In mid-September we started a new series, “Office Hours: Year One”, where four first-year tenure-track professors from different institutions reflect on their experiences throughout the first year. See Part 1 here. We are back with Part 3, and the first semester is officially done done for our cohort. Hopefully, they and our dear readers used the winter break to recuperate and rest (ha!). In this post, we are checking in to see how things went in wrapping up the end of the fall semester, and what sort of priorities are guiding the group’s thinking as we look ahead to the spring semester.
Thank you again to Dr. Brooklyn Walker (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Dr. Charmaine Willis (Old Dominion University), and Dr. Jennifer Ostojski (Indiana State University) for contributing and letting us get a glimpse at the first-year life.
Question (to all): Tell us about how you feel about the first semester in terms of your teaching, research, and overall well-being? Were you able to accomplish your goals? What are you looking forward to in the new semester?
Brooklyn Walker: One semester down! And in many ways, it went well. I started digging into a new dataset, developed a survey to field in the spring, wrote 3 manuscripts, and received 4 R&Rs. My students seemed to enjoy my class and learned a few things along the way. And I’m figuring out how to navigate campus, both literally and administratively.
On paper, that looks pretty good. But it feels like it’s a warm-up for the spring. I’ll field my first solo survey and need to develop a second with a co-author. I’m traveling three times (to two workshops and MPSA). Those travel plans include commitments to make substantial revisions to two manuscripts and write (from scratch) three more. I need to get those R&Rs back to editors. I’m taking on a new (but small) service commitment in the department, and another one in the college. And I’m teaching two classes this semester, one of which is a new course prep. The new course is religion and politics, and while I feel prepared about the actual material and have previous experience teaching controversial material, events at places like the University of Oklahoma have me on edge. This feels like a lot to handle, so much so that I felt a surge of adrenaline as I typed out this paragraph.
I have an end-of-year ritual of pulling out my new planner (yes, I still use a paper planner) and thinking through my goals for the year. This year, I’m wanting to be more intentional about relationship-building, self-care, and structure around work. I want to try block-scheduling my writing and teaching time. I have a list of people I want to reach out to regularly (including new Knoxville friends!). And I want to make regular use of my Calm app, get back into non-political science reading, and explore Knoxville by walking through my neighborhood. While many of my goals aren’t directly related to work productivity, I’m hopeful that they’ll enhance the creativity and joy I want to bring to my work.
Charmaine Willis: The Fall 2025 semester already feels far away, although my last classes (and subsequent grading) finished only about a month ago (less when considering exams and final papers). Overall, the semester went pretty well; I received good student evaluations, presented some research, got two articles under review (for the first time), received an R&R, and received an article acceptance in the days leading up to Christmas. That said, I achieved what I set out to do last semester, especially in terms of research.
I have gotten better at taking full weekends off, especially as my spouse is not an academic and works M-F (from home). That said, I still have a hard time fully relaxing and taking the day off, but I did do that one day last weekend, and it was luxurious. I hope to be better at fully taking days off, including tasks around the house.
This semester will be interesting as it is the first time since Spring 2023 that I have only taught one course (or fewer). It is technically the first time I am teaching this course at the graduate level, but I have taught an undergraduate version of it multiple times (Asian Politics). I think (hope) it will be a lot of fun!
My biggest concern this semester is the impact of the relative lack of (externally-imposed) structure on my research, given my light teaching load (a good problem to have, I know!). My goal is to submit at least five in-progress papers to academic journals this semester, as well as my R&R paper, and to draft two conference papers (one is already in progress, one will be from scratch). (Moving the pipeline along!) At least 1-2 of them will go under review over winter break (hopefully 3, but that may be too optimistic). The most important thing, though, and the biggest challenge in some ways, is to work on my book manuscript. I have written a co-authored book, so I have ideas/strategies for making progress on a larger project (and of course, I have the experience of finishing a dissertation), but it will require more internal deadlines and self-imposed structure than is needed for journal articles (or a co-authored project). I find that I work best outside of my house, and I am hoping this semester to be better about going to my office to work on days that I don’t teach, at least once or twice a week.
Here’s to a successful Spring 2026!
Jennifer Ostojski: I am in awe of my two colleagues here in this reflective column, who have had amazing first semesters both in teaching and research! Appreciative of sharing this journey with them. Looking back at my own experience, there is a lot that I am taking away from my first semester. Teaching-wise, I have to admit that three new (and new-ish) preps took a lot out of me. I feel fulfilled and excited about how my three classes went, what I put into them, and how my students received them. Yet, the load was (predictively) almost all consuming in many ways. I found myself teaching a variety of topics that had real time developments and impacts on my professional and personal communities, and so to navigate these in order to do right by my students and my profession was an intellectually stimulating minefield at times. Maybe others can resonate with this sentiment. I don’t know if the upcoming semester will be all too different when it comes to that, but I have set myself a goal for my teaching: intentionality – both when it comes to reading and writing (for my students). I have tailored assignments and projects around intentionality (and against AI’s looming dominion), aiming for “less is more” (oomph). I will report back later on whether it worked or not.
Research-wise I had to take a moment and remind myself that I submitted a co-authored chapter as well as an entire edited collection (!) at the beginning of the semester. Although progress has been slow (for many good reasons) on these two projects, I am hopeful that the spring semester will see significant steps forward. Research and writing in academia is a fickle process, because at times it seems like “nothing is happening” or “I am writing not enough” – and then everything seems to happen at the same time. Yet, reminding yourself about everything that is already in works and the infamous pipeline is a good exercise in “touching grass” (as the cool kids say). In addition to that, I have developed two research projects based on one of the classes I taught last semester. Like my colleagues in this thread, I am looking forward to ISA and MPSA in the spring to connect with like-minded nerds. I am prepping one teaching paper for ISA that I am super excited to share. Feel free to reach out prior to either of the two conferences – happy to meet up!
Here is to the next semester! Be on the lookout for more posts from our cohort.
Two pieces of free advice, worth every penny:
Block schedule time on email; e.g., 12:00-1:00 pm M-F. Don’t open your work email outside of these times. The universe will continue to exist and you will be more productive and relaxed.
Do what will keep you marketable, which means (unfortunately) peer-reviewed publications. No one ever landed a job because of committee service. No one gets denied tenure solely because of lack thereof.