Schedule of Events

The following schedule reflects the sessions being offered for the 2025 conference. We will conduct four sessions: a career options panel, a tentative guest speaker, roundtables, and job market panels by discipline. Please register in advance of the conference.


8:00 am – 9:15am
Alumni Hall
Registration and Breakfast

9:15 am – 9:30 am
Whittenberger Auditorium
Welcome Remarks

David Daleke, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Health Sciences; Dean of the University Graduate School Bloomington


Panel 1: Career Options

9:30 am – 11:00 am Whittenberger Auditorium

  • Working at a Research Intensive University
    Nikolaos Zirogiannis, Assistant Professor, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
  • Working at a Regional University
    Jay Howard, Dean of the Faculty, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Sociology, Butler University
  • Working as a Teaching Faculty at an R1
    Karolina Serafin, Director of Language Instruction, Italian, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Italian, and Teaching Professor of Italian
  • Working in Other Roles in Academia
    Gabriel Escobedo, Assistant Dean of Community, Inclusion, and Engagement, Maurer School of Law

Featured Guest Speaker

11:15 am – 12:15 pm
Whittenberger Auditorium

  • Leonard Cassuto, Professor of English, Fordham University

Lunch and Keynote Address

12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Alumni Hall
Brian Powell, James H. Rudy Professor, Sociology


Roundtable Session

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Round 1: 2:00-2:40 pm
Round 2: 2:50-3:30 pm
Georgian Room

  • Table 1: Grants and Funding (Social Sciences & Humanities)
    Eduardo S. Brondizio, Distinguished Professor, Department of Anthropology
  • Table 2: Grants and Funding (Natural & Applied Sciences)
    Heather Hundley, Professor, Department of Biology
  • Table 3: How to Get Tenure
    Julia Shaw,  Associate Professor of Music (Music Education), Jacobs School of Music
  • Table 4: Finding the Mentorship You Need
    Sean Nicholson-Crotty, Director, Graduate Mentoring Center, Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
  • Table 5: Writing Statements (Diversity, Personal, and Teaching)
    Koji Chavez, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
  • Table 6: Work-Family Balance in Academia
    Rebecca Lave, Associate Dean for Social and Historical Sciences and Professor of Geography
  • Table 7: Early Graduate School Advice from Advanced Students
    Emily Ekl, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology; Benjamin Luczak, PhD Candidate, Department of English
  • Table 8: Publishing and Presenting at Conferences (Social Sciences & Humanities)
    Jessica Nina Lester, Professor of Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology, School of Education
  • Table 9: Publishing and Presenting at Conferences (Natural & Applied Sciences)
    Sara Skrabalak, Professor, Department of Chemistry
  • Table 10: Navigating Academia as International Students
    Siyun Peng, Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Sociology
  • Table 11: Graduate Career Coaching
    Brandi Smith, Director of Graduate Career Coaching, Indiana University Graduate School Bloomington

Panel 4: Navigating the Job Market

3:45 pm – 5:00 pm

  • Navigating The Job Market (Social Sciences)
    Panel 4A – Whittenberger Auditorium
    • Advice from a Hiring Perspective – Research Intensive
      Sara Friedman, Professor in Anthropology and Gender Studies
    • Advice from a Hiring Perspective – Teaching Intensive
      Jay Howard, Dean of the Faculty, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Sociology, Butler University
    • Advice from a Recent Hire
      Monica Nesbitt, Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics
    • Advice from a Post-Doc
      Maleah Fekete, Postdoctoral Scholar, IU Irsay Institute
  • Navigating The Job Market (Arts & Humanities)
    Panel 4B – Alumni Hall
    • Advice from a Hiring Perspective – Research Intensive
      Joan Hawkins, Professor, The Media School
    • Advice from a Hiring Perspective – Differences between Teaching Intensive and Research Intensive Universities
      Michael Adams, Provost Professor, Department of English
    • Advice from a Recent Hire
      Carlos Colmenares Gil, Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature
    • Advice from a Post-Doc
      Ramón Resendiz, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society
  • Navigating The Job Market (Health & Natural Sciences)
    Panel 4C – Georgian Room
    • How to Organize and Present Research in a Job Talk
      Alexandru Georgescu, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
    • Advice from a Hiring Perspective – Teaching Intensive
      Andrew Kehr, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, DePauw University
    • Advice from a Recent Hire
      Julia Kelson, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
    • Advice from a Post-Doc
      Sham Vera, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology