Season Reflections: Cultivating a Good Academic Life (CAL127, S6, E21)

In this final episode of the 2024-2025 season, I reflect on key themes emerging from the past 20 episodes of 'Changing Academic Life.' These are around creating supportive and inclusive cultures in academia, the role of leadership, career transitions, wellbeing and self-care, and the importance of community. It reminds us to engage in reflection, value our own and others' wellbeing, and contribute to positive changes in academic environments.  Cultivating a good academic life for all is a collective effort.

00:00 CAL127 Season reflections

02:44 Supportive cultures

06:35 Career transitions, choices

11:39 Wellbeing & self care

13:56 Community

16:00 Closing

18:29 End

Episode Transcript

Geri Fitz (00:05):
Welcome to Changing Academic Life.
I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this isa podcast series where academics and
others share their stories, provideideas, and provoke discussions about what
we can do individually and collectivelyto change academic life for the better.

(00:29):
Welcome.
I'm so glad you can join me here forsome reflections across the season
that we are just coming to the end of.
And this final episode is a littlebit late in coming because I've
had travels and talks and runningworkshops, and so I just didn't
have the head space to do this.
So in, uh, trying to walk the talk,I gave myself some grace and took the

(00:52):
pressure off to be on a fortnightly cycle.
And finally getting to this.
We started this season about 10months or so ago, and first episode
was on 4th of September last year,and we are now well into July 25.
During that time, we've had 20 episodes.
Seven of them were me talking orreflecting on a particular topic, and

(01:14):
there was also one compilation episode.
And all the others wereinterviews and discussions
with really interesting people.
And I just want to remind us allthat everyone is interesting.
Everyone is has a story totell or experiences to share.
And it's interesting that even though Idon't more systematically plan my guest

(01:38):
schedule, it's rather more opportunistic.
It's really amazing to reflect onthe themes that have come out across
many of the different conversations.
And that's what I want to do now isjust walk through some of those themes.
So just to give an overview of what Ithink they've been, there's one that's
been around creating supportive andinclusive cultures of care in academia.

(02:05):
And related to that isthe role of good leaders.
There's another theme that's sort ofreflected in a lot of the career stories
that we heard about career transitions.
And I want to reflect on that interms of making choices and also
the importance of reflection insupporting how we make those choices.

(02:30):
And there was another theme aroundwellbeing, mental health and
self care that we can reflect on.
And finally, I want to finishwith the importance of community.
So to the first theme aroundcreating supportive and
inclusive collaborative cultures.

(02:51):
We heard so much about the importance ofthe role that every one of us can play
and the way that we can all contribute tothe co-creation of supportive, inclusive
cultures, and I think we heard aboutthat very strongly from Line and Nicklas
when they reflected on their particularresearch context that got the Danish

(03:13):
Young Science Academy Prize for researchenvironment, and they talked really
compellingly about how we all contributeto shaping and sustaining these cultures.
And that key aspects of thesecultures were things like, fostering
trust and open communication.

(03:37):
You know, the importance ofpsychological safety, the focus on
really caring about people's long-termdevelopment and how to support that.
And in the process valuing healthand wellbeing so that science isn't
done at the cost of wellbeing and whatcould be done to support wellbeing

(03:58):
as part of these environments.
And we saw these themesrepeated in different people's
discussions of cultures.
You know, so most recently Johannatalked about, their mission at Graz
around creating or her mission aroundcreating a fun and kind academia and
that we can do impactful researchand look after our wellbeing.

(04:20):
And, and she shared some of theinitiatives they're taking more at
sort of an organizational systemiclevel to promote and support that.
And we also heard, for example, fromMatt and Oana at Glasgow and Özge at Koč
Univers University in Turkey about theirevery day on the ground initiatives to

(04:43):
support and create cultures of care.
Matt and Oana talked about micro actions,which fits nicely with the ways that we
don't have to have the grand gestures.
It, we can all contribute.
And towards that, the compilation episodethat I did provided lots of examples from

(05:04):
previous episodes that also pointed to theproductive engagement in creating cultures
of care and respecting differencesand how we can create a culture where
learning is encouraged and recognizinglearning is often learning from mistakes.
And related to this, I also did a soloepisode just to unpack the notion of

(05:27):
psychological safety a bit more becauseit's such a prominent concept and topic
at the moment, and actually so importantabout how do we create environments
where people can feel that it's okayto speak up, to have an opinion, to
contribute without, personal risks.

