Description:
The Academic Sabbatical: A Voyage of Discovery is a collection of narratives that reveals how important sabbaticals are to faculty and, by extension, to higher education. This in-depth look at the diverse experiences and perspectives provides a wealth of evidence that sabbaticals are instrumental in increasing productivity in terms of research and knowledge dissemination.
These periods of self-directed and focused work enable scholars to restore their academic energies, leading to enhanced engagement with their programs, graduate students, and intellectual exchange among peers. Although not without challenges and tensions, sabbaticals help academics build stronger and deeper connections. While this book stands alone in promoting the richness and potential of the sabbatical as a structural feature of the academy, it is a great follow-up to The Academic Gateway and Beyond the Academic Gateway, which respectively discuss the tenure-track and tenure experience. This book is the third in the Lives in the Canadian Academic Landscape triptych.Review Quotes: The Academic Sabbatical: A Voyage of Discovery offers a wide-ranging series of firsthand experiences with the academic sabbatical. The book will be of interest to any reader who wants to think more about that topic--early career scholars looking forward to their first sabbatical, administrators tasked with approving faculty sabbaticals, or senior academics preparing for what may be their last sabbatical and reflecting on what it all means. Overall, the book represents an opportunity to reflect on what academic work could be, and that is always an opportunity worth seizing.--Adrian Downey, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Mount Saint-Vincent University "Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation"