Writing Through Career Pivots And Transitions – Featuring Dr. Lauren Woodard

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Lauren Woodard, an assistant professor of anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, for a thoughtful conversation about career pivots, research transitions, and writing through uncertainty.

After a year marked by funding instability, forced pivots, and shifting academic priorities, this conversation feels especially timely. Lauren shares her experience overcoming major transitions in her career and inspired her to join Navigate.

We talk candidly about what it looks like to continue writing and publishing during periods of disruption, how to manage book and article projects simultaneously, and how Navigate supported Lauren as she clarified her publication pipeline and planned her next season of academic work. We also explore how parenting, caregiving, and seasonality shape writing practices, particularly during the early career years.

If 2026 feels like a year to intentionally reset your approach to writing, publishing, and career design, this episode is for you!

Writing and Publishing During Forced Research Pivots

Lauren shares how losing access to her long-term field site in Russia forced her to rethink not only her data collection plans, but also how she approached writing, publishing, and career planning more broadly. We talk about the difference between chosen and forced pivots, why stalled writing is often a systems problem rather than a motivation problem, and what it looks like to continue making publication progress during periods of instability.

We talk about why disruption often exposes gaps in project management and planning skills, and how addressing those gaps can restore momentum even when circumstances are far from ideal.

Lauren’s Experience Using Navigate to Regain Writing Momentum

Lauren reflects on what it was like to join Navigate during a season of significant professional and personal transition. Rather than focusing on productivity for productivity’s sake, she shares how the program helped her make sense of her writing in context and move forward with more clarity and control.

Lauren talks about:

• Entering Navigate while finishing a book and managing a growing backlog of article projects
• Understanding what people mean by a “publication pipeline” and how to build one
• Learning to distinguish between writing problems and writing tasks, and why that changed how she approached stalled projects
• Using Navigate to break large projects into realistic tasks that she could fit into her actual life
• Developing a clearer sense of what to prioritize during a forced research pivot, rather than reacting to pressure or uncertainty
• Feeling more grounded and less overwhelmed by seeing her projects mapped

Lauren’s perspective offers an honest look at how Navigate functions as a decision-making and planning tool for academics who want to take control of their careers.

“I was thinking how do I make this shift in managing my time, also now as a mother, and I started listening to your podcast. I found that really helpful, especially as I applied for a tenure track job, got my job at Syracuse, and moved here and had another child. I think the first two years I was at Syracuse, I was really focused on just getting used to the university, teaching new classes, having course prep and then finishing my book. I finished it last summer and got the contract and everything. Then, I had this existential moment where I was like oh – my book is done; I’m wrapping up all of these loose ends, but what am I going to do? I heard you advertise Navigate and it just sounded like a really good fit.”

“I spent a lot of time on my writing, but it was coming at an expense. I wouldn’t ever make space to rest or it would just mean that I would work a lot at night after my children go to bed. That’s when I would do my class prep and grading. It’s very exhausting with little children and when you’re not really sleeping regularly. So I started to identify those patterns too, and to think about making that shift, especially in recognizing this idea of seasonality – certain times of the year where I will have more space to write without teaching. Planning for that so that I’m not just trying to do everything all at once.”

More about Dr. Lauren Woodard

Lauren Woodard is a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on migration, citizenship, and racialization in the Soviet and post-Soviet periphery. Her first book, Ambiguous Inclusion: Migration and Race on the Russia-China Border will be published by the University of Toronto Press in April 2026.

We’re receiving applications for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®. Check out the program details and start your application process here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Apply here!
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It’s a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

CONNECT WITH ME: 

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• YouTube