In this episode, I talk with historian and Denison University assistant professor Julie Mujic about her pre-tenure sabbatical—and how she designed it during a moment of deep burnout and family transition.
Julie shares how she balanced the pressure of moving her scholarship forward on a tight tenure timeline while staying present for her high-school–aged daughters. We discuss the boundaries she set, the opportunities she learned to say no to, and how she reconnected with her identity as a writer. Julie also reflects on what it looked like to recover from burnout while still making meaningful, decisive progress on her work.
This conversation is especially for scholars who are pre-tenure, caregiving, or simply exhausted by the grind of academic life—and looking for a more sustainable way forward.
Looking for sabbatical planning support? Whether you have a pre- or post-tenure sabbatical, I can help you figure out your sabbatical priorities and build a plan that combines restoration and productivity. Learn more and book a free consultation here: https://bethanywilinski.com/services/reignite/
If you're a few months (or maybe even a semester+) into your sabbatical and you're realizing that things are not going as planned, then...
Here's another take on going away for sabbatical, this time from my daughter, Clara. Clara was 5 when we went to Bordeaux and started...
In this episode, I talk to Rea Dvakos, an academic librarian at the University of Toronto, about how to intentionally craft a sabbatical that...