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Burnout and the Academic Vocation
with special guest Jon Malesic
February 12, 2020
Speaker Bio:
Jonathan Malesic is a writer, teacher, and public intellectual who focuses on the intersections of work, religion, and education. His writing has appeared in The New Republic, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Hedgehog Review, America, Commonweal, and several academic journals. His first book, Secret Faith in the Public Square, won the gold medal for the religion category in the 2009 INDIES Book of the Year Awards, and he has won grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisville Institute. He teaches first-year writing at Southern Methodist University and is currently writing a book on burnout under contract with University of California Press. He lives in Dallas.
Workshop Description:
A vexing problem for academics is burnout: the experience of exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness that results from stretching across the gap between the ideals of your academic vocation and the reality of your academic job. Jonathan Malesic left his job as a tenured theology professor at a small liberal arts college after undergoing burnout over the course of several years. Since then, he has written about occupational burnout for the Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Republic, Commonweal, and elsewhere. He has also published dozens of articles on work as a moral and spiritual problem in academic journals and general-interest publications. In this workshop, he will address what burnout is, why educators are so vulnerable to it, and how building more compassionate institutions can help prevent and heal faculty and staff burnout.
Jonathan recommends two short articles to workshop participants, and one longer article for those who want to take a much deeper dive. All are optional; the workshop will not assume anyone has read them.
- Jonathan Malesic, “Millennials Don’t Have a Monopoly on Burnout,” The New Republic, Jan. 10, 2019.
- Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter, “There Is More to the Job Experience than Just Burnout,” Thrive Global, June 2, 2017.
- Maslach, Christina, Wilmar B. Schaufeli, and Michael P. Leiter. “Job Burnout.” Annual Review of Psychology 52, no. 1 (2001): 397–422.
For more event details, see the Johnson Center brochure.
Faculty Lunches:
Tuesday Lunches will be held in the Moseley Room, 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
On Thursdays, we have lunch and scheduled discussions led by colleagues on specific topics in Wright Campus Center, Room 231. Topics may include evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning, diversity and inclusion, updates on faculty-driven initiatives, and other professional development issues in liberal arts and higher education. On the first Thursday of every month, separate lunch discussions are held for new faculty, faculty in their third to fifth years, and post-tenure faculty.
- See a list of the Thursday Lunch Topics
Lunch begins at 11 a.m., and discussion starts at 11:30 a.m. Sign in at the cashier’s table in the Dining Hall.
A.J. Carlson Lecture on the Liberal Arts
Jack Carlson arrived at Austin College as a scholar of early modern European history and grew professionally under the influence of President John D. Moseley to become not only the Dean of Humanities but also one of the College’s leading voices in support of liberal arts education. Jack’s courageous defense of liberal arts education never weakened despite the many financial pressures confronting the College; on the contrary, the consistency of his voice remained a major influence at the College throughout his long and productive career.
Dr. Oscar Page, President Emeritus, Austin College
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
(Reception: 4 p.m., Lecture: 5 p.m)
Mabee Hall, Wright Campus Center
Free and open to the public
“The Changing Nature of the Liberal Arts: The Impact on the Traditional Liberal Arts College”
Faculty Research and Pedagogy Talks
Professors talk about their research and teaching.
Free and open to the public. All talks are in WCC 231 with a carry-your-tray lunch starting at 11:00. Talks will begin at 11:30 and will be followed by a question and answer period.
Dr. Martinella Dryburgh, Thursday, October 17, 2019
“The Toxic Triangle: Using Podcasts to Avoid Destructive Leadership”
Dr. Terry Hoops and Dr. Julie Hempel, Thursday, November 14, 2019
“Pedagogical Collaboration: Experiential Learning at the Querétaro Anthropology Field School”
Dr. Ashley Tharayil, Thursday, February 20, 2020
“Classroom Simulations: What Worked and What Didn’t”
Dr. Andra Petrean, Thursday, March 19, 2020
“Teaching Robotics: An Opportunity to Inspire and Connect to Students Across Campus”