Contemporary Challenges for the Academic

This reflection aims to offer a contribution on some of the main challenges that academics have to face in their professional practice. To this end, we will analyse two components of the academic’s activity – teaching and research –, as well as the potentialities of their association, mobilising in this reflection the authors’ academic experience, especially in the disciplinary field of Sociology. It is concluded that, despite the academic’s high expertise, there are several instigations that lead us to consider the need for a permanent update, so as to encourage, in an intentional and successful way, his/her action.