These archived PFFP videos are available to support students in professional development for success as a graduate student and in planning for your career beyond your degree. A minimum of 3 new videos are added per semester, so check back periodically to view new content.
(Note: videos are listed in chronological order, newest to oldest).
Leading and Participating in Collaborative & Group Writing
Speakers: Dr. Amanda Seligman, Professor, History; Affiliated Professor, Urban Studies
Dr. Jacqueline Nguyen, Associate Professor and Department Chair, Educational Psychology
Dr. Tara Jenson, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health; PhD in Public Health, 2023 UW-Milwaukee
Developing a writing habit is important for graduate students, and writing groups are gaining popularity to support students in writing theses and dissertations. What does joining or leading a writing group require? How do you approach participation in a writing group? This session will address what writing groups are, how they work, how to show up ready to participate and benefit, and what’s required to lead or convene a writing group. The panel includes two faculty who have been conveners of writing groups and a recent UWM PhD who used a writing group to complete her dissertation.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2023.
Forging the path to thesis and dissertation completion: Timelines and goals as your compass.
Speaker: Dr. Bonnie Klein-Tasman, Associate Dean Graduate School and Professor, Psychology
Larger projects such as theses and dissertations are complex and can sometimes be daunting. Developing a detailed timeline of the anticipated steps along the way is often a centrally important task. In this workshop, elements of timeline planning and goal-setting for thesis and dissertation projects will be discussed with pragmatic suggestions. Come with a specific project in mind, and we’ll begin the work of mapping the project and developing a timeline.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2023.
Navigating Conflict
Panelist: Nadya Fouad & Ben Schneider, Office of Conflict Resolution; Adam Jussel, Dean of Students
Nobody likes conflict, but sometimes it is a workplace reality. Graduate students must balance many different types of relationships and personalities throughout their grad school career and beyond. This session will focus on giving graduate students skills in conflict resolution that will help them navigate conflicts with peers, professors, and advisors.
View the accompanying PowerPoint presentation
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2022.
Plagiarism: What Every Academic Needs to Know About Detecting, Documenting and Preventing Plagiarism
Speaker: Amanda Seligman, Professor, Department of History
The last two years of the covid pandemic have changed the ways that universities teach and the environments in which students learn. As the pandemic forced the move to online education, it also increased stress levels for students, staff, and faculty–all of which can lead to a spike in plagiarism and academic dishonesty. What’s a teaching assistant or new faculty member to do? In this PFFP workshop, Prof. Seligman will discuss what plagiarism is, why students commit academic integrity violations, how to document and respond to it, and some strategies for preventing it in the first place. This presentation should be especially helpful not only to graduate students working as Teaching Assistants or running their own classes as the instructor of record, but anyone who would like to understand research ethics and academic integrity is welcome to participate.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Spring 2022.
Here is the accompanying Powerpoint presentation to the video.
Navigating Life After Coursework
Alumni Panelists: Jeremy Carnes, Telashay Swope Farr, Jennifer Woo
Join recent UWM graduates discussing how they made the tough transition from coursework to the later stages of the doctoral degree. If you’re struggling with not having short-term deadlines and the regular structure of classes, you’re not alone. It can be tough to plan your work productively when there’s no syllabus to follow. Many students also find this time more isolating and lonely, because they spend less time in class with other graduate students. The students on this panel will share their own struggles with and successful strategies for adjusting to life after coursework.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Fall 2021.
Advising for International Students
Co-Produced with the Center for International Education
Panelists: Tobiah Deutsch, Senior Advisor, SOIS; Jennifer Gruenewald, Director, International Student and Scholar Services; Brooke Haley, Interim Director, English Language Academy; Ethan Munson, Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs CEAS.
International graduate students play a key role in campus research and teaching, but they also face a range of unique challenges. Graduate advising relationships can sometimes feel especially hard to navigate. Educational structures differ across cultures, but so do styles of interaction and the expectations of both advisors and advisees. And because advising relationships involve such close collaboration over long periods of time, relationships involving international students and faculty sometimes require a little extra effort. This panel of experts will help both students and faculty learn how to build strong advising relationships, and how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Fall 2021.
Virtual Skills for the Long Haul
Presenters: Anne Basting, Professor of English and founder and President of TimeSlips; Kamara Jackson, Director of Employer Relations, Career Planning & Resource Center; Nicole Green Powley, Program Manager, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center.
