65 ratings | 17 reviews | avg rating:4.49

Joseph H. Wycoff’s Followers (14)

Joseph’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (1)
read (65)
2021-shelf (19)
biographies (5)

Joseph’s Friends

Joseph hasn't connected with their friends on Goodreads, yet.

Joseph H. Wycoff

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.historiaresearch.com/

Twitter

historia_rsrch

Genre

History, Historical Fiction, Nonfiction

Member Since

May 2018

edit data

After completing his BS and MA at Arizona State University, Joe earned a doctoral degree in US History from the University of Washington with an emphasis on business and consumer history. He has worked as a higher education administration and research professional for over twenty years. During his career, he worked as an institutional research and effectiveness officer in three different sectors of higher education: a community college, a private nonprofit, and a public Research I university. His first book, Outsourcing Student Success, offers a critical analysis of institutional research scholarship from the past one hundred years and delivers his personal insights into the barriers to student success at American colleges and universities. After completing his BS and MA at Arizona State University, Joe earned a doctoral degree in US History from the University of Washington with an emphasis on business and consumer history. He has worked as a higher education administration and research professional for over twenty years. During his career, he worked as an institutional research and effectiveness officer in three different sectors of higher education: a community college, a private nonprofit, and a public Research I university. His first book, Outsourcing Student Success, offers a critical analysis of institutional research scholarship from the past one hundred years and delivers his personal insights into the barriers to student success at American colleges and universities.

As an independent scholar, Joe continues to study and practice the art of historical analysis. In 2009, he began a project to craft a historical narrative about a magical place from the distant past that fascinated him as a young adult. Nearly ten years in the making, his second work, Arcane Cage, explores the discovery of humanity’s native powers to master elemental forces, as documented in several archives around the globe, while his larger story invites readers to enjoy the fantastic exploits of a small group of individuals who put those powers to use to change the course of world history. Through the prism of his account of a cleric and her party of adventurers at the forefront of early civilization, his book considers how a new culture dedicated itself to higher education in the classical powers and in so doing refashioned the everyday life of human civilization as we know it today.

A recent convert to the possibilities of self-publishing, Joe has embraced the challenges of the process and intends to edit selections from his lifelong collection of writings for publication in the near future. Follow him on Twitter or on his blog to learn more about his work or to track progress on upcoming publications, including the anticipated follow-up to Outsourcing Student Success. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Joseph H. Wycoff questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Joseph H. Wycoff I don't know that I have ever had writer's block. I wrote what I had to write for my education. I write what people pay me to write so that a corporat…moreI don't know that I have ever had writer's block. I wrote what I had to write for my education. I write what people pay me to write so that a corporation can sell more product to consumers or a college can put on a good show to "evidence" data-driven decision making for the accrediting agencies. And, I write things that occur to me as worth writing at my own discretion.

I suppose the question refers more generally to the latter kind of writing. In that case, I definitely have had reader's block. My master's committee chair once told me he would not tolerate postmodernism in a thesis written by one of his graduate students. lt took me six years to work through that reader's block! "Write what you know!" all the advice books tell me. Friends and family on the other hand become afflicted with reader's block when they think that some shameful secret may be revealed in my writings. Agents and publishers of course have exercised their professional responsibility for reader's block. It is hard to fault them for that. Most recently, when I sought a publisher for _Outsourcing Student Success_, the reviewer acknowledged the thoroughness of my archival research and the lacuna in higher education literature on my subject, but nonetheless wielded the power of reader's block because of the "tone" of my narrative. I purposefully set the story arc of the historical narrative as a tragedy, so perhaps the reviewer wanted to read a romantic, comedic or satirical historical narrative about institutional research and higher education. Ultimately, you know, reader's block is highly subjective.

That is a useful insight, I learned, because the only way to overcome reader's block is to distance oneself from the reader. I have reached a sufficient age now to have attained the appropriate level of social alienation from readers and intellectual disdain for reader's block that I could not let pass the opportunity to self-publish.(less)

flag

like
Comment

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Joseph H. Wycoff I only know the worst things about being a writer. I imagine that better writers only know the worst things about being a writer more acutely. Therefo…moreI only know the worst things about being a writer. I imagine that better writers only know the worst things about being a writer more acutely. Therefore, it is best not to consider the best thing about being a writer. In fact, I am asked these questions because after nearly fifty years as an unpublished "writer" I finally found the right admixture of narcissism and disillusionment to regard self-publishing as a viable option. Now, there are plenty of good things about being a self-publisher including the opportunity to answer these questions. But, a writer? Writer should be ranked somewhere between pest control worker and newspaper reporter on CNBC's list of 10 worst occupations since 2017 (link: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/27/these...).(less)

flag

like
Comment

See all 6 answers from Joseph H. Wycoff…

Combine Editions
Joseph H. Wycoff’s books

Average rating: 3.44 · 9 ratings · 1 review · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	Arcane Cage: Being a Historical Narrative of Fantastic Events During the Decline and Fall of the Provenance 3.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Outsourcing Student Success: The History of Institutional Research and the Future of Higher Education really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Honors of Inequality: How Colleges Work for Some liked it 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

142 posts
Joseph H. Wycoff's Blog

Illinois Grant News | September 2025

Notices of Funding Opportunities and Awards

Featured Funding Opportunity

Washington, D.C. | September 29, 2025 | Accelerating Research Translation (25-548) | The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to increase the scale and pace of advancing discoveries resulting from academic research into tan...

Joseph is Currently Reading

Joseph Wycoff is currently reading

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

by Malcolm X

bookshelves: 2021-shelf, currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jan 14, 2022 06:13PM

rss
Joseph’s Recent Updates

Joseph H. Wycoff wrote a new blog post Illinois Grant News \| September 2025 Notices of Funding Opportunities and Awards Featured Funding Opportunity Washington, D.C. \| Se Read more of this blog post »
Oct 08, 2025 05:06AM · like