Creativity Over the Lifecycle

For an assistant professor focusing on the tenure process, the joys and stresses of faculty life are different than they are for an associate professor, who might be thinking about post-tenure research and institution building. A full professor is engaged in shaping a larger legacy to the field and to the university. Emeritus faculty members have yet another concern which is how they remain connected and engaged with the university from which they have retired. In addition, lecturers face different pressures in this life-cycle trajectory because of their commitment to teaching. And adjunct professors have, perhaps, some of biggest challenges of all, being on the one hand so important to the life of the university and on the other hand not part of the “mainstream” track of promotion.

While our resources are not such that we can address all of these issues simultaneously, CFDE hosts at least one event per year that addresses one or more facets of these issues. In Ay 09-10, we will focus on “Changing Research Mid-career: Challenges and Opportunities.” We will be announcing the details of this event and other events on creativity, when they are confirmed.

CFDE first event was in the spring of 2009, and gathered a number of faculty together to narrate their own stories of creativity over the lifecycle. For an account of that event and some of the narratives contained therein, please see the Spring Issue of Academic Exchange. Podcasts of many of the participants’ presentations are also available on iTunes.

To see other resources on creativity at Emory, and see some of the Emory units with whom we collaborate, visit:

• Emory College of Arts and Sciences Center for Creativity and Arts
• Emory Strategic Plan Creativity and the Arts Initiative
• Psychoanalytic Studies Program
• Life of the Mind Series- Fall 2009 (pdf)
• Luminaries Series- Fall 2009 (pdf)