[Sorry for posting this almost a year late – it was in my drafts for ages and I didn’t realise I never actually posted it!]
Today is Monday, 20 May 2019.
I am an Edinburgh-Zhejiang lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (UK).
This is a day in my life.
Hello, my lovely readers. It has been a while since my last blog post. My resolution for the New Year is to me more consistent in my blogging, but also (at least a bit) more fearless. So, here is a blog post which is difficult for me to write. I recently had a few interesting conversations on Me Too STEM and related issues. One of the questions that came up repeatedly was, why was this kind of behaviour not reported (or not reported earlier)?
I cannot speak for others. But I can tell you why I have not reported past instances of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment in academia that I have either experienced or witnessed. So, here is a list of all that I can think of:
I don’t know whether this list is complete. For any incident I have witnessed or experienced, a combination of reasons applied. I am not proud of any of this. I talk a lot about being open about our failures in academia. This is my biggest failure yet. To everyone I may have put in harm’s way by this, I sincerely apologise.
The purpose of this list is not some universal apology for my past moral failure. It is also not meant as a menu of apologies for anyone else. But what I hope you see from it is this: That reporting is difficult. That even when we know that it is morally the right choice, it can be extremely hard to do. And that therefore, we should not be too hard on those who don’t report, including our past selves. Especially if they are in vulnerable positions, which, in academia, is a lot of people. Forgive yourself. Move on. Do better when you can.
Today is Sunday, 20 May 2018.
I am an Edinburgh-Zhejiang lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (UK).
This is a day in my life.
This weekend was Guy Fawkes Night, which is a yearly UK holiday. It commemorates a guy (named Guy) who tried to blow up parliament in 1605. To show that cruel acts of terror like this have no place in our civilised and peaceful society, we burn Guy Fawkes at the stake. Well, an effigy of him these days. Plus, there are fireworks. It’s one of the British holidays that I find it harder to relate to (as opposed to, say, Early May Bank Holiday, which is my favourite). Therefore I keep forgetting the date.
I went to an interesting panel discussion about science communication the other day. The panelists were all accomplished scientists who did a lot of outreach and science communication and were talking about how important and rewarding it is, and how we should all do more of it.
To which I agree, but more and more, I am also wondering: How do we know it’s working? And are there things that work better than others? And are we really spending our time and resources where they are most needed?
It is a nightmare: I am at university, and I have to pass a difficult exam. It is an oral examination, for which I have prepared, but probably not enough. I am nervous. The Professor’s office is in an old building, down a long corridor. Outside the room, a few students are waiting their turn. I go sit with them. I don’t know any of them. One of the girls greets me and says something. I don’t understand her. It sounds like what she is saying is “So, how many times have you tried this one?” I mumble something about this being my first time. (And hopefully my last! But I don’t even have the courage to say that. This, I feel, is no time for being over-confident.) I go through my notes, like everybody else does. After a few minutes, the door opens and out comes The Professor. I have never seen this man before.
So, we stared at each other for a moment, each of us thinking that the other was really stupid. But let me start from the beginning …
I have been thinking some more about interdisciplinarity. I have written before about how different disciplines have different ways of thinking, and sometimes this gets in the way of mutual understanding. I have a story about how this panned out early on in my career, when I was working on my MSc project in a developmental genetics lab.
Last month, the Guardian’s “Academics Anonymous” column talked about the “trouble with the sisterhood in academia”. The underlying narrative is a familiar one, I have heard it often: Women, according to it, complain about gender discrimination, but the shocking truth is women are mean to each other, which makes them their own worst enemy. I call this the “bitchy sisterhood narrative”. Sometimes – as in said column – it goes even further: Because women are so mean and judgy, you can’t even speak out about the problem, because who knows what would happen? “Luckily,” the anonymous author writes, “I’m currently on a flight, 12km above the ground, where I feel safe from the judgments that would confront me were I to exorcise this academic grievance at the coffee station.” This is a rather clever device, at the same time reinforcing the “bitchy sisterhood” image and elegantly pre-empting any critical response.
I’ll respond anyway. Continue reading
This is self-explanatory, really. Here is every book I’ve read since summer 2015. (Mainly for my own record, but you might find something interesting there.) Not sure about the exact order, and I might have left some out (indeed, I am pretty sure I have). I will try to complete and extend the list as I go along. There is going to be no commenting or rating, and having read a book doesn’t necessarily mean I think it’s great. Most of them are, though. Books are awesome.
(Last update 2019-09-29)
Today is Saturday, 20 May 2017.
I am an Edinburgh-Zhejiang lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (UK). This weekend, I’m in London visiting my boyfriend. I have brought along my niece, who at the moment is living with me in Edinburgh for a high school semester abroad.
This is a day in my life.
life and learning 