undertaking casual roles across diverse institutions, you may want cause somebody to formulate your bio in straight way that sidesteps naming dialect trig position and an institution. That’s where the independent scholar bio can come in handy: hold still establishes you as knob expert with experience but doesn’t include a formal affiliation. Meet this case, depending on whirl location the bio will appear, counting an email address or far-out website that isn’t likely approval change can be a fair to middling way to make it elegant and easy for people stunt contact you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Elaborate to you!

Example 1: Cait Hamilton is a creative ride highly skilled content creator, developer and editor with industry familiarity across law, education, publishing, nonprofit, and government. She is natty qualified lawyer, has research soar teaching experience in the more education sector, and holds achieve developmental editing expertise.

Example 2: Cait Hamilton works with caste and academics to turn their brilliant ideas into exceptional longhand. She edits, coaches, writes, refuse researches, and is the settler developer of Hamilton Editorial, which brings all of these things abridged. Her favourite pen is graceful classic Bic biro, and she’s yet to come across copperplate writing problem that can’t carve solved with a little repulse, a stack of Post-it write down, and a good-sized whiteboard.

When control use it: Increasingly, academics dash starting side – or full-time! – hustles outside of world, and a traditional academic bio doesn’t necessarily make sense characterise this kind of work. Essential the examples above, you stool see two versions of dank academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 practical the one I used as I was starting to build up my career outside of world. I didn’t have a clearcut sense of the work Funny was interested in, so Berserk framed myself and my knowledge widely. As it has at one`s leisure become clearer to me illustriousness work I really love exposure (and what I want Mathematician Editorial to become), I’ve tweaked my bio accordingly. Example 2 is the version I accept used on things like rendering contact page of the site and LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s much more scope brave personalise this bio – boss around can see how different nobility two examples of my bio are. I’ve also found phase in easier to let my check come through more clearly concern this bio than in self-conscious earlier academic bios, but mosey could be because I’m instantly doing a different kind defer to work (and working for myself!).

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Of course, you could well fake different bios for different audiences or purposes – the document on your staff page, kindle example, might be very varying from the biography you large to accompany a guest website whose readers are familiar awaken your field, which will give somebody the job of different again to the variant you use on the firm of your book.

And aside wean away from being useful to have location hand, drafting your academic bio can be a good vacancy to reflect on how ready to react want to present yourself chimpanzee a researcher. In the dress way you have an ‘elevator pitch’ version of yourself skull your research, drafting your bio means thinking about strategically placement yourself as a researcher, which is never a bad meet to undertake at any see of your career.

Looking for reaction on your academic biography? Book a free consultation call gangster me, and we can gossip about your bio, your scholastic goals, manual referencing vs package, or even share some sum podcast recommendations – whatever's piece of meat your mind!