Starting Academia Differently

This book reimagines what it means to begin an academic life by exploring the diverse, nonlinear, and often invisible paths that lead people into academic careers. Through essays blending critique and celebration, it gives voice to those who balance doctoral work with caregiving, activism, migration, and marginalization. The book challenges the myth of the "ideal academic" and expands the meaning of success in higher education. Readers will gain both insight and affirmation from this collection. The essays deliver practical wisdom and emotional resonance by weaving autoethnography, poetic inquiry, and narrative reflection into acts of resistance and renewal. The book's approach is deeply interdisciplinary, drawing from feminist, postcolonial, and organizational theory, to reveal how structural inequities shape who gets to belong in academia. By modelling reflective, creative, and plurality of writing, it offers readers ways for reimagining mentorship, scholarly identity, and the rhythms of academic life itself. Starting Academia Differently is written for early career researchers, doctoral students, and academic leaders seeking to make universities more humane, inclusive, and imaginative. It will also resonate with educators, mentors, and practitioners in higher education who wish to support diverse trajectories and foster spaces where different kinds of scholarship, and scholars, can thrive.

Nicholous M. Deal is an Associate Professor of Management in the Department of Business and Tourism at Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada. Kristin S. Williams is an Associate Professor in Management with the FC Manning School of Business at Acadia University, Canada.

1. Introduction 2. 'Othered' early careering: What is it like not to be born at the finish line? 3. An analytical autoethnographic exploration of Tall Poppy Syndrome and the Politics of Visibility in Early Career Academia 4. Composing Myself: A Reflexive Dialogical Inquiry 5. Dreaming Got Me Here and Will Keep Me Going: Reflections on a Journey to Academia 6. You Want Me to Lead? But I Feel Like I Just Got Here! 7. A Year of Rejections and Reflections: Starting Anew as a Migrant Researcher 8. Early Career or Alt-Ac? Educational Development Career Trajectories9. An Inquiry into the Lived Experience of the Business Professional in Academia 10. Achievement Unlocked: My Journey through the Academy 11. Jill of All Trades, Master of Some: An Early Career Academic at a Polytechnic Chapter 12: Pursuing Pre-tenure Pregnancy 13. The Climb In: Gender, Work and Early Academic Life 14. This is not Valhalla": An (Older) Woman Early Career Researcher as a Loki Plaything 15. 'Late bloomers' Navigating the PhD Journey and Early Career Academia 16. Aristotle or Confucius? Friends or Foes? 17. Shifting Identities: A Chinese-born Japanese Scholar's Journey of Resilience in a Hybrid Academic Space 18. Navigating Career Transition to Western Academia as Female Asian Scholars: A Collaborative Autoethnography 19. The Crystallization of a Young Scholar Identity: Have I Grown too Fast in Global South Academia? 20. Academic Identity Engineering: Stories About Identity Construction from Academics in the Global South 21. From University Dropout to Department Chair: How the Hell Did that Happen? 22. Answering the Call: Reclaiming Scholarship, Identity, and Community 23. Between Two Worlds: My Journey as a Scholar Navigating Western and Indigenous cultures 24. Hacking Academia: A Self-interview Study 25. Scholarly Horizons: Cultivating Influence Inside and Outside Academic Walls 26. Whose Early Career is it Anyway? Asymmetric Reciprocity and Abusive Friendships in Academia 27. Just Say No (To Pubs, for Now) 28. A Time-Traveling Gangster Talks to a Drunk Soviet Bear 29. All of You is Welcome Here: Nurturing Radical Acceptance in the JEDDI-A Classroom 30. Just Another Statustistic: Being Indigenous in Industry and Academia 31. Adjunctification as Early Careerism: A Duoethnography Exploring Precarious Academic Work Chapter 32: Manifestations of Curiosity and Nimbleness on the Way to Academic Success