Having an academic identity crisis after becoming a full professor?

Introducing a white paper to inspire you to start reflecting on the necessity, meaning, and joy in your academic career

Anne-Wil Harzing - Wed 4 Feb 2026 07:24 (updated Wed 3 Dec 2025 10:43)

Many academics are facing a bit of an identity crisis after being promoted to full professor. You have worked soooo hard to get there. The longer it took, the more important reaching this position may have become to you. You may have failed a few times in the process of getting there; I certainly did. You may have seen others – whom you thought did not even get close to matching your own record – achieve this coveted position before you did; I still remember the deep sense of unfairness when that happened to me.

And then suddenly…, you are a full professor yourself and you are asking yourself:

• “Why was reaching this level so important to me and what do I do now?”
• “How do I craft my career/identity as a senior academic?”
• “How do I align this identity with my goals, strengths, and interests?”

These were some of the questions we asked ourselves in the first session of our senior CYG meetings. As the host and facilitator for this session I opened it with a reflection on my own academic identity, which - after nearly a year of further reflections - led to a substantive white paper.

To inspire you to start thinking about your own academic identity, my white paper first presents an illustration of my own academic identities since becoming a full professor. I then introduce the “necessity, meaning & joy” framework and analyze my own academic identities based on this. Finally, I reflect on the relationship between these three criteria – are they conflicting or synergistic? – and the usefulness of this framework across career stages. 

Is your interest piqued? You can read the full story here: You finally made it to full professor, now what?

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