Krista Scott-Dixon was an academic superstar. She had great teaching evaluations, she’d published a couple of books, she had articles in peer-reviewed journals, she’d won external funding, and most amazing of all, she finished her Ph.D. in just under four years (yes, you read that right–four years). She was set for that glorious tenure-track appointment we’ve all fantasized about.
But after working at a research institute while doing some contract teaching, Krista decided she’d had enough of the academic life. Now she’s the research director for the Healthy Food Bank, editor-in-chief of Spezzatino magazine, web editor for Precision Nutrition and a weightlifting powerhouse. And she’s got so many interesting things to say that our conversation spans three different podcasts.
This first podcast covers:
- 0:00 – 2:00: intro
- 2:00 – 9:00 the intense feelings you have when you’re thinking of leaving academia, including panic, feeling stuck, and, “I’m not qualified to do anything else, so I might as well just be here.”
- 9:00 – 11:00: her lateral move to a research-based job in health care (and how she got the job)
- 11:00 – 14:00: the story of her decision to bust out of research and into a career path that she boldy forged on her own
- 14:00 – 18:00: how she applied her women’s studies Ph.D. to weight training (”It’s all about transfer of research and information”).
Listen to the 20-minute podcast here.
Related posts:
- Podcast #1: “There are places that would walk over their own mother to hire you.”
- Podcast #3: “There is no provision in academia to care for or nurture the physical self.”
- Podcast #8: “I made the decision to leave because there were a lot of pieces that just didn’t fit together”
- Podcast #7: “See what it feels like to wake up on Sunday morning and not have to grade papers.”
- Podcast #5: “There’s definitely a place for Ph.D.s in politics.”
{ 0 comments… add one now }