(05:49):
And towards this, we also heard aboutthe really important role that leaders
can play in setting the direction forthis sort of culture and role modeling
the sort of behaviors, whether that'sthe micro actions of care and connection.
Matt particularly talked about theimportance of empathy and being

(06:10):
really intentional in the way thatyou show up recognizing the humanity
of yourself and everyone else.
So, you know, the way hesought feedback as well.
And Özge also talked about initiativesto create the care and the open
communication being really important.

(06:35):
Another interesting theme that emergedwas around, a number of people who were
reflecting on different career transitionsand whether that was Evan peck making a
decision to move from one particular typeof university with one particular emphasis
to a different sort of university.

(06:56):
Or whether it was people like Vikki andTina who both eventually chose to move out
of academia into different career pathsthat still connected them with academia,
but more in coaching and support roles.
And also we heard about Johanna whomade different career choices that were

(07:20):
around trying to protect her wellbeingand manage her boundaries that took
her into some different sector work.
And then again, moving back to quitea different role than a traditional
research oriented role in a university.
And we have Graham who talked aboutmoving from, PhD to industry, to academia

(07:43):
and research to, to start up to beingsort of more entrepreneurial and then
moving on yet again to go back to learnbased on the experiences that he had.
So all of these career storieswere interesting, weren't they,
because no one had plannedthose paths from the beginning.

(08:08):
And I think that's somethingthat's worth reflecting on.
And through their discussions, wecould also hear the journey of growing
self-awareness and discovery aboutwhat was really important to people.
You know, Vikki talked about strengthsand aspirations and Tina talked

(08:30):
about getting more familiar withyour natural talents and Liam also
talked about choices that werereally aligned with values and goals.
Özge talked about the importanceof values, understanding your core
values as a guide for behaviors,as did both Evan and Johanna.
So this theme of getting clearer over timeof what are your values, what's important

(08:58):
to you, and what are your strengths.
I also talked about them as superpowersor in your natural talents because when we
can operate working with our strengths, wedo our best work, and we are more engaged.
Excited by the work wedo and do better work.
And that also connects towhat's the difference we want to

(09:20):
make, tied up with all of that.
And we heard that come out as themes,like what's the difference you
wanna make was, the difference that.
Graham talked about, and Evantalked about in particular, in
making the choices to move.
We also heard around how peoplenavigated the different trade-offs.

(09:43):
You know, because there's never a cleanchoice where everything's perfect, there's
always losses and gains, isn't there?
And so I think it was reallyinteresting hearing about lots
of people's transitions, the waythey arrived at those choices.
And as Evan talked about, careerdecisions are always deeply personal,

(10:06):
multifaceted, and take place in acontinually evolving professional
landscape and an evolving landscapeof your own personal priorities.
You know, and that trade off,balancing all of those concerns
it's is really important.
And I think tied up with this, if we'regoing to have the insights into what

(10:31):
our strengths are and our values andwhat difference do we want to make, we
also heard across all of these, we couldhear and people being very reflective
and like Evan talked about a constantreflection on that negotiation around his
own personal values and broader impact.

(10:53):
And that it's a lifelong learning thing.
And so.
Towards that, Matt offered aframework for reflection that he
gives to students, but could alsobe really useful for all of us.
And for my end of year podcast, Ialso offered a framework of questions
that might support reflection, to helpstart to get more insight into what's

(11:17):
important and who you are at yourbest . And part of this reflection
is, as Vikki talked about, a lot ofself-compassion and, the knowing yourself.
And she had a lovely way of talkingabout being your own best boss.
People also talked about beingrealistic about what you can achieve.

