Becoming Researchers: Making Academic Kin in the Chthulucene

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Blanche Verlie ◽  
Sherridan Emery ◽  
Maia Osborn ◽  
Kim Beasy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Student Wellbeing ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Australian Association ◽  
Positive Experiences

AbstractGraduate students are often plagued by stress and anxiety in their journeys of becoming researchers. Concerned by the prevalence of poor graduate student wellbeing in Australia, we share our experiences of kin-making and collaboration within #aaeeer (Australasian Association for Environmental Education Emerging Researchers), a collective of graduate students and early career researchers formed in response to the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) conference in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2014. In this article, we begin to address the shortage of research into graduate student wellbeing, led by graduate students. Inspired by Donna Haraway's work on making kin in the Chthulucene, we present an exploration that draws together stories from the authors about the positive experiences our kin-making collective enables, and how it has supported our wellbeing and allowed us to work collaboratively. Specifically, we find that #aaeeer offers us a form of refuge from academic stressors, creating spaces for ‘composting together’ through processes of ‘decomposing’ and ‘recomposing’. Our rejection of neoliberal norms has gifted us experiences of joyful collective pleasures. We share our experiences here in the hope of supporting and inspiring other emerging and established researchers to ‘make kin’ and challenge the potentially isolating processes of becoming researchers.

scholarly journals Environmental and Sustainability Education Research, Past and Future: Three Perspectives From Late, Mid, and Early Career Researchers

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert (Bob) Stevenson ◽  
Jo-Anne Ferreira ◽  
Sherridan Emery
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Stages ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Biennial Conference ◽  
Australian Association ◽  
The Future

AbstractThe first research symposium, organised in conjunction with the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) biennial conference, began with a dialogue between scholars at three different academic career stages. As we all entered the field at different periods in its development, the first part of our presentation and this article provide our perspectives on the context, approaches and issues that characterised the field at the time we became involved in environmental education (EE) and EE research. The second part of this article presents the lessons we have learnt from EE research, and where we see the field headed in the future.

scholarly journals Perspectives for early-career researchers on plagiarism and scientific integrity

FACETS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
Robert G. Young ◽  
T. Fatima Mitterboeck
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Scientific Integrity ◽  
Predatory Journals ◽  
Early Career Researchers

Lapses in scientific integrity, such as plagiarism, persist in the scientific realm. To be successful and contributory, early-career researchers (ECRs), including graduate students, need to be able to effectively navigate the literature, peer-review process, and scientific research with integrity. Here we discuss different aspects of scientific integrity related to ECRs. Our discussion centres on the concepts of plagiarism and intellectual property, predatory journals, aspects of peer review, transparency in publishing, and false advanced accreditations. Negative elements within these topics may be especially damaging to ECRs, who may be less familiar with the research landscape. We highlight the need for ECRs to approach scientific investigation cautiously and thoughtfully to promote integrity through critical thinking.

scholarly journals First person – Martín Baccino-Calace

Biology Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. bio055483
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Person ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Synaptic Physiology ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
University Of Zurich ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Martín Baccino-Calace is first author on ‘Compartment and cell-type specific hypoxia responses in the developing Drosophila brain’, published in BiO. Martín conducted the research described in this article while a master's student in Rafael Cantera's lab at the Department of Neurodevelopment Biology, IIBCE, Uruguay. He is now a graduate student in the lab of Martin Müller at the Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Switzerland, investigating synaptic physiology.

scholarly journals First person – Abdulsalam Isiaku

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Disease Models ◽  
First Person ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Abdulsalam Isiaku is first author on ‘ Transient, flexible gene editing in zebrafish neutrophils and macrophages for determination of cell-autonomous functions’, published in DMM. Abdulsalam is a PhD candidate/graduate student in the lab of Prof. Graham Lieschke at Monash University, Clayton, Australia, investigating the role of phagocytes in inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Field Research: A Graduate Student's Guide

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezgi Irgil ◽  
Anne-Kathrin Kreft ◽  
Myunghee Lee ◽  
Charmaine N Willis ◽  
Kelebogile Zvobgo
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Sampling Strategies ◽  
Early Career Researchers

Abstract What is field research? Is it just for qualitative scholars? Must it be done in a foreign country? How much time in the field is “enough”? A lack of disciplinary consensus on what constitutes “field research” or “fieldwork” has left graduate students in political science underinformed and thus underequipped to leverage site-intensive research to address issues of interest and urgency across the subfields. Uneven training in Ph.D. programs has also left early-career researchers underprepared for the logistics of fieldwork, from developing networks and effective sampling strategies to building respondents’ trust, and related issues of funding, physical safety, mental health, research ethics, and crisis response. Based on the experience of five junior scholars, this paper offers answers to questions that graduate students puzzle over, often without the benefit of others’ “lessons learned.” This practical guide engages theory and praxis, in support of an epistemologically and methodologically pluralistic discipline.

