Choosing Yourself: When Values Guide Academic Choices

Early-career mathematicians are often told that success in academia follows a linear path: finish the PhD, secure a tenure-track position, build a research program, and never look back. In practice, academic careers are shaped by personal values, relationships, evolving interests, and uncertainty. In this seminar, I share my own non-linear path through academia, including how my spouse and I navigated the two-body problem, my transition away from my first tenure-track position, and the experience of starting over professionally and geographically. I also discuss how my current research program differs significantly from my PhD dissertation, and what it took to relearn, retool, and grow into a new area of mathematics. My goal is to offer an honest account of career decision-making in academia, normalize uncertainty, and encourage early-carer academics to define success in ways that are both professionally meaningful and personally sustainable.

Bio
https://sites.google.com/site/angelynnralvarez/home