What Do Professors Do All Summer? More Than Most People Realize

The Myth of the Summer Vacation Professor: What Social Scientists Actually Do When Classes Aren’t in Session.

This essay is a little different from what I normally write here. Most weeks, I focus on politics, extremism, higher education, media, or the social issues that shape our world. Today, however, I want to write about something much closer to home: what many academics actually do during the summer.

Every year, around the time spring semester ends, someone inevitably asks a version of the same question: “So, are you off for the summer now?”

It is an understandable question. From the outside, academic life often appears to revolve around classrooms, lectures, and office hours. If students are not on campus and classes are not meeting, it can seem as though professors simply disappear for three months.

The reality is far more complicated.

For many faculty members, summer is not a break from work. Instead, it is a shift in the type of work we do. The classroom responsibilities may temporarily recede, but research, writing, mentoring, service, and community engagement often intensify.

In higher education, faculty work is generally understood as consisting of three interconnected responsibilities: teaching, research or scholarship, and service (Blackburn et al., 1991; Valdes, 2020). During the academic year, teaching often consumes much of our time and attention. Summer creates space to focus on the other dimensions of academic labor that are often less visible to the public.

For me, summer often begins with writing.

There are research articles to revise, book chapters to complete, conference presentations to prepare, and public scholarship pieces to draft. The irony of academic life is that much of the writing people associate with professors happens when we are not actively teaching. A manuscript that appears in a journal in the fall may have been researched and written during the summer months.

Summer is also when reading becomes possible again.

During the semester, reading tends to be strategic and immediate: preparing lectures, grading student work, reviewing materials for classes. Summer allows for deeper intellectual exploration. There are stacks of books on my desk that have waited patiently through the semester. Some connect directly to current research projects. Others simply help me stay informed about developments in sociology, criminology, political extremism, higher education, and related fields.

Research itself rarely stops when classes end. Many faculty members spend the summer collecting data, conducting interviews, analyzing documents, traveling to archives, attending conferences, or preparing manuscripts for publication. Undergraduate research programs frequently operate during the summer, creating opportunities for faculty and students to collaborate on projects that would be difficult to complete during a busy semester (Shields, 2010).

One of the most rewarding parts of my own summer work involves continuing to mentor students.

Research projects do not follow the academic calendar. Students working on honors theses, fellowship projects, conference presentations, or summer research initiatives still need guidance. Meetings continue. Drafts are exchanged. Data are analyzed. Presentations are refined. Mentoring undergraduate researchers remains one of the most meaningful parts of academic life, even when classes are not in session (Gevertz et al., 2019).

Then there are letters of recommendation.

Summer is prime season for graduate school applications work for some students, scholarships, internships, fellowships, and employment opportunities. Faculty members spend countless hours writing thoughtful letters that help students pursue their next opportunities. These letters are rarely visible to anyone except the student and the recipient institution, yet they represent a significant investment of time and care.

Community engagement also continues.

Many social scientists work closely with nonprofit organizations, schools, government agencies, advocacy groups, museums, libraries, and community organizations. Research partnerships do not pause simply because the semester ends. In fact, summer often provides the flexibility necessary to deepen those collaborations. Studies of public scholarship consistently show that community engagement is not separate from research and teaching but deeply integrated with both (Janke & Colbeck, 2010).

Summer is also grant-writing season.

Anyone who has written a grant proposal knows it is a demanding process involving literature reviews, budgets, research plans, assessment strategies, and collaboration with institutional partners. Grants help support student research, community projects, travel, equipment, and scholarly inquiry. They also require extensive planning long before any funding decision is made.

Service responsibilities continue as well. Faculty review manuscripts for journals, evaluate conference proposals, serve on professional committees, participate in accreditation work, and contribute to university governance — often ‘off-contract’ which raises questions about concerning uncompensated work. Much of this labor is largely invisible despite being essential to the functioning of higher education (Culpepper et al., 2021).

And yes, many academics volunteer.

We serve on nonprofit boards, help organize community events, support local arts organizations, participate in public education initiatives, and share our expertise beyond campus walls. These activities rarely appear in course catalogs, but they are central to the public mission of universities.

Course planning starts earlier than most of us assume.

Another significant summer responsibility is preparing for the next academic year. Contrary to the assumption that courses simply repeat themselves, effective teaching requires constant revision and renewal. Faculty spend time updating syllabi, redesigning assignments, incorporating new research, evaluating textbooks, developing class activities, and responding to changes in their disciplines.

There is also work on updating and editing course websites and online systems that have become a more labor intensive part of academic life.

In my fields of sociology and criminology, where social, political, and technological developments unfold rapidly, course materials can quickly become outdated.

Summer provides the opportunity to rethink what students need to learn, identify emerging topics, and create more engaging learning experiences. Research on effective teaching emphasizes the importance of course design, assessment planning, and curriculum development, all of which require substantial preparation before students ever walk into the classroom (Fink, 2013; Nilson & Goodson, 2018). Much of the work that students encounter during the semester—the assignments they complete, the discussions they have, and the learning experiences they remember—often begins months earlier during the quieter summer months.

Of course, summer should also include rest.

Academics need time with family, opportunities to travel, moments to garden, read for pleasure, listen to music, or simply recover from an intense academic year. Yet the popular image of professors disappearing into a three-month vacation bears little resemblance to the reality experienced by many faculty members.

The next time someone asks what professors do all summer, the simplest answer might be this: much of the work that makes teaching possible happens when we are not standing in front of a classroom.

References

Blackburn, R. T., Bieber, J. P., Lawrence, J. H., & Trautvetter, L. (1991). Faculty at work: Focus on research, scholarship, and service. Research in Higher Education, 32(4), 385–413.

Culpepper, D., Templeton, L., & O’Meara, K. A. (2021). Making faculty work visible: An equity-minded approach. New Directions for Higher Education, 2021, 11–19.

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Gevertz, J. L., Kim, P. S., & Wares, J. R. (2019). Mentoring Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Mathematics Research Students: Junior Faculty Experiences.

Janke, E. M., & Colbeck, C. L. (2010). An exploration of the influence of public scholarship on faculty work. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 12(1).

Nilson, L. B., & Goodson, L. A. (2018). Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Shields, G. C. (2010). Creating a comprehensive summer undergraduate research program despite fiscal challenges. CUR Quarterly, 30(4), 18–21.

Valdes, P. (2020). Faculty Service Work: Perceptions, Influences and Performance. University of Iowa.