Y’all wanna hear about academia in Texas?

Dr. Lucia Summers was awarded her PhD in Criminology from UCL and is now Associate Professor at the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Texas State University.

She is also the Associate Director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation (GII). We caught up with Lucia about her career journey, and academia in the US.

What are you up to at the moment?

I work at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, as an Associate Professor. And I am also currently the coordinator of the Master’s programme in Criminal Justice.

What does your typical working week look like? 

I go into the office maybe two days a week. We’ve always been very flexible around working from home, and you only really have to be in when you’re teaching. In our institution, one might typically teach four courses – or modules – per semester, lecturing in classes for three hours a week, and the rest of the time spent preparing or grading. Lecturers who are only teaching teach four/four – four courses in the Fall, four in Spring. Tenured (permanent) faculty (staff) who don’t supervise doctoral students teach three/three, and doctoral faculty like I am, more research active, we’re on two/two. The rest of the time is largely devoted to research, and supervising research students. In theory, we all have the summer off, and although the salary is good, we don’t officially get paid for the three months over summer. But obviously during that time people will often spend a lot of time on their research. 
I also work on external outreach projects with police departments. I’m officially an intern of the Austin Police Department, so I have access to all their data and I help them with data quality and analysis, and I collaborate with other agencies when I get the opportunity. I really enjoy working with practitioners, and it’s great that it counts towards your academic job! For the past three years I’ve been on a one/one teaching schedule because I also coordinate the Master’s programme, so my days also involve working on this administrative departmental role. 

How did you get from your PhD to here?

I loved UCL, but due to personal circumstances I wanted to move to Texas after my PhD. However, my target university didn’t have any tenure-track positions available at the time, so I took a Lecturer role to begin with. I was a bit overqualified, as I already had a PhD and publications, and in the US, “Lecturer” means instructor only – not tenure-track. The teaching load was very heavy and I felt my research was suffering as a result, so after a year I went for and was offered an Assistant Professor role at a different university. When my department heard I had that offer, they counter-offered, so I was able to move onto the tenure track here in Texas. It surprised me at the time, as I really believed them when they said they didn’t have a position available, but there’s a bit of a culture of that in the US, people using new job offers to negotiate promotions with current employers. Maybe that happens elsewhere too, like calling up your cell phone provider and threatening to leave to get a better deal! It’s a waste of time for everyone involved, but it does seem to be the way things work here sometimes.  

So then I was an Assistant Professor on the tenure track, where after a probationary period of six years, you will hopefully get tenure. After five years, I submitted my portfolio of everything I’d done, and it was evaluated at different levels, first at the Department or School level, then the College, then Provost and President. This takes a fair amount of time, so usually you submit at the beginning of your sixth year, and around March or April they let you know if you have tenure. I was awarded tenure, meaning I am now an Associate Professor and have a permanent position. But while I was an Assistant Professor, I wasn’t permanently employed. You also don’t have the option to stay on as Assistant Professor if you don’t get tenure and promotion; it is up or out!

And what happens to those who are “out”?!

It’s not actually very common. During your tenure track years, you have reviews at regular intervals, and every year you’re reappointed, through an entire faculty vote. And you get ratings on different areas, so you’ll be told if your progress isn’t satisfactory in a certain area. It’s a secret ballot, but of course it’s your colleagues evaluating your progress in Teaching, Research, and Service, so that can feel daunting, especially when you’re new. Teaching evaluation is based on things like student feedback and observations by colleagues. Research is largely papers and money you have brought in, if you’re in that kind of field. Service could be to the School or Department, like serving on committees or helping at graduation ceremonies or with new policies; or it could be service to your discipline, like being a reviewer for journals or serving on relevant national committees; or it could also be service to the community, which is my personal favourite because I like working with local police departments. As it’s your colleagues voting for you, they get to know you very well, so collegiality is also incredibly important, as it will impact how your colleagues view you. So that can make the working dynamics interesting when you’re very new!

Every year you get feedback from this evaluation, and if it becomes clear you’re not going to get tenure at your institution, you often have enough notice to try to find another institution. Different institutions have different standards, and so you may be able to find somewhere where your outputs are sufficient for tenure. At Texas State it is kind of hard not to get tenure in some senses, because of how many different people’s votes are counted, and it only happens very rarely. 

What were the toughest parts of the transition?

I lost quite a few pounds in my first year because everything was just so different! The educational system is so different, so the job wasn’t what I was used to. And adjusting to a new country was difficult, like having to get a new driver’s licence for instance, so that added a whole level of extra stress on top. And there were language differences for me that added another layer of difficulty. I’m Spanish, and I have studied in the UK, so you would think I’d be fine in Texas where they speak English and a lot of Spanish… but American English and Mexican Spanish are a bit different to what I was used to, so there was this added stressor of people not understanding me at first!

Additionally, when I first started teaching courses in the US, I was given so much freedom, and I wasn’t used to that. It’s great, because you can be creative and choose what to teach and how to teach it. But when you arrive somewhere new expecting to be given course specifications so you know you’re doing everything correctly, it’s quite daunting to be told you have complete freedom to use whatever textbooks and methods and assessments you want. I love that now I’m more established, but it was a lot to handle at first.

