Academic Reviews

NAVIGATING THE ACADEMIC CAREER: COMMON ISSUES AND UNCOMMON STRATEGIES, 2013

Reviews:

• Making a career choice is a very big decision. Navigating the Academic Career: Common Issues and Uncommon Strategies was written to help graduate students, researchers, and faculty members successfully navigate through the many facets of beginning and maintaining a productive career in academia. The author, Victor Shaw, intends for the book to be applicable to those at both small teaching colleges and large research institutions. Thus, readers will find a broad range of topics in this book dealing with both technical issues (e.g., publishing research, grants) and social issues (i.e., personal scholarship identity, interpersonal relationships with colleagues).

• At only half the length, Navigating the Academic Career is less intimidating than the industry-standard text on career preparation The Compleat Academic: A Career Guide (Darley, Zanna, & Roediger, 2004) … However, Navigating the Academic Career is much more concise, a plus for those with short attention spans and/or little patience for academic narratives … Relative to both books, Shaw takes a fairly frank, often edgy no-nonsense approach to discussing the issues in academia. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the book is the inclusion in the appendices of examples and samples of the documentation that academics are required to produce. This alone would be worth the price of the book for up-and-coming academics.

• Shaw evaluates four aspects of academia at both a conceptual and a pragmatic level. His objectives are to explore the generalized process of career establishment, to examine common issues specific to academia, to provide insightful solutions to problems experienced by academicians, and to supply academicians with a guidebook focused on scholarship and academia … Professional development, which includes education, degree completion, and the job search, is discussed in Part I. Part II reviews organizational employment. This includes research, teaching, service, and tenure. The third part encompasses professional networking and evaluates the importance of publication, conference presentations, grant writing/awards, and professional memberships. The last part explores scholarly identity and overall career paths.

• Each chapter is divided into two sections, the first depicting the historical and general context of concerns experienced within academia, and the second delineating effective suggestions for coping with and mitigating those concerns … One notable example is Suggestion Number 2 in the chapter on publication: “Write to build a house and write to record a journey” (p. 78). This phrase is truly characteristic of the most prolific writers, and the analogy of building a house provides some additional guidance on the project management of a research project …The chapter “Academic Career Pathways,” in which Shaw provides an extended background and analysis of the pitfalls, based on faulty assumptions, to avoid along the path of one’s career, is a must read.

• Overall, Navigating the Academic Career provides a frank perspective on the academic life. The background and analysis that Shaw provides on a breadth of topics are comprehensive and helpful. Some of his suggestions seem to reflect the perspective of more research-intensive academic positions (there is no chapter devoted specifically to research; it is common in all chapters). However, those serving or interested in serving in nonresearch-intensive positions will be able to adapt the advice to their positions as well. Although we have mentioned a few places where we think there ought to be qualifiers or stipulations to the advice provided, the overwhelming majority of the advice is a face-valid depiction of the issues and decisions that one must navigate in academia.

—PsycCRITIQUES

· In Navigating the Academic Career: Common Issues and Uncommon Strategies, Shaw takes on the tasks on providing a dual purpose guide for academics pursuing careers in higher education, as well as providing a general examination of academic careers for the general public. In four parts, Shaw addresses professional preparation for an academic career (Part I), obtaining and carrying out the duties of an academic position (Part II), activities required to support an academic career (Part III) and pathways and scholarly identity (Part IV). Each chapter is subdivided into two parts—“Background and Analysis” followed by “Practice and Suggestions”. In each case, the background and analysis section opens with what can be considered an introductory statement about a particular topic and a list of references associated with the topic under consideration. Shaw then seeks to provide some theory about the topic under consideration before moving into practical suggestions.

· Shaw does provide some “insider” and non-standard insights in the text that are likely to be enlightening, especially for the general public. For example, Shaw describes educational systems as “both gatekeeper and track-setter” (pg. 4). The gatekeeping comes in the measures used to determine who matriculates, whereas the track-setting aspect arises from the nature of increasing advancement in education to track an individual into a particular discipline or subject and to determine which related product types will be produced and /or acknowledged as validation of one’s success on the path. As education tracks also influence one’s professional networks, which in turn impact current and future success, tracking can also determine the degree to which one may have influence in a particular arena based on a number of factors including the prestige on one’s advisor and university. Furthermore, Shaw aptly describes the distinction between education and affiliation with an institution in an academic position: “Just as education gives them [academic scholars] stamps of proof for entry into the world of scholarship, institutional affiliation provides academicians with “drivers’ licenses” to function in the modern academic enterprise” (pg. 27). He also provides salient advice for individuals to use these rights to drive their personal research agenda, interests and goals that have been internally motivated and self-determined.

