Faculty Retirement Seminar
2022 - 2023
About the Seminar:
The seminar focuses on a series of pre-selected topics (with recommended readings), which the participants will have a role in selecting. The facilitators offer brief comments on the topic of each seminar, but aim to encourage maximum discussion and exchange of ideas among the participants. Potential topics: What IS retirement for faculty? What should be considered in the decision to retire? Participants’ experiences with retiring from UW: both practical and psycho-social issues; participants’ professional career after retirement; the role of the University in preparing faculty considering retirement: what is it, and can it be improved? Continuing one’s engagement with the UW after retirement: the role of the University in supporting retirees’ continuing engagement with the UW; the realities of aging and mortality.
Call for Participants (due June 15, 2022):
We seek a group of faculty who are either seriously thinking about retirement, in the process of retiring, or have already retired to participate in a quarter-long Faculty Retirement Seminar Fall Quarter 2022. Participants plan to meet once a week based on participants’ availability. Retirement for faculty raises fundamental questions about what it means to be a professor and how one’s identity and purpose are defined by more than the specific demands of a ‘job’. The purpose of this seminar is to provide faculty with a structured setting for reflecting, meeting, and talking with UW colleagues, as well as deepen our collective appreciation of what experiences may be available in retirement and what steps we can take to ensure they will be positive and productive. We intend the seminar to be a complement to the workshops regularly offered by our HR colleagues and the UWRA.
To participate, send a one-page statement indicating your affiliation with the UW, your status regarding retirement, and why you would like to participate to Judy Howard (Sociology and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies) and Miceal Vaughan (Comparative Literature and English): jhoward@uw.edu, miceal@uw.edu by June 15, 2022.
