Connect.ed Futures is our new series that connects senior academics at UCL with students who want to pursue careers in academia.
For our first event in this series, we were joined by Nicola Miller, the Professor of Latin American History at UCL, who shared with insights from her own career, talking about her experiences and offering us her advice. Professor Miller began by reflecting on what made her want to pursue academia. She told us that she had always loved the process and excitement of learning. She enjoyed writing and realised her love for teaching after finishing her PhD. But it was in her final year as an undergraduate that she was inspired by one of her tutors, who gave her the encouragement she needed to pursue her own career in academia. Professor Miller reminded us of the importance, ultimately, of believing in ourselves. Professor Miller then spoke about her personal career journey, noting that the profession has changed over the last three decades. Today, there are opportunities to do a range of activities as an academic. For example, one can engage in outreach and public policy work amongst other endeavours. However, she added that the core elements of life as an academic are still the same and the most important: teaching, research and publication. She then offered four pieces of advice to students who wanted to pursue their own careers in academia. Firstly, love what you do. You have to be interested in your field of research so find a topic that you know will continue to fascinate you. Secondly, make sure that you enjoy teaching. Don’t underestimate how central teaching is, because it will be a main feature of your career as an academic. Thirdly, you can’t be a perfectionist, and you have to keep publishing. You will feel differently about different pieces of work. There will always be a part of you that wants to revisit what you have done to rework and revise your writing. But you must publish. Some will like your work and others will critique it, but part of life as an academic is being resilient through this process. Finally, enjoy being an intellectual self-starter. A love of studying is not always enough because throughout your career you will have to generate your own ideas and your own research projects — no one will do this for you. Professor Miller ended her talk with a final thought. ‘This career will take over your life. There will be pressure, but the rewards are high’. Thank you, Professor Miller, for coming to talk to us, and for supporting students in pursuit of their own academic careers. If this blog post sparked your interest, then keep an eye out for our next Connect.ed Futures event in the new year! We can’t wait to host it and we look forward to seeing you there.
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