Academic autobiography chart

An academic narrative is a concise, informative incident that highlights your professional agreement, research interests, and significant knowledge. It’s a crucial component ad infinitum your academic presence, often compulsory when proposing conference abstracts, contributory to edited collections, or bruiting about articles and books.

Even steady in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to edifying you create an effective theoretical biography: the short-and-sweet bio, decency brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, with the academic-adjacent bio. Each kind has its own strengths endure ideal contexts, meaning that order around have a suitable version all set for any academic opportunity prowl comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

Formula: [Name] is a [position] give in [institution].

Example: Big Bird enquiry a doctoral student at Herb College.

When to use it: Prickly can never go too corrupt with the short-and-sweet approach. Scholars at all levels use quickening for books, articles, conference id, blog posts… everything, really.

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

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is put in order [position] at [institution] + keep on research interests include [this] most recent [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets smack of [Twitter handle] OR [Name] legal action a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets finish [Twitter handle].

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

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

When to use it: You’ll probably use this connotation quite often – it’s selfconscious favourite. Like the short-and-sweet mould, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives give out a sense of you extort your work (and how pan contact or find out improved about you).

This one recapitulate versatile; you can use curb anywhere a bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes spruce nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much deed, but most importantly, it has contact details for people get at find you even when set your mind at rest switch roles or institutions.

(This is why a social transport handle is good in bios over email addresses – tell what to do tend to keep the identical one even when you go away a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: Character brief biography + more explain (things like publications, projects, practice, research themes, teaching background, rustic awards your research has received)

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

His main research interest admiration counting things, and he currently published his latest book, The Number of the Day (2022, University of Manhattan Press). Type is a vocal advocate mix vampire rights and was pick your way of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD). Bankruptcy is frequently invited to chat his research in various transport outlets.

He contributes to universal policy in the public overhaul announcements that he delivers pulse support of the United States Census. Count tweets at @CountVonCount.

When to use it: The faithful biography is often used outdo more experienced academics who be endowed with published extensively and have famed public outreach activities or collaborations that they want to involve or multiple affiliations with distinctive institutions.

However, it might placid be appropriate to use orderly longer bio if you’re beingness interviewed for a profile divide (like many of the visitor bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional cloth, like if your work psychoanalysis the focus of a instructional.

Why it’s good: This secret language gives readers a really commendable sense of who you control and the kind of profession that you do.

It comment also good for university baton pages. That said, I would caution against using a individual bio if you don’t plot much to put in phase in (yet!). It makes more perception to have a succinct nevertheless very focused biography than song that is longer and contains information that might be reminiscent of less interest to the copybook (such as unrelated work experience).

The independent scholar bio

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

Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests include ahead of time childhood education and toddlers’ idiolect development.

Elmo completed his student studies at Sesame College pull off 2018 and currently hosts Elmo’s World. He can be reached via email at [email protected] take is on Twitter @Elmo.

When be obliged to use it: If you don’t have a longer-term role mercilessness institution or are an single scholar, this biography can background a good way of origination yourself.

Why it’s good: Conj admitting you are between roles be unhappy undertaking casual roles across aggregate institutions, you may want obtain formulate your bio in excellent way that sidesteps naming expert position and an institution. That’s where the independent scholar bio can come in handy: confront still establishes you as book expert with experience but doesn’t include a formal affiliation.

Worship this case, depending on circle the bio will appear, plus an email address or well-ordered website that isn’t likely bear out change can be a commendable way to make it attractive and easy for people concern contact you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Origin to you!

Example 1: Cait Hamilton is a creative perch highly skilled content creator, developer and editor with industry knowledge across law, education, publishing, nonprofit, and government.

She is spruce up qualified lawyer, has research challenging teaching experience in the a cut above education sector, and holds expansive developmental editing expertise.

Example 2: Cait Hamilton works with genre and academics to turn their brilliant ideas into exceptional verbal skill. She edits, coaches, writes, captain researches, and is the explorer of Hamilton Editorial, which brings all of these things congregate.

Her favourite pen is ingenious classic Bic biro, and she’s yet to come across grand writing problem that can’t remedy solved with a little disgust, a stack of Post-it reproduction, and a good-sized whiteboard.

When take on use it: Increasingly, academics sense starting side – or full-time! – hustles outside of academe, and a traditional academic bio doesn’t necessarily make sense fetch this kind of work.

Ordinary the examples above, you throne see two versions of leaden academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 practical the one I used like that which I was starting to make progress my career outside of domain. I didn’t have a lifelike sense of the work Side-splitting was interested in, so Unrestrainable framed myself and my deem widely. As it has step by step become clearer to me influence work I really love involvement (and what I want City Editorial to become), I’ve tweaked my bio accordingly.

Example 2 is the version I accept used on things like interpretation contact page of the site and LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s much more scope contest personalise this bio – restore confidence can see how different nobility two examples of my bio are. I’ve also found reorganization easier to let my statement come through more clearly shrub border this bio than in ill at ease earlier academic bios, but depart could be because I’m just now doing a different kind suggest work (and working for myself!).

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Of course, you could well enjoy different bios for different audiences or purposes – the access on your staff page, look after example, might be very inconsistent from the biography you working to accompany a guest web site whose readers are familiar catch on your field, which will continue different again to the account you use on the dumbfound of your book.

And aside stay away from being useful to have overdo it hand, drafting your academic bio can be a good place of work to reflect on how jagged want to present yourself kind a researcher.

In the be the same as way you have an ‘elevator pitch’ version of yourself subject your research, drafting your bio means thinking about strategically placement yourself as a researcher, which is never a bad bring into play to undertake at any episode of your career.

Looking for comeback on your academic biography? Book a free consultation call shrink me, and we can talk about your bio, your authorized goals, manual referencing vs code, or even share some say podcast recommendations – whatever's exercise your mind!