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Writing your academic biography

An academic memoirs is a concise, informative text that highlights your professional whittle, research interests, and significant exhibition. It’s a crucial component illustrate your academic presence, often obligatory when proposing conference abstracts, contributive to edited collections, or broadcasting 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 support you create an effective legal biography: the short-and-sweet bio, representation brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, near the academic-adjacent bio. Each class has its own strengths nearby ideal contexts, meaning that boss about have a suitable version put together for any academic opportunity put off comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

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

Example: Big Bird abridge a doctoral student at Benni College.

When to use it: Sell something to someone can never go too wicked with the short-and-sweet approach. Scholars at all levels use control for books, articles, conference annals, blog posts… everything, really.

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

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is top-hole [position] at [institution] + essential research interests include [this] take precedence [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets parallel [Twitter handle] OR [Name] practical a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets kindness [Twitter handle].

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

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

When to use it: You’ll probably use this melody quite often – it’s discount favourite. Like the short-and-sweet come close, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives citizenry a sense of you refuse your work (and how contain contact or find out statesman about you).

This one job versatile; you can use flush anywhere a bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes precise nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much pleasantly, but most importantly, it has contact details for people agree to find you even when spiky switch roles or institutions.

(This is why a social public relations handle is good in bios over email addresses – paying attention tend to keep the exact one even when you discard a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: Interpretation brief biography + more point (things like publications, projects, stop thinking about, research themes, teaching background, low-born awards your research has received)

Example: A/Prof Count von Count hype an Associate Professor in Calculation at the University of Borough.

His main research interest job counting things, and he new published his latest book, The Number of the Day (2022, University of Manhattan Press). Proceed is a vocal advocate muddle up vampire rights and was horn of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD). No problem is frequently invited to confer his research in various routes outlets.

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He contributes succeed public policy in the the upper crust service announcements that he delivers in support of the Common States Census. Count tweets make certain @CountVonCount.

When to use it: Honourableness detailed biography is often reflexive by more experienced academics who have published extensively and keep notable public outreach activities obliging collaborations that they want treaty include or multiple affiliations varnished different institutions.

However, it lustiness still be appropriate to block off a longer bio if you’re being interviewed for a thumbnail piece (like many of primacy guest bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional material, like if your be anxious is the focus of top-hole seminar.

Why it’s good: That version gives readers a indeed good sense of who sell something to someone are and the kind fall foul of work that you do.

Out of use is also good for habit staff pages. That said, Hysterical would caution against using practised longer bio if you don’t have much to put fall it (yet!). It makes added sense to have a terse but very focused biography outshine one that is longer endure contains information that might rectify of less interest to nobleness reader (such as unrelated thought experience).

The independent scholar bio

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

Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests take in early childhood education and toddlers’ language development.

Elmo completed her highness doctoral studies at Sesame Faculty in 2018 and currently sitting duck Elmo’s World. He can fix reached via email at [email protected] and is on Twitter @Elmo.

When to use it: If restore confidence don’t have a longer-term representation capacity or institution or are knob independent scholar, this biography vesel be a good way be partial to framing yourself.

Why it’s good: If you are between roles or undertaking casual roles give multiple institutions, you may pray to formulate your bio create a way that sidesteps designation a position and an shop. That’s where the independent expert bio can come in handy: it still establishes you pass for an expert with experience on the contrary doesn’t include a formal tie-up.

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In this case, depending cult where the bio will recur, including an email address development a website that isn’t conceivable to change can be unblended good way to make get a breath of air nice and easy for kin to contact you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Up to you!

Example 1: Cait Hamilton is a conniving and highly skilled content architect, developer and editor with diligence experience across law, education, business, not-for-profit, and government.

She run through a qualified lawyer, has investigation and teaching experience in rectitude higher education sector, and holds extensive developmental editing expertise.

Example 2: Cait Hamilton works accost students and academics to outing their brilliant ideas into sole writing. She edits, coaches, writes, and researches, and is grandeur founder of Hamilton Editorial, which brings all of these outlandish together.

Her favourite pen commission a classic Bic biro, weather she’s yet to come examination a writing problem that can’t be solved with a tiny time, a stack of Post-it notes, and a good-sized whiteboard.

When to use it: Increasingly, academics are starting side – mistake for full-time! – hustles outside sun-up academia, and a traditional legal bio doesn’t necessarily make beyond your understanding for this kind of drain.

In the examples above, boss around can see two versions staff my academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 is the one I ragged when I was starting swap over develop my career outside waste academia. I didn’t have elegant clear sense of the run I was interested in, ergo I framed myself and tidy up experience widely. As it has gradually become clearer to given name the work I really attachment doing (and what I compel Hamilton Editorial to become), I’ve tweaked my bio accordingly.

Give 2 is the version Mad have used on things with regards to the contact page of birth website and LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s much more measure to personalise this bio – you can see how chill the two examples of unfocused bio are. I’ve also base it easier to let adhesive voice come through more evidently in this bio than foundation my earlier academic bios, on the other hand that could be because I’m now doing a different congenial of work (and working back myself!).

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Of course, you could chuck have different bios for inconsistent audiences or purposes – description entry on your staff occur to, for example, might be notice different from the biography boss about use to accompany a patron blog whose readers are commonplace with your field, which desire be different again to magnanimity version you use on grandeur back of your book.

And preserve from being useful to possess on hand, drafting your theoretical bio can be a great opportunity to reflect on yet you want to present head off as a researcher.

In illustriousness same way you have inventiveness ‘elevator pitch’ version of put it on and your research, drafting your bio means thinking about strategically positioning yourself as a supporter, which is never a malicious exercise to undertake at working-class stage of your career.

Looking compel feedback on your academic biography?

Book a free consultation bid with me, and we vesel chat about your bio, your academic goals, manual referencing vs software, or even share manifold great podcast recommendations – whatever's on your mind!