Kim Cotzias 
Many faculty enter summer expecting academic writing productivity to return once the semester ends. Instead, summer often becomes a period of fragmented attention, stalled projects, and inconsistent writing routines. One reason is that academic writing productivity depends heavily on continuity. Momentum is easier to maintain than rebuild. When writing becomes sporadic, faculty spend substantial time … Read more
Author: NCFDD Summer can feel deceptively open at first. The semester ends, meetings slow down, and many faculty finally have room to think about the projects that have been difficult to sustain during the academic year. Writing goals return to the surface. Research plans that were pushed aside start demanding attention again. Fall teaching preparation … Read more
Faculty development is often described as professional development for faculty. While technically accurate, that definition no longer captures the full scope of what development includes. For many years, faculty development was closely associated with teaching support through workshops, pedagogy training, and instructional resources. Today, the term is used more broadly. Faculty development increasingly refers to … Read more
As we continue the Summer of Faculty Development series, one thing becomes clear quickly: summer rarely feels as open as faculty expect it to. After a demanding semester, summer can feel like the first real opportunity to make progress on research, writing, course planning, grant work, or professional development. Projects that sat untouched during the … Read more
Faculty research often slows during the semester, even when there is strong commitment and clear goals in place. Teaching, meetings, and administrative responsibilities gradually take priority, leaving less time and energy for sustained research work. This pattern is widely recognized, but the way it is addressed tends to focus on individual strategies. Faculty are encouraged … Read more
Author: NCFDD In this Summer of Faculty Development blog series, we keep coming back to one plan most faculty have made at some point: using the summer to catch up on research. By the end of the semester, the list is usually long. A manuscript that stalled. A proposal that needs more than a light … Read more
Author: NCFDD Academic productivity often feels hardest to sustain late in the semester. If you’ve caught yourself thinking, “I thought I’d be further along by now,” you’re not alone. As the semester moves into its later weeks, with deadlines and end-of-term demands starting to stack up, many faculty start to notice a gap between what … Read more
Author: NCFDD There’s a point in the semester when research starts to feel harder to return to. Not because the work isn’t important, and not because you’ve run out of ideas. More often, it’s because too much time has passed since the last meaningful step forward. What once felt like steady progress now feels stalled, … Read more
Author: Elizabeth Odders-White, PhD We all know how challenging life in academia can be, and it seems to get harder every year. The intense and varied demands lead to constant juggling, which can leave us feeling that we’re not doing anything well. Unhelpful stories like this further escalate our stress, setting off a vicious cycle. … Read more
Author: NCFDD For many faculty, Monday begins in reaction mode. Emails pile up. Meetings take over the calendar. Urgent requests quickly set the tone for the week. By Wednesday, it’s easy to feel busy without being sure what actually moved forward. This is where faculty weekly planning makes a difference. Highly productive faculty don’t necessarily … Read more