At the recently concluded National Communication Association conference at Orlando, FL, NCA President Rich West highlighted the importance of service to propel the field of communication studies forward. Dr. West’s call is relevant not just for faculty, but also graduate students. Although often downplayed in favor of research and teaching, service is a crucial component of professional development. Integrating service in your curriculum vita (CV), together with research and teaching, says a lot about who you are as a member of the field, as you build your scholarly portfolio. So, I want to highlight five key ways to pursue what I call “sustainable service,” that is, service that is meaningfully pursued and can be sustained productively over time.
1. Professional memberships. This is possibly the most common and widespread form of service, and one that ties most easily to your CV. When you visit regional, national, and international conferences to present your own work and watch others’ presentations, try to also attend business meetings of the divisions and interest groups you belong to. Attending these meetings, listening to what’s being discussed here, and participating actively both helps you attain visibility in your sub-field and stay abreast of new trends. If you hear of a great opportunity, perhaps an office that you think you’d be good at (say, Treasurer or Secretary), go ahead and volunteer. Volunteer to review papers for the conference, or respond to panels, or contact the division chair if you have a great idea around which you’d like to organize a workshop or special panel. Being involved will also help your communication anxiety when you’re on the job market, some years later, because you might be talking with the people you’ve worked with during your service.
2. Review scholarly work. This is especially valid if you’re in your third, fourth or later years of graduate school and you may have garnered some attention for your scholarly work. Often, editors of edited volumes, books, or journals might ask you to review some chapters or journal articles. Agreeing to do so is not only a great way to give back to your professional community, but it also looks great on your CV to be acknowledged by an expert on the subject. When you’re listing this information in your CV later, be sure to mention not just the journals or volumes you reviewed for, but also the dates you served as an ad hoc reviewer, and the number of manuscripts. That being said, two caveats apply. First, if you’ve agreed to review scholarship, be sure to stick to the deadline set by the editor. And second, if you feel that you won’t be able to stick to this deadline or you’re already inundated with other tasks, don’t be afraid to politely decline to review the piece (while suggesting that you might be free later, should a similar opportunity crop up!).
3. Organize and attend workshops. Participating in workshops is a great way to both give back to the community and build your own skills. For instance, you could help organize a graduate student conference or professional development workshop in your department or university, or even at the association level (i.e., at ICA, NCA, etc.). If you can organize something related to your research interests (e.g., how to engage in mixed methods research, or how to publish in interdisciplinary journals), that would be a great way to connect service to research in your CV. Moreover, some workshops impart crucial skills like writing grant proposals for funded research, drawing up class syllabi or other teaching-related skills, or how to conduct oneself on a job talk.
4. Be involved. There are literally tons of ways to be involved with service in your department and university, and all of this is valuable on your CV. Keep your eyes peeled out for opportunities to give a guest lecture in an undergraduate seminar on a topic related to your dissertation. If you’re asked to review a graduate student grant proposal, go ahead and get the experience. Your department might solicit volunteers to help with recruitment at “grad school open houses” or “grad fairs,” and these are great opportunities to get involved. Moreover, these moments help you know what prospective schools, employers, and reviewers might be looking out for, when you’re applying or searching for outlets.
5. Get creative. Finally, don’t be unduly hemmed in by “conventional” ways of doing research. There are plenty of ways you can be creative with service at the professional, departmental, and/or university levels. For instance, you can use media as varied as weblogs, social media, websites, teaching materials/resources, and performance/art installations to reach out to diverse audiences in exciting and fun ways. This is great, because sometimes the “usual” academic styles and forums aren’t always the most accessible by lay audiences, so if your research has an “applied” bent, experimenting with creative forms of service might be a great ideat.
These are just five of many ways to engage in sustainable service. For more opportunities, keep your eyes peeled on professional association websites and listservs, not to mention division mailing lists, messages from your departmental chair or graduate director, as well as Offices of Engagement at your university. The great thing about service is that there’s always something you can do!
