Dr Florian Gebreiter

University of Birmingham

Abstract: Success is very visible in academia. If you look at the social media accounts, web profiles and CVs of academics, they all tend to emphasise success and achievements. However, rejection and failure are much more characteristic of academic life as the vast majority of journal submissions and funding bids are rejected. Yet, rejection and failure are much less visible and rarely talked about. As a result, many academics – and emerging researchers in particular – are poorly prepared for the rejections they (inevitably) encounter and feel that they are less successful than their peers.

In this session, we will discuss that rejection and failure are essential parts of academic life, that they happen to everyone and that they are not something we should be unduly worried about. We will moreover discuss how we can respond to rejection and failure, and how we can learn from them.