In the course of obtaining my second required recommendation (of three), I was told by my former professor that I needed to write up a curriculum vitae (or CV for short, meaning “life’s course” in Latin) of my academic achievements.  He helpfully provided a list of links to look up, and as I am always interested in reading more information, I took a look in particular at the guide to a CV published by MIT.  Since it was useful to me, I wish to share that information with you all as well.  A link to a .pdf written by MIT about the Academic CV can be found here:

Click to access cv.pdf

I would simply like to review some of that information and what makes it useful.  I must admit that, as of yet, some of these sections of the Academic CV are a bit slender, and some of them are empty so far, but I hope they will not remain so for long.  The trick is that the CV is an opportunity for a scholar to toot their own horn, in a manner of speaking, by explaining their achievements in the academic world.  Some of us are a little shy about self-promotion, and an academic CV offers the opportunity to show off in a non-offensive way.

An Academic CV is usually organized with the following sections:

• Name and Address
• Education
• Dissertation
• Fellowships and Awards
• Prepared to Teach or Areas of Research Interest or Areas of Specialization or Areas of Competence/ Expertise or Principal Research and Teaching Interests
• Teaching Experience
• Research Experience
• Publications and Presentations
• Works in Progress
• Related Professional Experience
• Languages
• Other
• References
• Dissertation Abstract

Let us examine this organization to see how it encourages the academic to share their achievements in an appropriate way.  For one, towards the very top of the CV is the education and dissertation.  For an academic, education is often a very important matter, and being able to explain one’s research topics (especially the dissertation, which takes years of hard work and requires the development of new insight or the exploration of something unknown within the existing body of knowledge, and is something that people ought to feel a great sense of accomplishment about) is a very excellent matter.  When you add in the chance to show fellowships and awards (which are often given to worthy doctoral students in order to help them complete their research), it gives an academic a good opportunity to speak about worthy academic achievements.

Immediately following these sections are other sections that directly demonstrate teaching competence, which is a very powerful tool in showing that someone is capable of handling the work load of an associate professor.  For example, many Ph.D programs (particularly in History) appear to require as many as four or five different major or minor fields, which gives much opportunity to demonstrate the required theoretical background to teach a wide variety of courses.  Even if most of the courses a Teaching Assistant or Graduate Assistant will teach are “survey courses” like World History or American History to 1865, those are the sorts of courses that are bread and butter for adjunct professors as well–so such experience is practical and useful.

The next couple of sections give more opportunity for an active (if not normally self-aggrandizing) academic the opportunity to demonstrate success as well by demonstrating what sort of research they have done, say, presenting a paper at a meeting of the Organization of American Historians, or at a more specialized presentation for historians in one’s area or a sub-field of history.  Additionally, showing one’s works in progress as well as one’s published body of works (books, papers, book reviews, and the like) demonstrates the competency to conduct serious research as well as interests that may help bring credit to an institution.

Likewise, the sections for related professional experience and languages also provide the chance to show relevant but not precisely academic work, and also a chance to demonstrate what languages you can read (often the ability to read multiple languages is acquired in graduate school to read primary source documents, even if one cannot necessarily speak them).  If one can read four languages–why be shy about it?  It gives you that much more opportunity to research and publish.  Likewise, the “other” section gives an opportunity to explain some odd or quirky facts about yourself.  For example, I am a lyrical tenor and a concert violist–such things are odd and striking, and provide a flavor of personality to my curriculum vitae, showing that I have spent a great deal of time honing my artistic capabilities in a disciplined fashion, and that I can work well in a team (or orchestra) as the case may be.

The academic curriculum vitae referenced by MIT closes with references (always a very important thing) and an abstract of the dissertation, which gives some “hard evidence” in the form of one’s writing of the level of research and approach to writing that someone has.  All told, this particular format gives an academic the chance to show their own work and show a lot of about the aspects of their being they have spent the most time and effort developing and honing without the need to brag about it.  You can rest assured that I’ll be working on honing and developing my own, and I hope the same is true for you as well.