I’ve been fairly quiet about it here on the blog, but this year has been a time of big changes for me. I left my tenure-track position at the end of June. After much soul-searching, I came to realize that the realities of faculty life are not for me. Much as I like teaching and research, the overall environment just didn’t work well for me.

I told my department chair back in January that I would be leaving at the end of the spring semester, and since then I’ve been doing some pretty intense thinking about what comes next. I applied for a bunch of things, did an interview or two, talked to a ton of people, and spent a lot of time writing and cogitating. I’ve seen a big drop in my crafting productivity, mostly because that energy and creativity was needed elsewhere.

After many months (years, depending on how you count) of consideration, I’ve decided that I’m going back to school. The irony of that decision is not lost on me – I certainly haven’t made it very far out of academia yet – but I think that this is the next step I need to take to get where I want to go.

I’ll be studying Information Design and Visualization at Northeastern University. That’s a big name, often shortened to “infovis,” and basically it’s about telling a story visually using data. It’s an interesting blend of the hard-nosed, data driven science world and the art world, and the storytelling part ties in the teaching as well.  It feels like a much better fit than where I’ve been, and I am really excited about this new venture.

I’ve found that lots of people have a hard time figuring out what exactly infovis is (and it is many things), so it might help to have an example or two. I’m particularly smitten with the work done by Fathom Information Design, a design studio here in Boston. Their recent projects on global animal trade and gender equality are particularly good examples of the kind of complicated visual storytelling that they do.

I have a ways to go before I’m playing at that level, but I’m excited to take the first step. Classes start in just a couple of weeks, and it strikes me that I’ll need to come up with some train knitting soon!