What is my lecturer doing?

I sometimes get the impression that my students, especially undergrads, don’t actually know what it is that I do, outside of when they see me in lecture, tutorial, or at office hours. The topic sometimes comes up obliquely, such as when I reply on Monday morning to an email sent Friday evening and explain why I don’t respond to emails over the weekend. It sometimes comes up more directly, when I have to reschedule a seminar because I’ll be away at a conference, and particularly when I’m talking to students whom I know are considering an academic career, I try to talk about what it is that I do, so that they have a clearer picture of what they are actually considering. But sometimes I have occasionally wished to have a simple list of “What is my lecturer doing?” that I could point them to. I finally decided to create one. It is divided into four parts: What is my lecturer doing on a weekday? What is my lecturer doing in the evening? What is my lecturer doing on the weekend? What is my lecturer doing during term break/summer vacation?

I would love to expand these lists. Are you a university lecturer (permanent or not, at any level)? What do you do outside of lecturing, tutoring, and holding office hours that you wish your students knew you did? Please send me an email, and I will add your activities to the list.

If you’re a student, don’t let this list put you off from contacting your lecturer or asking to meet with him or her! But if you don’t get an immediate response, pick your favorite reason off the list as an explanation why not.

It is a weekday. What is my lecturer doing?

Lecturing to you.
Preparing for lecture.
Writing post-lecture notes about what went well/what didn’t.
Working part-time in the field that I teach so that I can share current information with you in class rather than teaching it ‘as I remember it’.
Tutoring you.
Preparing for tutorials.
Meeting with supervisees — 3rd year undergrads, master’s students, PhD students.
Meeting with advisees.
Participating in PhD vivas.
Responding to emails.
Keeping up with relevant discipline-specific mailing lists.
Keeping up with relevant discipline-specific blogs.
Writing letters of recommendation for you.
Writing essay questions.
Writing homework problems.
Grading essays.
Grading seven 12,000 word dissertations in two two weeks.
Grading homework.
Writing exams, four months before they will take place, and desparately hoping she’ll get through all the material necessary to be able to answer the questions.
Writing model exam answers for external examiner.
Modifying exam questions on the basis of external examiner comments.
Externally examining exam questions, and suggesting modifications.
Externally examining student work from other universities.
Revising module descriptions, only three months into a module and nine months before the new version will happen.
Attending a two hour meeting of the faculty ethics committee.
Attending a meeting of the departmental Diversity and Inclusion Group, which seeks out ways to make both the department and the discipline a more diverse and inclusive place to study and work.
Attending a meeting of the Board of Studies, anywhere from 1.5 to three hours.
Attending a meeting of the Board of Examiners, prepared to argue in your favor if necessary.
Reading current research or other papers relevant to her own research.
Writing papers for her own deadlines, one of which is only two days after your deadline. She didn’t plan it this way, but will still respond to every panicked email she gets by scheduling away half an hour of her own writing time to meet with you.
Going to the library.
Reading colleague’s papers to give comments.
Talking to colleagues about their work and hers.
Preparing to write a grant application.
Writing a grant application.
Revising a grant application.
Reading other people’s grant applications to offer suggestions before submission.
Reading other people’s grant applications after submission, to provide recommendations to the funding bodies whether they should fund the application or not.
Writing referee reports for journals.
Skyping with a colleague about a joint paper she’s writing.
Skyping in to a reading group happening at another university.
Having a pint with a colleague.
None of the above, because nursery has called informing her she should probably take her daughter to A&E for a suspected broken leg.
Organizing conferences.
Attending conferences.

It is after 5:00pm. What is my lecturer doing?

Picking up her daughter from nursery.
Walking home. Walking up the big hill takes more than twice as long as walking down it, when you’re with a four year old.
Making supper.
Eating supper.
Cleaning up after supper.
Having a pint with the family.
Having a pint with colleagues.
Watching Thomas the Tank Engine or the equivalent on the couch for twenty minutes.
Reading one to three stories, depending on length, how late it is, and how tired she is.
Singing one to three songs, none of which are insipid nursery rhymes, thank you very much.
Sitting on the couch in the dark in silence.
Doing data entry for one of her large-scale academic projects.
Grading essays.
Grading seven 12,000 word dissertations in two weeks.
Writing blog posts.
Writing fiction.
Catching up on non-work email.
Nothing, because she is pinned to the couch by a cat, and she’s finished what she was doing, but she doesn’t want to move and disturb the cat.
Taking a bath.
Reading fiction, especially fantasy and sci fi.
Going to bed far later than she should, but still far earlier than she ever did as an undergrad.
Attending an academic conference.

It is a weekend. What is my lecturer doing?

Herding a four year old around, on foot, running errands, and taking twice as much time as she would if she were on her own.
Eating ice cream with her daughter.
Hanging out at the public library.
Cooking soup in bulk to freeze for those days when there is no time to prepare food
Laundry.
Thinking about cleaning the house. Not actually cleaning the house.
Sewing an Easter bonnet. Or a Halloween costume. Or a Christmas nativity costume.
Attending a child’s birthday party.
Trying to get some reading, research, writing, or marking done, but being interrupted every five minutes.
Reading stories aloud.
Responding with good humor to the nth request to have a pretend cup of tea/pretend salad/pretend dinner/pretend dessert.
Having a tea party on the floor.
Supervising finger painting. Or play-doh. Or glitter glue.
Walking through the woods.
Picking blackberries.
Binge watching science-fiction with her husband.
Traveling around Europe doing medieval re-enactment/re-creation.
Attending an academic conference.

It is term break/summer vacation. What is my lecturer doing?

All of the above (sometimes minus lecturing and running tutorials). What, you thought we got a break?

This page was last updated 26 September 2016. Most of the contributions are my own (I’m a lecturer in philosophy, married with one kid); other contributions have come from a lecturer in philosophy, with a partner and no kid; a senior lecturer in business; a senior lecturer in law.