Transition from teaching school to research school

Question

I am a 2013 PhD graduate in Economics from the US. I got an Assistant Professor position in academia but with high teaching and service load which impede my research progress. I have only 2 publications in C  journal and 3 working papers in the pipeline. Since I  Iike research, my long term goal is to teach in a  PhD  research institution. I know it will be challenging but any advice? I am willing to take a postdoc in a PhD school or even go back to school.

Answer 1

I feel that no one will answer this -- at least not in a useful and constructive way -- but it's a good question. With the glut of new PhDs every year and not as many American universities to satisfy their dreams of becoming U.S. professors, I believe we may see many more people taking positions they do not plan to stick with in the hopes that they will build to a better position later. I don't know whether that's a reasonable hope. If you want to switch from a teaching to a research university, you will probably need to have a solid research pipeline, especially if you're further along in your career.

Answer 2

This seems to be a difficult path to take. The PhD research schools and the teaching+research schools seem to grow further apart all the time.  I would work hard on getting a lot of research out, networking heavily at conferences, and finding niche conferences that might help you to make connections.  Ask a nearby research university if you can come give a talk in their workshop series. And you want to move before tenure, not after, or at least, you want to be willing to give up tenure if you move after.