Over the last year, most of us have learned how to work in online environments, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. But many of these changes will stay with us long after the current pandemic is over. In our changed world, many job interviews, academic conferences, dissertation defenses, public lectures, and more, will all remain online. What skills will you need to succeed in this virtual world? How can you learn to speak as comfortably and confidently into a camera as you now do in person? And how will expectations for you and your work change as a result? These expert panelists will go beyond the basics to talk about how to manage your technology and your own self-presentation for the virtual world ahead.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Spring 2021.
Working Productively with Your Advisor
Panelists: Jen Doering, Professor of Nursing, Associate Dean, College of Nursing; Adam Jussel, Dean of Students; Amanda Seligman, Professor of History
Writing a successful thesis or dissertation requires more than just academic excellence. Students also have to manage a long-term relationship with their advisors and committees. Usually these are warm and collegial relationships, but even the best ones still involve occasional conflicts, misunderstandings, and even fundamental disagreements about goals and values. These panelists will share advice for making your advising relationship work. How do you establish expectations? What role do students have in determining the structure of advising? And what happens when one side doesn’t live up to the bargain? You’ll come away from this panel with a better understanding of the nature of the advising relationship, and with some practical ideas for making yours more successful.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Spring 2021.
Anti-Racism and Graduate Student Life
Presenters: Khrys FuQua’, Director of Graduate Diversity and Inclusion, Graduate School; Derek Handley, Assistant Professor, English; Sarah MacDonald, Teaching, Learning and Technology Consultant, CETL.
Since widespread anti-racist demonstrations took to the streets last year, many have begun to think about how they can translate that energy into practical changes in their own professional settings. In this panel, we look specifically at the distinctive challenges and opportunities for graduate education. Where does racism persist most in graduate education, and how can those least affected by it learn to perceive it? What can graduate teaching assistants do to foster more race-conscious pedagogy? And what are productive ways of addressing racist conduct, either for bystanders who might witness it or for those who actually endure it? Three expert panelists will address these questions and more for all graduate students eager to contribute to our campus’s role in this national movement.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Spring 2021.
Family Life in Graduate School
Presenters: Katie Hamm, MSW; Instructor, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare; Jason Katte, MA, LPC; Assistant Director, University Counseling Services; Milika Miller, MPA; Instructor, Non-Profit Management; PhD Candidate, Urban Studies Program
Many graduate students juggle academic work with the needs of their household, a challenge exacerbated by shifting demands during the pandemic. Instructors and students discuss how they manage their own work obligations while supporting themselves and their families. UWM’s University Counseling Services will review ideas for coping with the potential stressors of family needs, and provide information on UWM resources available to support students.
Here is a PDF of the Powerpoint presentation: UWM University Counseling Services
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Fall 2020.
Investing in Graduate Education: Understanding Financial Concerns in Graduate School
Presenter: Stephanie Zylka, Financial Aid Advisor
A graduate education is a serious investment of time and money, and a strong fiscal acumen is an important element of making the most of it. Topics covered: personal finances of student loans, debt management, working with the financial aid office, fellowship opportunities, and employment options during school.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Fall 2019.
Women in Academia and Allies.
Presenters: Kathryn Olson, Communication; Rebecca Klaper, School of Freshwater Sciences; Wilkistar Otieno, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; Jacques du Plessis, School of Information Studies.
Female academics sometimes face unique challenges to their entry and advancement in academia. Come listen to a panel of from across the disciplines speak about their experiences, challenges, successes, and strategies deployed as women in the academic profession, and how men can become allies.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Spring 2019.
Surviving Your Dissertation
Presenters: Lia Wolock, Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies; Sara Riforgiate, Communication; Omid Jahanian, Department of Occupational Science and Technology
Why are communities important? Communities create a sense of belonging and support in the otherwise solitary pursuit of a PhD. Join us for a panel discussion on ways of building communities in Graduate School and the tools graduate students have used to survive dissertation life. The panel will include new faculty, graduate students, and post-docs.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals series, Spring 2019.
Reproducing the Academy: Graduate Research and the Future of the Wisconsin Idea.
A panel with special guest speaker Susan B. Hyatt, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) School of Liberal Arts, and UWM faculty Jasmine Alinder, History and Kirstin Sziarto, Geography.
What kinds of pressures must public universities contend with, and how do they affect the career development of students and faculty? This panel will address the implications of the transformations we see in Wisconsin and other state systems, and what it means to the next generations of scholars, researchers, and professors. How are institutional mandates, professional norms and ethics, and potential directions of research affected by ongoing academic restructuring? And how do we shape the university we want to be part of” This discussion is a rare opportunity to reflect on the “bigger picture” of graduate studies and the vision of the academy.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2018.
