In today's episode, we interview Dr. Malorie Albee. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northern Michigan University with a PhD from Ohio State University. We learn about her career path, and the various moves she and her family have made over the course of the past years.

We learn about the PhD program at Ohio State, and the structure of coursework, candidacy exam, proposal, and dissertation. We were surprised to learn about the written part of the candidacy exam, which requires the candidates to write five 20-page essays between Monday 8am and Friday 5pm of the exam week.

She studies the bioarchaeology of the human foot skeleton. We learn about what the bones in skeletal feet can teach us about the impact of our sedentary lifestyles, and why bioarchaeologists have perhaps not spent as much time on exploring this part of skeletal remains.

We talk about Malorie's experience in applying for a job after the PhD: when she started to apply, the type of positions she applied for, and what the campus interview is like for the academic positions she interviewed for.

Malorie also has a 6-year-old son, and we discuss how her experience as an academic parent has shaped some of the work she has done in her campus community: from advocating for lactation spaces that are not on the other end of campus, to setting an example as a mother and academic to her son and others.

We round off with her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19 on her PhD and data collection, and what a day looks like in the life for her.

References

• Diagnosing tarsal coalition in medieval Exeter
• Tarsal metric trends over the Medieval-Post-Medieval transition in London

In today's episode, we interview Maria Balaet. Maria is a computational neuroscientist at Imperial College London (final PhD year).  We learn about how she has wanted to become a scientist from a very young age and how she achieved moving from Romania to the UK for her studies.

Her research focuses on using large scale cognitive testing and machine learning methods for understanding how cognitive processes differ relative to the general population in people affected by neurological conditions or who are drug users. We learn about the methods she has used in her research, and how her methods were adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maria is also a mentor for In2Science UK, teaches and supervises students part of the Imperial College London Translational and Experimental Neuroscience Masters courses. We learn more about the PhD program at Imperial College and the tasks PhD candidates typically take on.

Maria is very passionate about public engagement with science, having delivered over two dozen public lectures across the UK just in the past three months. She also worked as a scientist for the TV show the Family Brain Games. We learn about her experience working on the TV show and giving public lectures, and how this engagement has made her PhD experience richer.

We also learn from Maria's experience as an academic mother, and how she has been balancing motherhood and her research during the pandemic.

Finally, we learn about her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19 on her research, and what a day in the life looks like for her.

References

• Find Maria on Twitter
• Maria's profile 

In today's episode, we first catch up on what we are working on, what is currently going well, and what we are currently struggling with.

Then, we dive into the four questions that we received to address:

• In the spirit of the Holidays: How can one just unplug from work? I used to say there is no holidays for grad students”, but that is bad work cultures
• What is your WFH setup?
• How can you attract differently-abled people to work for you?
• Which country provides maximum employment after a PhD degree?

We also discuss which books we enjoyed reading in 2022, and what we are currently appreciating.

References

• The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
• This tender land - William Kent Krueger
• Lauren Groff - Matrix
• Hela Haasse - Oeroeg
• Haruki Murakami - Norwegian wood 

In today's episode, we interview Jen Loch.  She grew up in Florida (USA) which encouraged her focus on a profession in marine science from a young age. She completed her B.S. in Biology from Florida State University, and M.S. in Marine Biology through the Three Seas Program at Northeastern University. She completed her PhD in conservation biology at the University of Central Florida. We learn more about the PhD program she followed, and the milestones along the way.

 In between her masters and doctorate, she spent several years teaching biology at local colleges, worked at an aquarium, and as a biologist for a local government.  We talk about her career path and how it took a while for all conditions to line up for her to get started with a PhD

Jen's research has focused on predatory fishes and their habitats, as well as how they are influenced by anthropogenic pressures (e.g., fishing and habitat alteration). We learn about her research, how she used fieldwork, and some of her main insights.

She is married to her husband of 11 years and they have two daughters, who were born during the course of their doctorates, and are now 3 and 5 years old. We learn about their experience being doctoral candidates with children, the support Jen's university offered, and how she combines academia and parenting.

Finally, we will hear Jen's best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries around work, the impact of COVID-19 on her doctorate, and what a day look likes in the life for her.

In today's episode, we look back on 2022 on a month-by-month basis. We reflect on what we have learned this year, what we would have done differently in hindsight, and what we hope to change in 2023. Finally, we also look at what we have upcoming as major milestones in 2023.