What are the best bits?

Before being in research, I worked in mental health, and although each job I had was interesting, I always got to a point where I was good at the job, but I wasn’t learning anymore, so I kept having to move on to do something different. What I love about academia is I’m always learning about new problems and new ways of researching things. And as I’ve progressed it’s even better, as I get to be in charge of the research direction, deciding what to work on, how, and with whom. For example, I’m currently working on a project on sex trafficking because I wanted to work on sex trafficking. So it's great to be always learning, and have autonomy over what to learn. 

It’s also rare to find a job where you have this much autonomy, but where you also don’t have to manage people. I’ve managed people before, and it was fine, but I would rather not have to. It’s also such a varied role, which I love. You’ve got teaching, and that involves a lot of different tasks, from being physically in class, to creating a whole new course; you’ve got the research which can be as varied as you like, and you’ve got the service work, which I love and is very different. It’s also a very flexible role too, in terms of when and where you work, which is incredibly important for me.

And what about the worst bits?

A lot of this downside is totally on me, but I can get myself totally buried under work, and I’m not the only one. If you’re the kind of person who gets excited by new research directions, you can end up taking on too many projects. Or if you’re nice and want to look after students, you may take on too many to mentor. And basically, you can end up with a ridiculous calendar! I’m trying my best to cut down and say no to new students and projects, so I won’t end up working too many hours. But if you’re not strict with yourself and your time, those memes about academia can end up being true; “You work seven days a week, but the ability to choose which seven is unparalleled!”. But it doesn’t have to be that way, so I need to be more disciplined about protecting my time, so it doesn’t overwhelm me. 

The pay may also put some people off. Once you’re tenured, it’s generally pretty good within academia in the US, although it can vary a lot between states and institutions, and cost of living varies a lot across the US too. All our pay data is public as we’re a public university, so you can look it up, but generally speaking we tend to get more than the UK equivalent. However, there will always be private employers, or even police department employers, who pay more. For me personally, the flexibility academia offers is the most important thing, but obviously pay is something to take into account too.

What’s the culture like?

There are so many little differences from academia in the UK that it’s difficult to name them all. But a big one is the culture of shared governance. For example, in the UK, usually the Head of Department might have ultimate oversight in the recruitment of new permanent academic staff, and other staff don’t get so involved. Here, usually the Director is not involved in the Search Committee, which is made up of other academic staff. And when this committee invites people to interview, the whole faculty gets involved. Candidates come to campus for two days, where they interview with the Search Committee, have to give a public talk to everyone, then have meetings with different programme directors, meetings with PhD students, meetings with the Dean, and campus tours, and lunches and dinners with everyone. It’s pretty full on for the interviewee, but it also gives them a lot of information too, which is useful. And then the whole faculty votes for the person they want to choose for the position.

I guess there are stereotypes about the US having bad vacation allowance, etc. And that’s true for most jobs here, but it’s very different in academia. We get the whole summer off, at least in theory, and we get a few weeks off over Christmas too. Plus, apart from when we’re actually teaching, the time in the office is very flexible. But there are other wider differences that you have to get used to, like health insurance. The university pays for my health insurance – almost $500 a month – and it’s a good package, but every time I go to the doctor, I also have to pay. When I had my appendix removed and was in hospital for three days, my insurance was good and covered a lot, but I still had to pay $1,200 of my own money. So that’s very different. Whatever job you do, you want to really look into the benefits packages and find out how good your health insurance is, because they’re not all the same.

What’s the progression like?

Once you’re promoted to Associate Professor, you’re tenured, so you’re on a permanent contract. You can stay at that level forever, or after a number of years – usually five or six at least – you can apply to be promoted to Full Professor. At that stage they’re evaluating research and teaching again, and expecting a lot more service. 

There are things you can do to take on extra responsibilities too, like doing external consultancy work, or taking on an administrative position, like I have with the Master’s program. These administrative positions are temporary – usually three years, although you have the option to extend for another three – and you can negotiate what you might get in return. For example, when I took on coordination of the Master’s program, I negotiated a lighter teaching load, and 50% pay over the summer months (during which I wouldn’t normally be paid). The School Director also gets a lighter teaching load and 100% of their salary over the summer. When you’ve done your term, you can renew, or someone else can take over and you return to being normal faculty. 
What are your top tips for researchers wanting to follow a similar path?

If you’re switching country, be prepared for the system to be quite different. It certainly is in the US. Try to connect with someone in the country to get your head around it, maybe by contacting a UCL alumnus on LinkedIn. They can orientate you a bit, even to just get used to the language; “three/three teaching load”, etc., so it doesn’t throw you in interviews. I had that sort of help, which was invaluable, but even then it was a challenge! 

Any extra advice for people graduating into an uncertain climate?

Actually, I think things may have become better for those looking for academic roles in the US. We’re so much more used to interviews on Zoom and Teams, so now there are a lot of pre-interviews on Zoom. This can mean you don’t waste as much of your time flying somewhere for an exhausting interview. But it also means the pool of online pre-interviews can be larger, so you may get extra chances to get in front of people and boost yourself into the in-person interview group. So practice your interview technique!