· Shaw is to be commended for attempting to provide a guide for academics that would ‘lift the veil’ on what it takes to be successful, while simultaneously providing general insights that may educate the general public on the academic life. In this text, he does this specifically through addressing a wide range of issues from academic preparation to entering academia and all facets of engagement and productivity in academia until retirement. In doing so, he attempts to engage issues of importance to the scholar on this path as well as to provide general insights that would inform the general public of the academic pathway.

· This book likely provides the most insights for beginning graduate scholars, especially in the social sciences or humanities, … Shaw certainly provides a nuanced, and at times political view, of some aspects of engagement in academia, including somewhat adversarial views about tenure and peer review and the potential exploitative nature of networking. In these instances, the author approaches the promise of “uncommon strategies” included in the title of this volume. In this sense, pairing this text with a more traditional book that outlines the specific guidelines for an academic career in a particular academic discipline could provide strong balancing information for a burgeoning academic scholar.

—Education Review

IN VIEW OF ACADEMIC CAREERS AND CAREER-MAKING SCHOLARS: INNOVATIVE IDEAS FOR INSTITUTIONAL REFORM, 2008

Reviews:

• One of the strengths of this book is the organization of content … The first section of each chapter addresses the background and analysis of the academic career component. In the second section, Shaw recommends five reforms to improve upon the focal issue. Within each reform, Shaw presents the current situation of the academic career component, poses ideas to improve upon the current situation, and emphasizes the impact and importance of such a reform.
• Shaw uses this book as a vehicle to present eighty different reforms in the hopes that leaders of academic institutions and professional associations will read, understand, and implement these innovative ideas. Those who would most benefit from reading these reforms would be graduate school advisors, professors, academic association leaders, editors of professional publications, faculty chairs, grant and award committee members, and academic affairs administrators. Due to the organization of this book, to benefit from the ideas presented, readers would not need to read the entire book to glean the appropriate information; instead readers can focus on just the chapters pertaining to their situations.
• Overall, I thought Shaw presented several key reforms that would be relatively easy to implement; thus, improving the experience of those pursuing academic careers.

—National Academic Advising Association Journal

• In sixteen chapters, Shaw focuses on what leads individuals to become academics, their career processes and the events that shape a scholar’s professional identity. He divides each chapter into two sections: the first part of each chapter offers readers background information and an analysis of focal issues that academics face in higher education; the second section proposes innovations that set out to reform the status quo within particular disciplines, institutions or systems.
• A university administrator may find sections on organizational management and professional advancement useful, while a new professor will perhaps pay closer attention to the sections dedicated to teaching, networking and service as one works his/her way towards tenure.
• By pointing out the man-made barriers that impede career-making scholars’ successful integration into higher education, Shaw acknowledges that some of the reforms he proposes are clear-cut and uncomplicated, but also recognizes that their successful implementation will require academics to keep an open mind. Academicians who are in positions of authority may take his suggestions to heart and be able to put them to use right away; others may use this text to reflect on their own career-making decisions as they come to the end of their careers at a university. Still others may read this book to gauge where they stand now in relation to what they want to achieve as educators and scholars. Shaw’s readers will have a chance to reflect on the course their career pathways have taken, the challenges they have faced, and those that still lie ahead through the pages of this book. What future academicians will see in the results of their service will be determined by how today’s academic career-making professionals function in their respective institutions and how their aspirations are met in academia as a whole.

· Shaw has successfully compiled major sociological perspectives for explaining a general academic career making pathway. In one volume he provides an overview of almost all the fundamental issues involved in an academic career. With a clear focus on change, Shaw gives inspiration for creative innovation and provides a blueprint for institutional reform. This book is a helpful desk reference from which both individuals and institutions can develop more informed ideas of future operations in negotiating a path to career success.

