Professional development presentation for MIT Postdocs, sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research:
(graduate students are also quite welcome, space permitting)
Writing Research and Teaching Statements
Speaker: Dr. Michelle Bell and Dr. Donald Halstead, Harvard School of Public Health
Date and Time: Monday, May 13 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm
Location: Singleton Auditorium, Building 46-3002 (Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Sciences)
When applying for an academic position, you will be required to produce a teaching and/or research statement. Writing a poor statement can hurt your chances of being considered for a position, but taking the time to write them well can set you apart from other candidates. Drs. Bell and Halstead will analyze the characteristics of teaching and research statements, discuss their components and review examples – so that you will be able to write thoughtful, creative statements that have impact.
Dr. Donald Halstead is Instructor of Writing at Harvard School of Public Health, and works with students, postdoctoral research fellows, research scientists and faculty to help produce leaders in public health research and practice by improving their writing, critical thinking, and communication skills.
Dr. Michelle Bell is Assistant Dean for Educational Programs at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has a PhD in education and her area of research is in human development. She works with faculty and academic departments developing new courses, concentrations and degree programs. She teaches faculty and postdoctoral fellows workshops on designing courses and developing grading rubrics.
NOTE FOR PARTICIPANTS – Request for Sample Research and Teaching Statements from postdocs:
(highly recommended, but not required for attendance)
Drs. Bell and Halstead have asked postdocs to submit sample Teaching and Research Statements for this session. These statements can be highly polished, or they can be rough drafts in early stages of development. The speakers will incorporate these statements in their talk, and discuss how to develop them further, as a learning exercise for all in the audience. Reviews will be positive, in-depth and highly supportive, and postdocs whose samples are selected for review will, of course, have clear suggestions for how to improve the statements they submit.
Please send sample statements to Dr. Sonal Jhaveri at sonal@mit.edu. Note: if we receive a lot of submissions, Drs. Bell and Halstead will select a few to work with during the session. If you wish, you can remove your identifying information from the statements before submitting.