James Steur
Coherence Over Linearity: Transitioning to Administrative Roles
By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Over the course of a career, it is natural for your professional goals to change over time. For many members of the academy, especially faculty members, moving into staff and administrative roles are one prominent and…
An Honest Conversation: Parenting in the Academy
By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Parenting is both a fulfilling and demanding experience, and parents in academia face unique professional challenges at all stages in their career. Parents in the academy juggle a high volume of research, teaching, and…
Maximizing Feedback About Research During Conference Sessions
By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The 80th MPSA Conference is just around the corner, and if you’re like me I’m excited to explore new restaurants in downtown Chicago, present my research, and blog about exciting panels. Over the years, I’ve written blog…
Practical Tips for Online Student Engagement
By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Since the spread of COVID-19, many universities recognize that online teaching is here to stay. However, the online teaching environment poses its own set of unique challenges around the instructor’s teaching presence and…
Define Your Success: A Roundtable on Surviving Graduate School
By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate school is an exciting time for students to explore their research interests and develop as a scholar. However, the experience also poses its own set of challenges: an intense workload, understanding statistical…
Conference Smarter Not Harder: An Interview with Dr. Gustavo Diaz
By James Steur, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign In this blog post, I’m interviewing Gustavo Diaz (pictured at left): a recent PhD graduate and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research at Tulane University. Gustavo has attended MPSA six…
Coping with COVID-19: A Graduate Student’s Reflections
By James Steur, a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign About one month ago, I wrote a blog post about strategies for networking at the 2020 MPSA Conference. To be frank, given the last few weeks, my post about networking and my own research seem…
To Networking & Beyond: Strategies for Successful Networking
By James Steur, a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign As MPSA 2020 fast approaches, my colleagues have talked to me about the part of conferences they dread more than their presentations: networking. Someone I know remarked, “I feel like an…
Public Engagement: Simplify Without Being Simple
By James Steur at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign As a first-generation student, one of my primary goals as an academic is pursuing public scholarship. I want to write in a clear and engaging way for general audiences so they understand political science research and why it makes a…
Keeping It Real: Political Science and Civic Engagement
By Michael Smith of Emporia State University Great #MPSA19 panel discussion regarding blogging, Twitter and podcasting w/@LaraMBrownPhD @NaymaQayum @JustinBullock14 @GreggRMurray and Michael Smith from @emporiastate. Happy to chair such an insightful panel discussion. pic.twitter.com/HzVztFhzJd —…