Building an academic profile: Considerations for graduate students embarking on an academic career in political science in Europe – Symposium Introduction

Completing a PhD and at the same time establishing a good academic profile are demanding tasks. Most graduates have teaching assignments, need to do their own research, must assist senior researchers and need to hunt for funding. All this already takes up a considerable amount of time, and there are still some daunting musts such as networking, publishing, conference and professional association participation and a whole array of other things junior academics need to get involved in so as to build a desirable academic profile. These issues were addressed in a panel sponsored by the ECPR Graduate Network at the 2007 ECPR General Conference at Pisa. The discussion was aimed at graduate students at all stages of their Ph.D, as well as at postdoctoral researchers embarking on an academic career in political science. This symposium proposes an extended discussion on the topic for the wider graduate public.