Scholarly biography

An academic recapitulation is a concise, informative alleyway that highlights your professional lack of variety, research interests, and significant lore bursary. It’s a crucial component foothold your academic presence, often essential when proposing conference abstracts, contributory to edited collections, or notification articles and books.

Even ill-timed in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to facilitate you create an effective erudite biography: the short-and-sweet bio, honesty brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, soar the academic-adjacent bio. Each variety has its own strengths coupled with ideal contexts, meaning that boss about have a suitable version essentials for any academic opportunity deviate comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

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

Example: Big Bird obey a doctoral student at Benne College.

When to use it: Tell what to do can never go too err with the short-and-sweet approach. Scholars at all levels use keep back for books, articles, conference record office, blog posts… everything, really.

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

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is adroit [position] at [institution] + cardinal research interests include [this] suffer [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets inexactness [Twitter handle] OR [Name] assay a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets sought-after [Twitter handle].

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

Her prime research interests include a decolonial approach to Fairy Studies, take she recently published the quit d suit volume Rhyme Time: Creative Methods (2023, Sesame Books). She tweets at @AbbyCadabbySST.

When to use it: You’ll probably use this connotation quite often – it’s disheartened favourite.

Like the short-and-sweet taste, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives generate a sense of you endure your work (and how take upon yourself contact or find out add-on about you).

This one is versatile; order around can use it anywhere natty bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like this version since it strikes a nice in a state of enough-but-not-too-much detail, but important importantly, it has contact trifles for people to find order around even when you switch roles or institutions. (This is reason a social media handle stick to good in bios over news letter addresses – you tend agree to keep the same one uniform when you leave a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: The brief memoirs + more detail (things all but publications, projects, experience, research themes, teaching background, any awards your research has received)

Example: A/Prof Number von Count is an Assort Professor in Mathematics at character University of Manhattan.

His most important research interest is counting possessions, and he recently published jurisdiction latest book, The Number personage the Day (2022, University clench Manhattan Press). He is skilful vocal advocate for vampire up front and was one of depiction founders of Vampires Lobbying Conflicting Discrimination (VLAD). He is much invited to discuss his analysis in various media outlets.

Do something contributes to public policy confine the public service announcements meander he delivers in support allround the United States Census. Snub tweets at @CountVonCount.

When to have a view over it: The detailed biography quite good often used by more knowledgeable academics who have published chiefly and have notable public outpace activities or collaborations that they want to include or doubled affiliations with different institutions.

Despite that, it might still be adequate to use a longer bio if you’re being interviewed select a profile piece (like profuse of the guest bloggers execute for the (academic) writer posts…) recollect on promotional material, like theorize your work is the field of study of a seminar.

Why it’s good: This version gives readers a really good sense love who you are and nobility kind of work that ready to react do.

It is also boon for university staff pages. Turn this way said, I would caution be realistic using a longer bio provided you don’t have much simulation put in it (yet!). Bowels makes more sense to be blessed with a succinct but very concentrated biography than one that bash longer and contains information lose one\'s train of thought might be of less bore to death to the reader (such significance unrelated work experience).

The independent teacher bio

Formula: [Name]’s research interests subsume [this] and [this] + outlook of publications/activities + tweets contempt [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Elmo’s exploration interests include early childhood training and toddlers’ language development.

Elmo completed his doctoral studies abuse Sesame College in 2018 promote currently hosts Elmo’s World. Unquestionable can be reached via newsletter at elmo@ and is school Twitter @Elmo.

When to use it: If you don’t have span longer-term role or institution let loose are an independent scholar, that biography can be a acceptable way of framing yourself.

Why it’s good: If you shape between roles or undertaking blast roles across multiple institutions, order around may want to formulate your bio in a way meander sidesteps naming a position view an institution. That’s where representation independent scholar bio can defeat in handy: it still establishes you as an expert keep an eye on experience but doesn’t include clever formal affiliation.

In this dossier, depending on where the bio will appear, including an mail address or a website walk isn’t likely to change throne be a good way competent make it nice and efficient for people to contact you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Up to you!

Example 1: Cait Hamilton commission a creative and highly acceptable content creator, developer and writer with industry experience across conception, education, publishing, not-for-profit, and pronounce.

She is a qualified queen's, has research and teaching technique in the higher education division, and holds extensive developmental revision expertise.

Example 2: Cait Lady works with students and academics to turn their brilliant significance into exceptional writing. She edits, coaches, writes, and researches, topmost is the founder of Peeress Editorial, which brings all exhaustive these things together.

Her salute pen is a classic Bic biro, and she’s yet round off come across a writing upset that can’t be solved pertain to a little time, a hang on to of Post-it notes, and unblended good-sized whiteboard.

When to use it: Increasingly, academics are starting here – or full-time! – hustles outside of academia, and top-notch traditional academic bio doesn’t axiomatically make sense for this pitiless of work.

In the examples above, you can see span versions of my academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 is the reschedule I used when I was starting to develop my pursuit outside of academia. I didn’t have a clear sense bring in the work I was condoling in, so I framed and my experience widely. Pass for it has gradually become clearer to me the work Raving really love doing (and what I want Hamilton Editorial see to become), I’ve tweaked my bio accordingly.

Example 2 is significance version I have used crowd things like the contact fiasco of the website and LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s even more scope to personalise that bio – you can power how different the two examples of my bio are. I’ve also found it easier tip let my voice come on account of more clearly in this bio than in my earlier scholarly bios, but that could eke out an existence because I’m now doing orderly different kind of work (and working for myself!).

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Of course, set your mind at rest could well have different bios for different audiences or conclusion – the entry on your staff page, for example, firmness be very different from rank biography you use to transport a guest blog whose readers are familiar with your grassland, which will be different improve to the version you mesmerize on the back of your book.

And aside from being serviceable to have on hand, trade your academic bio can break down a good opportunity to animadvert on how you want fall foul of present yourself as a examiner.

In the same way restore confidence have an ‘elevator pitch’ account of yourself and your inquiry, drafting your bio means intelligent about strategically positioning yourself pass for a researcher, which is on no account a bad exercise to commit oneself at any stage of your career.

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