The Department Chair's Companion

Name: The Department Chair's Companion
Brand: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
SKU: 9781421456508
Price: 57.99 AUD
Availability: InStock

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESSISBN: 9781421456508

Price:

$57.99

Quantity:

By Kevin Dettmar

Imprint JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS

Release Date 07/06/2027

Format PAPERBACK

Pages 216

A candid, practical guide to leading an academic department-without losing yourself in the process. Department chairs occupy one of the most difficult and least understood roles in higher education. They are asked to manage budgets, mediate conflicts, mentor colleagues, oversee hiring, support students, and navigate institutional politics, often with little formal preparation and almost no training. In The Department Chair's Companion, Kevin Dettmar offers a clear-eyed guide to the realities of academic leadership, written for faculty members suddenly tasked with leading the people who were once simply their peers. Building on the success of his acclaimed book How to Chair a Department, Dettmar addresses the everyday challenges that define the chair's role. Through practical case studies and hard-earned lessons, he explores everything from faculty hiring and departmental culture to burnout, budgeting, succession planning, and the emotional complexities of leadership. Along the way, he shows how chairs can move beyond mere management to become thoughtful, compassionate leaders capable of building stronger departments and healthier academic communities. The Department Chair's Companion recognizes that most chairs are learning on the job while juggling their own teaching, scholarship, and personal lives. Dettmar does not offer corporate management jargon or abstract leadership theory. Instead, he provides practical advice, institutional wisdom, and reassurance for faculty leaders trying to do an extraordinarily complicated job well. Essential reading for current and aspiring chairs, deans, and faculty leaders, this book offers both guidance and solidarity for one of higher education's most demanding positions.

About the Author

Kevin Dettmar is the W. M. Keck Professor of English and director of The Humanities Studio at Pomona College. He is the author of How to Chair a Department and Punk in 50 Pieces: Punk Rock, Post-Punk, New Wave, and the Five Years that Changed Popular Music Forever.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Acknowledgements Read This First! 1. The "Good Enough" Chair How to Prepare for the Role Passing the Torch But What If You're Not a Good Enough Chair? The Post-Spring Break Juggernaut Write a Department Handbook 2. Faculty Hiring, Support, and Development The Chair's Role in Fostering a More Humane Job Market Be an Unabashed Advocate for Your Finalist How to Welcome a New Hire Getting Junior Colleagues Across the Finish Line 3. Building, Maintaining, and Repairing Department Culture How to Cope with the Service Slackers Service Slackers: A Parable Aggressive Aggression and Passive Aggression How to Organize a Useful Retreat Keeping Secrets 4. Leading During Change Plugging Holes in Your Faculty Brokering a Generational Stalemate Leading Under a Double Existential Threat Is It My Job to Find My Replacement? How to Cope with a Death in Your Department 5. Leading from the Middle Don't Forget That You're a Faculty Member-Sort of; Not an Administrator, Really. Congratulations! Now You're a Boss When Did I Become a Bureaucrat? Chairs Oversee a Class System. And Are Usually Not Very Happy About It. How to Cope with a Lone-Wolf Dean Should You Stay or Should You Go? 6. Chair: A Person or a Role? How Do I Start Training for the Role? How Can I Prepare Mentally While Waiting to Assume the Role? Three Styles of Leadership Failure ...And Other Duties as Assigned A Chair Is Not a Throne 7. Care and Feeding of the Chair Should I Apply to Lead Another Department? Chairing for All the Wrong Reasons Should I Apply for a Deanship to Support My Department? Who Do I Turn to for Advice? How Do I Stay Productive in My Field? Is Chairing Really a Thankless Job? Appendix A: How to Create a Department Handbook Appendix B: The Department Chair in Popular Media Appendix C: What's Your Chair Style?

The Department Chair's Companion

Description

The Department Chair's Companion

You may also like

Recently viewed