Doodling for Academics - (Chicago Guides to Academic Life) by Julie Schumacher (Paperback)

About the Book

Coloring books have come to the aid of stressed out people the world over, and academic life is one full of stresses. This activity book invites us into a day in the life of an academic, and with authorial wit and clever original illustrations immerses its users, through coloring and other activities, to the unique experiences and challenges of academic life. Intended as an interactive satire, the combination of humor and activities can settle any mind, and also bring into entertaining relief the lives of campus academics.

Book Synopsis

To an outsider, working as a university professor might seem like a dream: summers off, a few hours of class each week, an exchange of ideas with brilliant colleagues, books and late afternoon lattes. . . . Who wouldn't envy that life?

But those in the trenches of academe are well acquainted with the professoriate's dark underside: the hierarchies and pseudo-political power plays, the peculiar colleagues, the over-parented students, the stacks of essays that need to be graded ASAP.

No one understands this world better than novelist Julie Schumacher, who here provides a bitingly funny distraction designed to help you survive life in higher education without losing your mind. Sardonic yet shrewdly insightful, Doodling for Academics offers the perfect cognitive relief for the thousands of faculty and grad students whose mentors and loved ones failed to steer them toward more reasonable or lucrative fields.

Through forty pages of original illustrations and activities-from coloring to paper dolls to mad libs-this book traces the arc of a typical day on campus. Get a peek inside the enigma of the student brain. Imagine a utopian faculty meeting. Navigate the red tape maze of university administration. With the help of hilarious illustrations by Lauren Nassef, Schumacher infuses the world of campus greens and university quads with cutting wit, immersing you deep into the weirdly creative challenges of university life. Offering a satirical interactive experience for scholars, the combination of humor and activities in this book will bring academia into entertaining relief, making it the perfect gift for your colleagues, advisors, or newly minted graduates.

Review Quotes

"Better than a massage! Better than acupuncture! Better than a double whiskey on the rocks! It's university satire, but you don't have to teach to get the jokes. Even the copyright page is funny."-- "Minneapolis Star Tribune"

"Presents a satirical, academic approach to the world of coloring....a break from the grind of daily life."-- "Minnesota Daily"

"Provides a satirical take on the grim reality for today's scholars, from the lack of funding for arts and humanities to the burden of administrative red tape."-- "Times Higher Education"

"Schumacher is not your typical writer when it comes to depicting (and poking fun at) academic life."-- "Inside Higher Ed"

"The wonderfully weird illustrations in Doodling for Academics brilliantly capture the bizarre highs and arcane lows of academic life. Full of fun activities to pass the time at staff meetings, this book will be a quirky addition to any academic office."-- "Glen Wright, creator of Academia Obscura"

About the Author

Julie Schumacher is professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of the best-selling Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Lauren Nassef is a freelance illustrator and artist living in Chicago.