Post-Graduate Pathway Reflections: Day 2
Aloha kākou! I’m back with another round of reflections on the second day of the 2025 NYU Faculty-First Look (FFL) Program hosted by the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. We had another intensive round of five panels with faculty, FFL alum, industry leaders, and postdoc scholars. Two of the overarching messages that resonated with me are to “be unapologetically you” and to “know your worth.” From testimonies, narrative inquiries, and personal experience, entering the academic job market can be a stressful process, and it’s important to surround yourself with loved ones who can help affirm you of the significance of your identity as a person and a scholar . . . in addition to your work. Some folks shared “nightmare” interactions with search committee members and administrators that led them to develop insecurities about their scholarly identity and their research agenda, and as wild as those stories seemed to me, I know that I shouldn’t take them for granted. These interactions were reported by Women of Color, serving as an important reminder that individuals in higher education institutions still have a lot of unlearning to do when it comes to creating and sustaining places where People of Color can be their full selves. Today, I have a number of strategies from panelists on this notion of communicating and staying true to your positionality throughout the job search process.
1. Lead with your positionality in application materials. For scholars who do identity-based work or utilize identity-based epistemologies, theories, and methodologies, the faculty and FFL alum recommend sharing your positionality to make clear your relationship to your research. For example, I could say “As a Wahine ʻŌiwi scholar,” to introduce the Indigenous woman epistemological lens I take in my project on Native Hawaiian mother-daughter relationships. In terms of organization, panelists suggest introducing your positionality early in your statements and cover letter.
2. “Show, don’t tell” committee members your teaching philosophy. As an exercise, we were asked to reflect on our graduate and undergraduate level courses and share what we enjoyed about them. This, too, is a reflection of the beliefs, practices, and values that speak to you and your strengths. Most cohort members shared experiences with liberators, community-centered teaching approaches that encouraged creativity and criticality among students. In practice, the faculty suggested that applicants use these reflections to craft strong paragraphs that use storytelling to convey our teaching philosophy. For example, when describing a course that you’d like to develop at an institution, share readings or authors you’d include in a syllabus and a brief reason behind your design.
3. Negotiating isn’t a “one size fits all” process. Take your unique needs and concerns into consideration when making requests and counter offers, including spousal hires, caregiving duties, family needs, and relocation costs. See additional resources shared today: Negotiation worksheet, compensation survey.
4. Take care of yourself. The academic job market is intense, and job searches are comparable to a part-time job. Take time and space to honor your sacredness and treat yourself and those close to you with love and care. During our lunch break, our cohort created a playlist with songs that get us hype and grounded. Music is so important to me; I always use it to settle my soul before or after presentations or during writing periods. Another personal strategy is to share food with folks. I incorporated this into my dissertation methods because cooking and eating was how I was socialized by my own family as a way to catch up with one another. With the recent developments in the academy, I’ve found that food is another cultural practice that has helped me practice self-care.
