Mapping Your Academic Career – with Dr. Gary M. Burge (Gupta)

Yesterday I assembled a comfy IKEA chair in my office, so I wanted to have a sit-down and do some reading. I read through Gary Burge’s new book Mapping Your Academic Career: Charting the Course of a Professor’s Life (IVP, 2015).

This book helps professors at all stages (but I would say especially those in early years) think about who they are, how they exist in their academic world, and it helps them plan for the future in terms of success and service. Burge’s book has many insightful anecdotes and is informed by psychology, even though Burge does not claim to be an expert in psychology.

In many ways, this book is very reassuring – especially knowing that lots of new faculty struggle with the same problems, insecurities, and lowpoints. Burge is very gracious, warm, and supportive.

At about $11 on Amazon, buying this book should be a no-brainer for un-tenured faculty, but again he has great advice for those in later stages of their career as well.