Moving within Academia: An interview with Pamela E. Harris
By Shanise Walker
Shanise Walker
Pamela E. Harris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Recently, Harris took a leave of absence from her position as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and Faculty Fellow of the Davis Center and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Williams College, a prestigious small liberal arts college, and relocated to a research institution. Pamela E. Harris was interviewed by Shanise Walker to discuss her transition from a small liberal arts college to a research university.
Shanise Walker: You recently made a big change to move from a prestigious small liberal arts institution to a research institution. What excites you about your new position?
Pamela E. Harris: It's hard to pick one thing! I suppose if I have to, I would say that I am really enjoying being part of a research group and being able to collaborate with graduate students. I also feel like I have more time to actually dedicate to research than before. At my previous institution, I felt like my priorities were split into something like 50% teaching, 30% service, and 20% research. I think now I’m at about 50% research, 25% teaching and 25% service. I now have more time to sit down and think in ways that I didn't before, and so that part is really exciting. I also get to collaborate with graduate students, which I didn't have before. Those two things have been really fun!
Shanise Walker: So, you are enjoying the shift in responsibilities and being able to do more research?
Pamela E. Harris: Yes, I became a mathematician because I love math, and for a long time I felt like I was doing research in spite of all my other responsibilities. This meant that I was working a lot more in order to continue to be research active. Right now it feels like I can do the work that I want to do within the allotted number of work hours. This means I feel like I have an even better work life balance than I've had before.
Shanise Walker: What advice would you give someone who might be considering moving with or without tenure?
Pamela E. Harris: I think we often worry too much about prestige and tenure, but of course I say that with a tremendous amount of privilege as I had tenure and moved with tenure. However, I think it is important to find institutions which align with one’s own personal and professional values, because alignment/misalignment of such factors can really shape one's experience as an academic. Whatever the circumstance might be, I would just say that if anybody has any inclination that the institution is not the right fit for them, then they should pursue other opportunities and consider taking a leave of absence to determine if another institution might be a better professional home for them. We live one life, and if we are not happy, or feeling valued, then we should consider if a move might help alleviate some of those challenges.
Shanise Walker: You mentioned missions and people whose missions align with their institutions, and also on the podcast, Mathematically Uncensored, you made it clear that you wanted to be truthful to yourself and your mission within mathematics. How does one clarify their mission within their career?
Pamela E. Harris: For me it aligns greatly with my own personal values, my experiences, and my educational journey. The thing that helped me get to where I am was having institutions that really valued human growth. They valued providing people opportunities and helping them be the best that they could be, and they valued community access and support. The key was collaboration rather than competition.
Shanise Walker: Currently, how have you seen your move align with your mission?
Pamela E. Harris: Like I said, I truly value collaboration, and being at UW Milwaukee I have been able to provide graduate students with opportunities to collaborate on research projects outside of their PhD dissertation. Personally, I value community and so that intersects nicely with building community amongst the graduate students, and then also attending conferences. When I was a graduate student here, it was not very common that we would travel because we didn't really know about such opportunities. Now I send students every single conference announcement I get. So community and collaboration have been centrally aligned to my own professional mission and fit nicely with the mission of access at UW-Milwaukee.
Shanise Walker: If you're willing to share, what is the most important thing that influenced your decision to take a leave of absence and move to UW-Milwaukee?
Pamela E. Harris: When the opportunity to return to UW-Milwaukee materialized there were a lot of pluses. Professionally it was a move to an R1, being at a PhD granting institution means I can supervise PhD students, something I have always wanted to do. Personally, I was coming home! I grew up in Milwaukee from age 12 to completing my PhD. I am thrilled to live in a city and that I now live close to my family.
Shanise Walker: How would you advise someone when personal life factors into their decision to change institutions or any employment?
Pamela E. Harris: Take those personal matters into consideration. Fight the belief that the only way to be a successful mathematician is to be at the most prestigious institutions. To me, being a successful mathematician means I am mentally and physically healthy, and that I can enjoy the process of doing mathematics with a supportive community of scholars.
Shanise Walker: So you were at Williams College for six years, how did working there affect or inform your identity as a mathematician and as a teacher of mathematics?
Pamela E. Harris: The biggest impact that it had was being able to work with students who were very inquisitive and eager to learn. That allowed me to really think about the kind of pedagogy that I was using in my classroom, and I had a lot of flexibility in teaching courses in whatever way I wanted. That allowed me to create research courses and flip classrooms, experiences which made me a much better educator.
Shanise Walker: Thank you for taking time to do this interview. As a final question, is there something that you would like to share that was not talked about in this interview?
Pamela E. Harris: Yes, I want to address what I sometimes hear when people talk about faculty who move or change institutions. There's often a narrative that if you are pre-tenure and you change jobs, it was probably because you weren't going to get tenure. As a community we need to fight that idea so that every time that we hear of a pre-tenure faculty member leaving an institution to go elsewhere, whether that institution is higher ranked, lower ranked, or a parallel move, we do not default to that narrative. We don’t know what that person is going through. We don't know why that person is making the decision that they're making. We should simply support them in their transition rather than make assumptions about why they made the choice they made. Also, it’s really important that when we think about people making professional moves that we acknowledge that sometimes those professional moves are dictated by personal experiences.
Shanise Walker is an avid reader, lover of games, and enjoys being an auntie. She is also an assistant professor at Clark Atlanta University, where she spends her time engaging with students through teaching and experiential learning.
Pamela E. Harris has developed a love for weightlifting and loves dogs. She is mom to Akira and is married to Jamual, her high school sweetheart. She is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches courses in algebra and combinatorics.