By Laurel White
In a new Teachers College Record commentary, a School of Education faculty member shares his reflections on how to maintain personal well-being while pursuing a successful career in academia.
Brian Burt, a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and director of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB) in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, wrote the commentary while on sabbatical. Based on more than a decade of personal journal entries, the commentary offers insights into how current and emerging scholars might navigate the academy, its demands, and their own self-expectations.
Burt notes he entered his sabbatical after 11 years as a faculty member at two institutions — and after several physical warning signs of exhaustion, including near collapses during presentations and teaching.
“I began my faculty career in late August 2014, two weeks after defending my dissertation, and I feel like I have not stopped moving ever since,” he wrote. “As a faculty member, one is not immune to the troubles of the world, personal traumas, and trials and tribulations. Yet, dreaming, recharging, and working toward being healthy and whole can help to reduce challenges along the journey.”
Burt says he hopes the piece will help others identify and implement their own strategies for how to work in the field of higher education “while being healthy and whole.”
Burt previously published a commentary in Teachers College Record on his evolution as an academic writer.
Burt is an award-winning scholar who has been recognized with alumni awards from Indiana University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Michigan, as well as the International Colloquium on Black Males in Education and the American Society for Engineering Education. His research uses qualitative methodological approaches to study the experience of graduate students and the institutional policies and practices that influence students’ pathways. His current research falls into two strands: understanding team-based research experiences and exploring the experiences of underrepresented graduate students of color in engineering.
In 2024, Burt launched the Black Males in Engineering project, which won a prestigious Telly Award, as well as an Anthem Award. He recently published a study in The Journal of Higher Education that highlights isolation and collaboration in Black men’s experiences during graduate school. He co-authored that study with many current and former graduate students in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
Read the entire commentary, “My Sabbatical Launch: A Journey of Writing, Healing, and Resting,” in Teachers College Record here.