scholarly journals A Vertical Peer Mentorship Model to Promote Early Career Development: Implementation and Initial Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Frances Haynos ◽  
Kathryn Coniglio ◽  
Helen Burton Murray ◽  
Linsey Utzinger ◽  
Andrea B. Goldschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Iterative Process ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Potential Solution ◽  
Mentorship Program ◽  
Peer Mentorship ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Initial Program

Mentorship is critical for career enhancement and professional development among early career researchers in the behavioral sciences. However, many barriers exist to securing appropriate mentorship, including inadequate supply of advanced mentors, inconsistent quality of mentorship, and diverse mentorship needs. Additionally, there are few training experiences that provide an opportunity to learn effective mentorship approaches and techniques. Vertical peer mentorship programs can provide one potential solution to these common mentorship pitfalls. In this approach, slightly more advanced early career professionals (e.g., post-doctoral fellows) provide mentorship to more junior colleagues (e.g., graduate students), permitting opportunities for both mentorship and mentorship training within the same dyad. Here, we detail one such early career vertical peer mentorship program developed within a subspecialty of psychology (eating disorders). We provide details about the iterative process of developing and refining this program to support mentor and mentee goals. We also provide initial program evaluation data from a subsample of participants completing post-program assessments (n = 109) that indicates that the program was highly acceptable (M = 8.22, SD = 4.25 acceptability on a 10-point Likert scale) and generative of early career productivity (producing > 25 manuscripts published or under review and > 21 conference abstracts) in its initial four years. This manuscript serves to provide a model for developing a successful vertical peer mentorship program and to encourage research in the under-investigated area of efficacious mentorship practices.

scholarly journals Who’s On Board: Early Career Researchers Hold Scarce, yet Valuable Roles Within Scientific Societies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Bankston ◽  
Stephanie M Davis ◽  
Elisabeth Moore ◽  
Caroline A Niziolek ◽  
Vincent Boudreau
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Scientific Societies ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Conference Organization ◽  
Positive Experiences

Early career researchers (ECRs) represent a large proportion of the research enterprise, yet they are largely excluded from decision-making opportunities including conference organization, funding administration, and manuscript peer review. As organizers of the research community, scientific societies are particularly well-positioned to incorporate ECRs into leadership roles. To assess the landscape of scientific societies that include ECRs within their organizational structures, we surveyed executives, tenured faculty, and ECRs in leadership positions within these structures. Of the queried scientific societies, ECR involvement in leadership varied greatly; while some ECRs participated in specialized committees, others were incorporated as full board members with decisional voting responsibilities. Both senior and ECR members reported having had positive experiences within ECR-inclusive committees, in which both scientific societies and ECRs benefited from ECR inclusion. Here, we highlight the accomplishments of several societies in incorporating ECRs in leadership positions, summarize the mutualistic benefits of including ECRs within decision-making structures, and present recommendations for establishing these positions throughout different organizations. Taken together, this work underscores the contribution of ECR leaders to scientific societies and to the research enterprise despite the relative scarcity of these positions.

scholarly journals How early-career researchers are shaping eLife

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Patterson ◽  
Randy Schekman
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Independent Group ◽  
Group Leaders ◽  
Early Career Researchers

Journals can benefit from listening to graduate students, postdocs and newly-independent group leaders.

scholarly journals Writing and Research Across the Globe: An Innovative North-North-South-South Collaboration

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 200-222
Author(s):  
Katie Bryant ◽  
Codie Fortin Lalonde ◽  
Rachel Robinson ◽  
Trixie G Smith
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
North America ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Program Development ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Writing Studies ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Global North

This article is based on various versions of a panel presented at multiple writing centre and writing studies conferences as well as conversations across partners. Our perspectives come from discussions between our four universities before, during, and after an initial global North/global South writing support partnership meeting in the summer of 2018. During that summer, four universities (two in southern Africa and two in North America) partnered to begin a collaborative project of capacity building in the areas of writing centres and writing support across all levels of these universities, offering writing support to undergraduate and graduate students as well as early-career researchers/faculty. In this article, we share some of our ongoing concerns and considerations for ensuring this partnership moves forward in a collaborative, egalitarian, decolonial way that avoids both Western colonial and neo-colonial approaches to capacity building and program development. Reflections in this article can perhaps inform others working in the field of writing centre scholarship wanting to build similar global collaborations.

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