Bio

I'm an entrepreneur with a PhD in history. I own a small, independent writing business. I help academic writers get more writing done with less shame and greater joy.

I host writing retreats in Mexico and Guatemala to provide safe, collaborative spaces for writers to take creative risks in their work. I coach writers to help them use their own creativity and ingenuity to create strategies to reach their writing goals. I also provide academic editing services to scholars in the humanities.

Areas of Expertise and Research

I speak and write about the following topics:

• Latin American history

• Guatemala, early 20th century to present

• Adoption and adoption history

• State violence against families and children

• Neoliberalism

• Trauma and victim advocacy

• Writing processes

• Study abroad and non-traditional learning

• Transitioning from academia to self-employment

• Creative risk and big life changes

• Pseudo-science, eugenics history

• Student debt

Selected Publications

• Munro, Lisa L. “Come and See Guatemala at Macy’s! Indigenous Aesthetics and Informal Empire on Display in the Heart of the American Home.” Journal of Cultural Economy 15, no. 2 (September 21, 2021): 184–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2021.1977677.

• Munro, Lisa. “Crafting the Secrets of the Ancient Maya: Media Representations of Archaeological Exploration and the Cultural Politics of US Informal Empire in 1920s Yucatan.” Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 31, no. 1 (May 10, 2021): 3. https://doi.org/10.5334/bha-652.

• "Finding Footholds, Finding Your Way," in Succeeding Outside the Academy: Career Paths Beyond the Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM, edited by Kelly J. Baker and Joe Fruscione University of Kansas Press, October 2018.

• Munro, Lisa. “Buried Secrets, Living Children: Secrecy, Shame, and Sealed Adoption Records.” Nursing Clio (blog), October 10, 2017. https://nursingclio.org/2017/10/10/buried-secrets-living-children-secrecy-shame-and-sealed-adoption-records/.
  

Media

• Guest speaker talk at Horizons by Hopkins 2022 conference (November 16, 2023). Johns Hopkins University.

• Keynote address at Beyond Academia conference, “The Opportunity of Crisis,” University of California, Berkeley (March 1, 2019).

• Quoted in “Are Evangelical Adoption Agencies Stealing Children?” Dame Magazine, October 1, 2018.

• Podcast Interview: Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies, “Historias 21: On Pernicious Stereotypes in Guatemala and Life #WithAPhD.” (September 17, 2018)

• Podcast Interview; Academics Mean Business, "From a History PhD to a Writing Business." (May 29, 2018)

• Podcast interview; Writer Wiz, "Academic Writing, and Life After the Ph.D." (April 9, 2018)

• Featured on Freshbooks Blog, "Meet Lisa, a Writer Who Immediately Mastered Organization After Switching From Spreadsheets to Simple Cloud Accounting." March 26, 2018.

• Live webinar about trauma: Graduate Women in Science; February 22, 2018

• Guest blog post: The Professor Is In, "Leaving Academia: Learning to Grieve," September 27, 2018.

• Guest blog post: The Professor Is In, "Leaving Academia: The Trauma of Identity Loss," September 18, 2017.

• Essay: Nursing Clio, "Buried Secrets, Living Children: Secrecy, Shame, and Sealed Adoption Records," October 10, 2017.

• Guest blog post: The Professor Is Out, "Classrooms without Walls," August 14, 2017.

Additional Professional Development

• Developmental Editing for Academics, online course (Teachable). Manuscript Works (2021).

• Sacred Depths Foundational Level Coach Training, Joanna Lindenbaum (2021).

Contact