In today's episode, we interview Chantelle Taylor. Chantelle is a second year Phd student at Loughborough university. She is the mother of 3 boys and uses her experiences of mothering as a springboard for her research. We learn how motherhood influenced her choices with regard to studying, and going for a PhD, as well as how her research is influenced by her own experiences with postnatal depression. We also learn about the institutional and personal support she has received from her university as a mother, and as a mother of children with additional needs.

Chantelle’s interest in self reflexivity and autoethnography as well as her critique of what it means to be a mother has led her to a fascination of challenging the unchallenged both in terms of motherhood and good academic research. We learn about the methods she uses for her research, and the entanglement of feelings of adequacy surrounding doing a PhD and motherhood.

We also learn more about the length and format of the PhD at Loughborough, and how the annual review takes place.

Finally, we round off with learning about Chantelle's best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries around work, how COVID-19 impacted her daily work, and what a day looks like in the life for her.

References

• Loughborough University
• Chantelle's Twitter profile

In today's episode, we talk about how to decide on where to publish or present research. We first look at how we decide whether work is suitable for a conference paper or a journal paper.

Then, we zoom in further on conferences. We discuss the differences between big and small conferences, how many conferences to shoot for on a yearly basis, and how to get funding to attend conferences. We also learn from Sarah's and Eva's past experiences.

Then, we look at journal papers. We discuss how to select the right journal, how to identify the right audience for a paper, and look into the discussion on publishing open access or not. We also discuss when we know when work is ready to be sent to a journal, and Eva shares how she usually works with her PhD candidates through various versions of a manuscript. 

In today's episode, we interview Charles Grimm. Charles is an assistant professor of English at Georgia Highlands College and a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State University. Charles uses a heavy focus on literacy and metacognition in his two-semester composition courses. We talk about his career path, and the unique insights he gained as a PhD candidate while also teaching at a community college.

His dissertation focuses on the levels of oppression present in current ideas of "Authorship," especially as practiced with freelance ghostwriters and first-year composition students. We learn about the methods he used for his research, and the findings about the perception of credibility of writing depending on who it is attributed to.

He has been married to his best friend for 13 years and they are raising two children the best they can to live life and each other. We talk about when during his career and PhD the children were born, and what his experience of being an academic parent has been - especially with a newborn during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, we hear from Charles about his best advice for PhD candidates, how he sets boundaries around work, how COVID-19 impacted his work and daily tasks, and what a day in the life looks like

References

• The rise of writing: redefining mass literacy - Deborah Brandt
• The ghostwritten op-ed: an unacceptable deception - Dan Gillmor
•  Secrets of a Ghostwriter: The Step-By-Step Guide to Mastering the Theory, Skills, and Politics of Ghostwriting - Claudia Suzanne
• Love is blind

In today's episode, we talk about academic commutes. Sarah lives in Amsterdam and works in Brussels (and also stays in Brussels during parts of the week) and Eva divides her time between Quito and Delft. We talk about the practical aspects of our commutes, and how we divide our time between both places. We discuss what has changed over the years and what the impact of COVID-19 has been.

Then, we look at our experience with working in two places: the strategies we use for working at distance, the strategies we use for working at two places, and what some of the challenges are when working and living in different countries.

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Cathy Mazak. Cathy was a tenured, full professor when she founded a writing-focused professional development company for women and nonbinary academics. Cathy and her team are dedicated to changing the way that academics leverage writing and publication to create the careers and lives they want through courses and group coaching programs. We learn from her experience in how she pivoted from being a tenured full professor to a business owner, as well as her focus in her business on empower academic womxn and the ways in which academia tends to thwart the progress of those of minorities.

She has a PhD from Michigan State University and is the editor of several scholarly collections and the author of numerous textbooks and academic journal articles. In her work as a professor at The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez she attracted external funding for her work in bilingualism and higher education and co-founded a research center. We learn from her experience in how she crafted her PhD research journey towards her position at The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez and how she could get her dream job after her PhD.

Her popular podcast, Academic Writing Amplified, teaches how to use writing to resist the racist, ableist, patriarchal culture of academia. She is the author of Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing - part manifesto and part writing advice book, and we get to hear Cathy's advice on how to decide which writing projects to take on.

Finally, we learn about Cathy's experience as an academic mother of three and how she balanced academia and motherhood, as well as her best advice for PhD candidates, how she sets boundaries to work, how COVID-19 impacted her work, and what a day in the life looks like for her.

References

• Cathy Mazak's website
• Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing 
• Academic Writing Amplified
• Navigate - course for writing
• Amplify - pre-tenure program
• Elevate - post-tenure program
• Academic mission statement 
• Calendly
• Acuity