In our season 5 finale, we sit down with Dr Mirand Corcoran, Dr Dara Downey, and Dr Deirdre Flynn for a candid discussion of what it's like to be precarious as an early-career researcher. We talk about different kinds of short-term contracts, how the existing academic system enables pay below minimal wage for ECRs and how academic culture fuels our willingness to be exploited, and cover what we can do individually and collectively to work towards changing the system.

Find Deirdre's article " On Being Precarious" here: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/iur.2020.0433

Find Deirdre's Twitter here: @deirdre_flynn

Find Dara's Twitter here: @DaraD22Gothic

Find Miranda's Twitter here: @middleagedwitch

If you like our content, support PhD Pending by heading to our Buy Me A Coffee page and donate: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/phdpendingpod. This episode of PhD Pending was written and produced by Anne Mahler. Get in contact with PhD Pending on Twitter and Instagram @phdpendingpod or via email to [email protected]. Jingle by Scott Holmes ("Our Big Adventure," licensed CC BY-NC 4, available at www.scottholmesmusic.com, free for use, copy and redistribute in any medium or format, under Creative Commons).