(11:39):
And then this connects then I think, tothe theme of wellbeing and self care.
And Johanna, I think was particularlyinteresting to hear the way, through
a process of reflection about what wasimportant to her, became really clear on

(11:59):
what were the boundaries that she wantedto hold, and accepting the trade-offs
in the choices that she made around whatwas needed to protect those boundaries.
And self-care also figured in lots ofpeople's discussions, whether it's Matt
and Oana, or Vikki or Özge or Johanna.
It was a really common theme

(12:23):
and mental health also figured, youknow, so Matt and Oana talked about
depression and burnout and sharedvery honestly and vulnerably about
their experiences there as did Özge.
So recognizing that we're not alonewith a lot of those struggles.
And Vikki also talked aboutexperiencing ADHD type behaviors.

(12:44):
And managing that as well.
So I think that that's reallyimportant to think about how do we
deliberately cultivate practicesof care for ourselves and also
extending that as care for others.
And that also is, that bringsin the self-compassion.

(13:06):
And
that's not selfish because we need to beable to bring our best selves to our work,
to our interactions with our colleagues.
And so it's so important that weprioritize our own wellbeing and that,
we heard about that in terms of theculture discussions as well, that there

(13:29):
are things we can do both at like abottom up our own everyday practices
and then what we can do from a top downin terms of what might be the policies
and procedures and exemplars that we'dwant to propagate from an organizational
perspective as well as what we can dowith one another in our interactions

(13:51):
to promote wellbeing and to make thata norm that it's okay to care for that.
And then I think that connects nicelywith the theme of community and the
critical importance of community.
We don't do academia alone.
And we don't need to do it alone.

(14:14):
And there's lots of discussion acrossthe episodes about the supports of
other people and how valuable that was.
And again, in that sense of topdown, bottom up, we heard from
Johanna about the initiatives atGraz to create collaborative peer
support network, support groups.

(14:38):
And I had a solo episode after thatthat gave an overview of things to
think about if you wanted to set upyour own peer support group and the
different types of groups that youcould think about, because we can put
these in place for ourselves as well.
And we also heard it from Liamjust about his own reflections.

(15:02):
The lovely Liam who very sadly passedaway in September last year, who really
wanted to share with the communityabout the importance of thinking about
what's important and how to balancebetween professional ambitions and

(15:25):
personal wellbeing, and particularthe importance of relationships.
And I followed that up with a soloepisode, just reflecting on networking
and how we might reimagine it not as astrategic career maneuver or something
that we have to do and something that wecan be really scared of, but as a process

(15:49):
of how do we build genuine connectionsand how do we use those genuine
connections to have an impact on othersthrough our everyday micro interactions.
So coming back, the full circleculture is created in our local
environments, in our institutions,in our professional communities.

(16:12):
And I always talk about the top downand the bottom up, and I so believe
we need actions from all levels.
And I don't want to downplay theimportance of the structural constraints
and issues and challenges and thatare actually increasing at the
moment, which makes me really sad.

(16:33):
And at the same time, recognizethat there are little moments
of power and connection that wehave, that we have some power.
And we have that power to createconnection, to contribute to building good
cultures, to make some choices and acceptthe trade offs that may be entailed.

(16:55):
And just returning to Liam's callabout being true to ourselves and being
reflective about how we balance betweenour professional ambitions, our personal
wellbeing, and investing in relationships.
So I'll finish here and wishyou all a good couple of months.

(17:19):
For those of us in the NorthernHemisphere, it's our summer break
time, and I will be back in theautumn with some new stories, new
people, and looking forward to it.
Take care.
Be kind to yourself.
It's okay to take a proper break,have a proper holiday, and enjoy it.

(17:45):
You can find the summary notes, atranscript and related links for this
podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.
You can also subscribe to ChangingAcademic Life on iTunes, Spotify.
And I'm really hoping that we canwiden the conversation about how
we can do academia differently.

(18:06):
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And if something connected withyou, please consider sharing this
podcast with your colleagues.
Together we can make change happen.