I was invited by our School of Film, Dance, and Theatre graduate student organization to talk about putting together a CV for academic job searches.  I get asked to do this kind of thing fairly often because I’ve worked in higher ed for a long time as a faculty member who is both a practioner/artist and a scholar, and have been a department chair, a school director, and served on the tenure and promotion committees of two large universities. At long last, I’ve decided to write down a CV outline that I think works for artist/scholars in academia; it also could apply to the humanities and some social science disciplines more generally.  If there is a category that doesn’t apply to you, just ignore it. This is not a definitive or all inclusive outline and you would need to craft your own CV based on your own unique skills, your discipline, and the requirements of the job search, but this outline works for me and has worked as well for assistant professors I have (successfully) mentored through the tenure process over the years:

Name

Title (if applicable)

Contact Info

Education

[highest degree first; if PhD list title of diss]

Academic appointments

[for those starting out, this is where you would list TA and RA appointments, lecturer appointmens, any adjunct appointments you may have held, etc. Again, list in reverse chonology – note use of the word “list,” the CV is should not include long explanatory narratives; if the position isn’t clear from the job title, explain with one simple sentence.]

Grants, honors, and awards

[list funded research here only if you are PI or co-PI, working on a funded project as a grad student is not sufficient. Grad students seeking their first job can list grad school scholarships here—these would drop off once you’re in a tenure-track post (again “list” not narrative)]

Research and Creative Activity

[sub1] Publications [in proper bibliographic format, depending on discipline]

[sub2]Books [indicate if peer reviewed]

[sub2]Book chapters

[sub2]Juried articles

[sub2]Articles [not juried]

[sub1] Creative Activity

[sub2]TYPE OF ACTIVITY [for example, an actor who is also a fight choreographer would have acting credits separated from choreography credits]

[sub3]International venues

[sub3]National venues

[sub3]Regional/local venues

[sub3]Academic venues

[for visual artists, seperate solo shows from group shows, juried from non juried]

[repeat TYPE OF ACTIVITY as needed]

[sub1] Conference presentations and master classes

[use bibliographic format for conference papers]

[sub2]International conferences

[sub2]National

[sub2]Local

[sub1] Other [as appropriate; for example, consulting in field of expertise would go here]

Teaching

[sub 1] Courses taught

[sub1] Advising

[this would include thesis or capstone advising, production advising at home institution, and so on]

Professional affiliations

[list memberships in professional societies here]

Service

[sub1] Professional service

[Service to professional organizations, conference organizing, manuscript reviews, etc, would go here]

[sub1] University service

[service on campus-wide committees would go here; even as a grad student, there may be some of this, particularly if you’ve been active in student government or have organized events]

[sub1] Department service

[if you’ve been a student rep on a search committee, organized events within your department, etc, list that here]

[sub2] Community service

[if you use your professional expertise in a local service context list it here]

— that’s it – not all inclusive – not applicable universally, but hopefully of some help to some of you.

[image courtesy of Wikimedia commons]