Books/resources for new faculty

On the teaching side, I wish that I'd read at the start of my career:

  • Ambrose, et. al., How Learning Works
  • Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do

And specifically for math instructors:

  • Krantz, How to Teach Mathematics

This useful guide, called Against Junior Faculty Stress Culture recommends the following resources:

  • The Art of Saying "No", Kerry Ann Rocquemore, National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, date unknown.
  • The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure-Track Faculty Life, Radhika Nagpal (Harvard Computer Science), Scientific American, July 2013.
  • On Avoiding Stress Culture, Jean Yang (Carnegie Mellon Computer Science), personal blog, September 2016.
  • Shriram Krishnamurthi's Personal Manifesto, Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown Computer Science), Google+, September 2016.
  • The Best Way to Not Get Tenure, Geoffrey Challen (University at Buffalo), personal blog, October 2016
  • Why I Don’t Tell Trainees How Many Hours I Work as a Tenure-Track Faculty Member and Advice on How to Be an Effective PhD Researcher, Sherri Rose, personal blog, June 2016 and August 2015
  • You Do Not Need to Work 80 Hours a Week to Succeed in Academia, Megan Duffy, personal blog, February 2014
  • How to Live in Paradise: A Guide for New and Disgruntled Professors, David Evans (University of Virginia Computer Science), personal blog, 2015.
  • How I (sometimes) achieve academic work life balance, Andy J. Ko (University of Washington iSchool), Medium, 2017.

It is on github, so don't hesitate to expand it by making pull requests!


For new researchers/teachers in France, there is this welcome guide entitled "Livret d'accueil des mathématicien(ne)s" written by the French math societies (SMF, SMAI, SFS). Some of it is specific to mathematics, but most of it appears to be suitable for everyone. (I hope I will have the need to read it someday...)