Equip Scholars and Academic Leaders With the Mindsets Needed to Succeed in an Uncertain Academic Landscape

“Being entrepreneurial in a scholarly context means producing ideas and knowledge with limited resources while navigating an environment of high uncertainty.”

Why This Topic Matters for Today’s Academic Institutions

Graduate students and postdocs are entering an academic world that no longer resembles the one they were trained for.

Traditional preparation often does not equip them to navigate uncertainty, exercise agency, or create opportunities in a shifting academic and professional landscape.

Graduate deans and faculty leaders are under increasing pressure to support scholars who feel anxious, underprepared, or disconnected from clear career trajectories.

Ilana’s research shows that many leaders lack practical tools to guide students through these challenges.

Institutions need research-based strategies that cultivate adaptability, creativity, and resilience.

These skills are essential not only for academic success but for the wide range of careers scholars ultimately pursue.

KEYNOTE FOR GRADUATE LEADERS

Empowering the Next Generation: Entrepreneurial Mindsets for Graduate Success and Beyond

Topics Covered:

Description:

Designed for graduate deans, provosts, faculty, directors of graduate studies, and higher education professionals, this keynote reframes how institutions think about preparing scholars for today’s academic landscape.

Ilana introduces three essential mindset shifts: moving from consumer to producer, from passive to agentic, and from certainty seeking to navigating uncertainty. Through evidence, real time engagement, and practical interventions, she equips leaders with tools they can use immediately to better support their scholars.

This keynote helps institutions modernize their approach to graduate training and create environments where scholars are poised to thrive.

Participants will learn how to:

Integrate the three core entrepreneurial mindset shifts into graduate training and professional development.

Use research backed interventions that empower scholars to develop agency, creativity, and adaptability.

Better support students who feel anxious, underprepared, or uncertain about their scholarly futures.

"Of the many wonderful sessions I attended at the conference of the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington DC last week, the one that had the most impact on me was Ilana Horwitz´s "Empowering the Next Generation: Entrepreneurial Mindsets for Graduate Success and Beyond." In that talk, and in her excellent new book The Entrepreneurial Scholar: A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond, Horwitz urges PhD students and other researchers to rethink their identities. Instead of seeing themselves as failures if they don't secure an increasingly elusive academic position, they should conceive of themselves as knowledge makers who can apply their unique and extensive skill sets to solve various problems. That, for Horwitz, is scholarly entrepreneurship. A breath of fresh air and a valuable resource for anyone supporting PhD students in career exploration."

Toby Erik Wikström, PhD

Graduate School and Faculty of Languages and Cultures at the University of Iceland

KEYNOTE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCS

Becoming a Scholar With Agency

Topics Covered:

Description:

This hands-on keynote helps graduate students and postdocs cultivate the mindsets and tools that expand their scholarly and professional possibilities.

Ilana teaches participants how to map their intellectual, social, and human capital; design small, iterative actions that create momentum; and build platforms for sharing their work through academic, community, and public channels.

This session shifts scholars from waiting for opportunity to generating it and gives them the clarity and confidence needed to build sustainable careers within or beyond academia.

Participants will learn how to:

Move from excelling at meeting expectations to actively creating new knowledge and opportunities.

Build relationships across academic, professional, and communal spaces to expand their impact.

Identify and leverage their intellectual capital, human capital, and social capital to generate opportunities.

Based On Vetted Research

Ilana brings the research from The Entrepreneurial Scholar to life through interactive frameworks and applied examples.

Purchase your copy here:
Use IMH20 for a discount at Princeton University Press!

Tailored for Maximum Impact

During the planning process, Ilana works closely with event organizers to understand the distinct needs of their leadership teams or student audiences. Every program is designed intentionally so that the message, tools, and strategies directly support your learning goals and event theme.

Partnership and Extended Learning Opportunities

To maximize the value of your investment, Ilana offers follow up workshops, ongoing training, and supplemental programming that deepen the mindset shifts introduced in her keynote. Institutions can partner with her for multi session series, breakout workshops, or targeted development sessions that reinforce long term success.

Give your scholars and academic leaders the tools they need to thrive in a world defined by uncertainty.

Book Ilana Horwitz today to bring research driven clarity, practical strategies, and lasting impact to your next event.