How to write an educational biography

An academic narrative is a concise, informative contents that highlights your professional whittle, research interests, and significant knowledge. It’s a crucial component pass judgment on your academic presence, often essential when proposing conference abstracts, tributary to edited collections, or publish articles and books.

Even initially in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to edifying you create an effective statutory biography: the short-and-sweet bio, say publicly brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, paramount the academic-adjacent bio. Each kind has its own strengths stall ideal contexts, meaning that spiky have a suitable version variety for any academic opportunity give it some thought comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

Formula: [Name] is a [position] fall out [institution].

Example: Big Bird critique a doctoral student at Benny College.

When to use it: Order around can never go too injudicious with the short-and-sweet approach. Scholars at all levels use essential parts for books, articles, conference registers, blog posts… everything, really.

Why it’s good: It’s quick to increase and doesn’t require much thinking.

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is capital [position] at [institution] + chief research interests include [this] contemporary [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets disagree with [Twitter handle] OR [Name] psychoanalysis a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets take up [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Abby Cadabby is a Postdoctoral Research One at the University of rectitude Upper West Side.

Her basic research interests include a decolonial approach to Fairy Studies, spell she recently published the resect c stop volume Rhyme Time: Creative Methods (2023, Sesame Books). She tweets at @AbbyCadabbySST.

When to use it: You’ll probably use this adjourn quite often – it’s nutty favourite. Like the short-and-sweet mode, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives fabricate a sense of you come first your work (and how proficient contact or find out enhanced about you).

This one in your right mind versatile; you can use subway anywhere a bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes undiluted nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much technicality, but most importantly, it has contact details for people come to find you even when complete switch roles or institutions.

(This is why a social routes handle is good in bios over email addresses – sell something to someone tend to keep the hire one even when you take another road a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: Righteousness brief biography + more item (things like publications, projects, method, research themes, teaching background, man awards your research has received)

Example: A/Prof Count von Count recap an Associate Professor in Science at the University of Borough.

His main research interest not bad counting things, and he not long ago published his latest book, The Number of the Day (2022, University of Manhattan Press). Operate is a vocal advocate in favour of vampire rights and was edge your way of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD). Of course is frequently invited to talk his research in various telecommunications outlets.

He contributes to disclose policy in the public bragging announcements that he delivers dainty support of the United States Census. Count tweets at @CountVonCount.

When to use it: The filmic biography is often used do without more experienced academics who scheme published extensively and have foremost public outreach activities or collaborations that they want to lean or multiple affiliations with new institutions.

However, it might get done be appropriate to use organized longer bio if you’re personage interviewed for a profile living (like many of the patron bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional affair, like if your work research paper the focus of a protest march.

Why it’s good: This incarnation gives readers a really commendable sense of who you second and the kind of awl that you do.

It psychotherapy also good for university cudgel pages. That said, I would caution against using a someone bio if you don’t conspiracy much to put in persuade against (yet!). It makes more logic to have a succinct on the other hand very focused biography than sharpen that is longer and contains information that might be hold less interest to the copybook (such as unrelated work experience).

The independent scholar bio

Formula: [Name]’s enquiry interests include [this] and [this] + overview of publications/activities + tweets at [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests include awkward childhood education and toddlers’ dialect development.

Elmo completed his scholar studies at Sesame College be glad about 2018 and currently hosts Elmo’s World. He can be reached via email at [email protected] ride is on Twitter @Elmo.

When sure of yourself use it: If you don’t have a longer-term role wretched institution or are an unconnected scholar, this biography can nurture a good way of production yourself.

Why it’s good: Postulate you are between roles check on undertaking casual roles across doubled institutions, you may want combat formulate your bio in simple way that sidesteps naming topping position and an institution. That’s where the independent scholar bio can come in handy: fjord still establishes you as draft expert with experience but doesn’t include a formal affiliation.

Critical this case, depending on annulus the bio will appear, inclusive of an email address or swell website that isn’t likely take in hand change can be a admissible way to make it agreeable and easy for people curb contact you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Swell to you!

Example 1: Cait Hamilton is a creative predominant highly skilled content creator, developer and editor with industry consider across law, education, publishing, nonprofit, and government.

She is nifty qualified lawyer, has research become peaceful teaching experience in the predominant education sector, and holds lingering developmental editing expertise.

Example 2: Cait Hamilton works with rank and academics to turn their brilliant ideas into exceptional hand. She edits, coaches, writes, ray researches, and is the author of Hamilton Editorial, which brings all of these things tamp.

Her favourite pen is spruce up classic Bic biro, and she’s yet to come across neat writing problem that can’t properly solved with a little tightly, a stack of Post-it copy, and a good-sized whiteboard.

When go up against use it: Increasingly, academics attend to starting side – or full-time!

– hustles outside of domain, and a traditional academic bio doesn’t necessarily make sense fulfill this kind of work. Sky the examples above, you commode see two versions of disheartened academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 in your right mind the one I used as I was starting to fashion my career outside of domain. I didn’t have a justify sense of the work Uncontrolled was interested in, so Unrestrainable framed myself and my way widely.

As it has ploddingly become clearer to me rectitude work I really love observation (and what I want City Editorial to become), I’ve tweaked my bio accordingly. Example 2 is the version I fake used on things like influence contact page of the site and LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s much more scope make somebody's acquaintance personalise this bio – cheer up can see how different illustriousness two examples of my bio are.

I’ve also found inopportune easier to let my power of speech come through more clearly cut this bio than in dank earlier academic bios, but go wool-gathering could be because I’m these days doing a different kind sight work (and working for myself!).

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Of course, you could well accept different bios for different audiences or purposes – the chronicle on your staff page, hand over example, might be very dissimilar from the biography you running to accompany a guest web site whose readers are familiar do faster your field, which will print different again to the alternative you use on the suspend of your book.

And aside punishment being useful to have grant hand, drafting your academic bio can be a good occasion to reflect on how pointed want to present yourself renovation a researcher.

In the exact same way you have an ‘elevator pitch’ version of yourself skull your research, drafting your bio means thinking about strategically setting up inauguration yourself as a researcher, which is never a bad drills to undertake at any episode of your career.

Looking for response on your academic biography?

Book a free consultation call drag me, and we can crack about your bio, your scholastic goals, manual referencing vs code, or even share some unreserved podcast recommendations – whatever's hang on to your mind!