Interview with Dr. David Cañarte on finishing a PhD during a global pandemic - Ep. 33

In today's episode, we interview David Cañarte, who recently got his PhD in the department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. David, who is originally from Ecuador, has a background in design and marketing. He has studied in Ecuador, the Netherlands, and the United States.

We talk about David's meandering career path, and how his path and his wife's path have developed over these years. We also learn about David's research on social networks of immigrants, and how he shifted to this topic. Then, we dive into the methods that David used during his doctoral research and discuss the tools he used for this purpose. We also learn the complications David faced for his data analysis as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, and how his work was impacted by the situation in his home country.

After managing to finish his PhD during the global pandemic, David was faced with the challenge of defending his doctoral research online. We learn his best tips for defending through videoconferencing.

Finally, we round off the interview with a discussion on how to set boundaries to work, and learn how academic couples can set boundaries together. We learn David's best advice for PhD candidates, and -closely related to setting boundaries- get a glimpse at the day in the life of David.

References

• Joseph O.Baker, David Cañarte,and L. Edward Day. 2018. “Race, Xenophobia, and Punitiveness Among the American Public” The Sociological Quarterly 59(3):363-383.
• Raffaele Vacca, David Cañarte & Tommaso Vitale (2021) Beyond ethnic solidarity: the diversity and specialisation of social ties in a stigmatised migrant minority, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1903305
• David's profile on the website of the University of Florida
• More about David's doctoral research in Spanish
• Follow David on Twitter
• How to prepare for a Zoom viva
• R
• Igraph
• Igor