In a previous life I was an academic. Now I coach academics on writing and research communication. I sometimes think of it as being one of those actors who did a few episodes of Law & Order and then discovered they preferred coaching other actors.
There is a “those who can’t do, teach” joke in there somewhere, except I did do it. I just found that I was better suited to helping other people do it well.
The thread running through both lives is that I have always been unusually interested in how writing actually gets done: the false starts, avoidance, overthinking, revision, and all the other parts that disappear from the polished final product. That has also left me with a lot of sympathy for graduate students. The graduate experience can be intellectually rewarding, but it is often structurally confusing, isolating, and much harder on people than the official version suggests.
My work in the Writing and Learning Centre at the University of Alberta involves graduate writing and research communication. I teach graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, run writing retreats, and develop resources students can use on their own.
I also develop workshops and resources on generative AI in academic writing. Students check output against course rules and source material, keep a record of how they used a tool, and consider what they have entered into the system. We use assignments and research examples to discuss privacy, authorship, and academic integrity.
I studied philosophy and communication studies before completing a PhD in sociology.
The Work page says more about what I do now.
I still write occasionally. If you are interested in some of the things I have written, you can find them under research, essays, and fiction. I would not say that door is closed, exactly, but it is not my main priority.
Academic profiles
Complete publication records: ORCID · Google Scholar · ResearchGate