Full Description
This thoughtful exploration examines the complex and multifaceted transition of retirement from academia, addressing fundamental questions of when and how to retire, and what retirement looks like. The work challenges assumptions about aging while acknowledging the profound sense of loss that often accompanies the end of an academic career.
Through engaging autoethnographies, the book reveals both challenges and opportunities inherent in this significant life stage, offering unique insights into how academic identities evolve beyond formal employment. It focuses on the ongoing development of self and community in post-academic life, examining themes including the cultural production of retirement, the impact of political and social changes on academic careers, and the role of metacognition in shaping personal narratives. By presenting these complex issues through deeply personal stories, the work invites readers to reflect on their own experiences within the broader context of academic work and professional identity transformation.
This volume will interest current academics contemplating retirement, retired academics navigating post-career life, and researchers studying workforce transitions and aging. It holds particular value for students and professionals in social work, social policy, gerontology, and higher education administration, offering both guidance and inspiration for understanding the complexities of post-retirement academic life.
Contents
Preface 1. Introduction: autoethnography and the context of retirement 2. Heavenly Pursuits 3. Working in the weekends: A talanoa on retirement from the afternoon of an academic life 4. A post-retirement autoethnographer on the edge? 5. Contemplating the life after 6. The Spiralling Academic: An Activist Institutionalised/Liberated by Higher Education in Australia 7. Past, present and future: continuity without sameness 8. Reflections on the meaning of life within academia and beyond 9. In search of a good enough ending: retiring, leaving and letting go 10. Academic separation, despair, and creating a new life 11. Aftercare: Retiring from the University 12. The Poetry of Reason 13. The blessings of mindfulness 14. Living at the 'end,' without having yet arrived 15. Relinquishing tenure before I retire: Returning to the profession in my 'pracacademic' life 16. Conclusion Index
