"I was never supposed to be where I am today. In academia, the route to the tenure track has on it a terminal degree, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and other what-everybody-else-has-done things."

So begins author Isaac Sweeney as he chronicles his unlikely path from a newspaper staff writer to his coveted tenure-track position in higher education. Same Track, Different Track reveals the adjunct underbelly of academia while telling an underdog story about a laid-back family man who uses creativity and tenacity to find ? and sometimes create ? his own way.

Same Track, Different Track is a unique combination of an original narrative and Sweeney's previously published essays from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe, and others.