—Education Review

CRIME AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: A CROSS-BORDER STUDY, 2007

Reviews:

• The book starts with bold generalizations about the century of Asia and the Pacific, which will bring transitions from socialism to capitalism, from ideological fanaticism to social pluralism, from totalitarian dictatorship to coalitional alliance, and from authoritarianism to democratic form of government.
• The book is structured along ten important ideas about cross-border crime and deviance, and ten necessary conditions for cross-border social control.

—Contemporary Sociology

CAREER-MAKING IN POSTMODERN ACADEMIA: PROCESS, STRUCTURE, AND CONSEQUENCE, 2004

A List of Books to Read for Postgraduate Students and Professionals:

• At the top of the list, followed by Career Strategies for Women in Academia: Arming Athena, Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia, An Author's Guide to Scholarly Publishing, and Successful Publishing in Scholarly Journals: Survival Skills for Scholars.

Reviews:

• Like those students, I found myself similarly situated several years ago when I contemplated jumping head first into the academy. How I wish someone could have given me Victor N. Shaw's Career-Making in Post-Modern Academia: Process, Structure, and Consequence. It's the type of book you want to thrust into the hands of every student who sits in your office and says, "I'm thinking of getting my Ph.D. and teaching at the college level" or every junior faculty member who walks through the door.
• Thankfully, Shaw ... offers for everything from successful publishing and researching guidelines to managing departmental politics. Much of his advice rings true and is not the usual stuff of advice columns in publications like The Chronicle of Higher Education. Good professional advice like this only comes by way of a competent and caring mentor. Sadly, such mentors are often in short supply. Shaw offers needed guidance in an easy-to-access manner.
• Shaw explores this landscape without preaching, romanticizing, or condemning it. It is this straightforward delivery and thoughtful analysis that makes Career-Making in Post-Modern Academia: Process, Structure, and Consequence a book you want to put in everyone's hands and keep on your shelf for easy reference.

—The Review of Higher Education

SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE: SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES, 2002

Awards:

• Outstanding Academic Title, 2003, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Reviews:

• Shaw has insightfully and successfully compiled all the major sociological theories and perspectives for explaining drug use and abuse into one volume....Essential. Anyone researching and seeking theoretical explanations about drug use.

—Choice

• [a] usable guide to the theoretical terrain underlying drugs and alcohol research, Each chapter provides a clear overview of the intellectual traditions of each perspective and offers concrete suggestions for incorporating theoretical concepts in applied research methods. In particular, the book has potential as a reference source to help sociologists doing applied drug research submit more theoretically grounded papers to academic journals.

—Contemporary Sociology

SOCIAL CONTROL IN CHINA: A STUDY OF CHINESE WORK UNITS, 1996

Endorsements:

• Gene Kassebaum, Professor of Sociology, University of Hawaii-Manoa
• This book repays reading. It raises important questions and provides an intelligent synthesis of ideas, a strong command of the materials, and a bold analysis of the sociology of everyday life in China.
• Gary T. Marx, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado-Boulder
• A comprehensive and richly informed study of the basic organizational unit of Chinese society. The book offers both description and prescription and should be of interest to anyone concerned with social control and contemporary China.
• Maurice N. Richter, Jr., Associate Professor of Sociology, State University of New York at Albany
• The work unit has been a central feature in the system of social control developed after 1949 in the People's Republic of China. This book describes in detail the way work units operate. It will be valuable reading for anyone interested in the functioning of modern Chinese society, and for anyone interested in problems of social control more generally.

Reviews:

• Examining in detail the procedures and operations of each of these critical areas of life, Shaw ... advances a nuanced theory of social control.
• If this finding represents an extension of social control theory beyond crime fighting and deviant behavior, Shaw reinforces his argument by comparing U.S. and Chinese social control at the workplace ...

—China Review International

• The point of departure for Social Control in China is that Chinese workplaces are not simply places for production, but also the units through which adherence to law and political policy is maintained ... In raising this question, Shaw points to an important and intriguing aspect of Chinese reform not fully addressed in other research ... Shaw's descriptive material is detailed and interesting, and is the main strength of the study.

—Contemporary Sociology

• Victor N. Shaw's Social Control in China: A Study of Chinese Work Units explores how social control is exerted in Chinese work units. It also considers how various control measures have changed recently in response to shifting political and economic currents. Individual chapters detail how social control is exerted through a variety of means ...
• The author's concern with the theory as well as the practice of social control broadens the potential appeal of the book.

—Journal of Developing Areas