Sometimes, perhaps several times in the course of an academic life, things change.

What feels meaningful changes. What you have stamina, energy, and excitement for changes. You find that you are no longer the person you once were, but who are you becoming?

The challenge

Inner transitions unfold on a different timescale and logic than outer changes in our careers.

When academic environments focus only on narrowly-cast understandings of ‘career progress’ and ‘professional growth’, the deeper currents of personal evolution often go unacknowledged.

This is a problem, especially for those of us who care very much about what we do and how we do it. We need ways to narrate our experiences of transition that acknowledge loss and lostness, yet preserve dignity, hope, and ambition.

A resource

Learning to recognize and value even the most unsettling aspects of inner transitions helps us work with them as mechanisms for renewing our creative energies and the clarity with which we show up in our work and life.

I wrote this chapter – part autobiographic account, part sharing of a narrative framework – to give you some starting points.

Coopmans, Catelijne (2024) ‘Body in the loop: Navigating academic midlife’, in Hammond, K. & Lemon, N. (ed.), Navigating Tensions and Transitions in Higher Education, Routledge.

What you’ll receive:

• A copy of the chapter sent directly to your inbox
• Invitations to join free small-group conversations about making sense of inner transitions, in January 2025

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