Succeeding in Graduate Seminars (2018)
Panel discussion with Dr. Janis Eells, BioMedical Science: Dr. Arijit Sen, School of Architecture and Urban Planning; Dr. Joe Austin, History
Graduate seminars are important venues for cultivating professional dispositions, skills and relationships. Discussion will focus on how students can make the most of these opportunities to practice being a scholar. This includes strategies for preparing for and performing in these unique learning formats, as well as how to make them productive beyond the context of the course itself.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2018.
Hidden Gems: Library Services and Resources
Linda Kopecky, Head, Research Services, UWM Libraries
The UWM Libraries offers many services and resources that can save graduate students time, effort, and money. Learn how to set up data base and article research alerts; manage your research citation; uncover the UWM Masters’ thesis and dissertation collections; borrow equipment to enhance your projects; get one-on-one assistance with GIS projects, data management, prelim literature lists, and more.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2018.
Dissertation Milestones
A panel with Brooke Slavens, Occupational Science and Technology, Bettina Arnold, Anthropology; Shane Haensgen, Graduate School; Susan Wade, Dissertator, History and Sabrin Rizk, Dissertator, College of Health Sciences
The many milestones graduate students must attain before they graduate: Completing course work, passing preliminaries examinations, defending thesis or dissertation proposals to name a few. Find out all about milestones: the UWM system that tracks them, the act of achieving them and why faculty value them. This panel consists of faculty, staff, and peer.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2018.
Developing a Writing Habit
Presenters: Margaret Mika, Director, UWM Writing Center; Shevaun Watson, English; Rachel Bloom-Pojar, English
We all write and all grad students are concerned with writing, but we seldom talk about how we write, or how we go about developing effective writing habits. Learn tips and tools, and explore specific strategies for building a writing habit – including accountability measures, writing groups, time management.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals Series and Grad 801, Spring 2018.
Academic Integrity: What It Is, Why Have It, How to Foster It.
Panelists: Marija Gajdarziska-Josefovska, Graduate School Dean, Physics; Amy Harley, Public Heath; Michael Liston, Philosophy; Martin Kozon, History.
As emerging scholars who are conducting research, publishing results, and working collaboratively, graduate students are beginning to navigate some of the complex ethical situations encountered in advanced academic settings. This faculty-student panel will discuss how they handle the complicated nuances we all face in our research and writing as well as what academic integrity is and why it matters. Topics of discussion will include responsible authorship, allocation of credit, collaborative work, peer review, self-citation and repurposing one’s own material, conflicts of interest, responsible data management, and publishing pressures.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professional Series, Fall 2017
Beyond the Save Function: Document Management, Review, and Version Tracking for Today’s Scholars
Geoff Gimse, English
Graduate scholars create a lot of documents – seminar papers, proposals, articles, abstracts, theses, that ever looming dissertation – that are critical to our research. Effective document management can not only help keep these documents organized and safe but also make writing projects easier to handle. In this presentation, we look at different strategies for managing documents and writing projects. Beginning with the all-but-ubiquitous Microsoft Word, we will step through methods for document planning, creation, change tracking, storage, and management – for the lone scholar and for collaborative groups. We then move on from Microsoft Word and look at different change management and version tracking tools on a variety of different platforms that you can start using today.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals Series, Fall 2017.
Pursuing a Graduate Degree
Presenter: Amanda Seligman, History
Many graduate students find the expectations of a new program daunting. Whether you are coming from a different country, coming from a different part of the country, or just learning what it means to do classes and research at a graduate level, it can feel like a “culture shock”. This presentation helps you to examine the possibilities and expectations of a graduate degree, and what the best reasons are for doing it.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals Series, Spring 2017.
Climate and Inclusion Matters, Issues for Graduate Students.
Presenters: Rob Smith, History; Nelida Cortes, Office of Equity and Diversity Services.
Despite existing diversity and inclusion initiatives, many campuses (and their cities and states) continue to face barriers to enacting them. As student leaders and future faculty, graduate students can play a key role in helping these initiatives come to life. Topics of discussion include the importance of a campus climate and its influence and impact in educational settings and strategies for promoting an engaging an inclusive campus climate.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals Series, Spring 2017.
Finding Your Yoda! How to Build a Meaningful Mentor Relationship with Your Advisor
Presenter: Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, Graduate School Dean, Physics
Building a meaningful and productive relationship with your advisor is imperative to successfully completing graduate school and a key component of development for new professionals. Come and learn how to develop an effective mentoring relationship with your advisor. Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, our head Yoda and Dean of the Graduate School, will guide you through various tips and strategies in this hour-long session.
Recorded for Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals Series Fall 2016.