Lea Hartl
Postdoctoral Researcher at Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
My name is Lea and I do a few different things. I have a part-time job as a postdoctoral researcher at a research institute in Austria. I am an atmospheric scientist by training and shifted to glaciology for my PhD. I have worked on different aspects of the connection between the mountain cryosphere and weather and climate. My main focus is currently writing project proposals because I need to fund my own position if I want to continue at my institution. I also work as a freelance writer and editor, mainly for outdoor media and in sci-comm, because the part-time academic job isn’t paying the bills.
How did you end up in the current position, and to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I didn’t have much of a plan after graduating from university. When my advisor offered me a PhD position, I took it because it sounded interesting and I liked where I lived and the people I worked with. I had a scholarship for the first couple of years and then worked as a researcher in other projects while finishing the PhD on the side. After I got my PhD I moved to Alaska for a post-doc, which was great in many ways. However, I also realized that I want to be closer to my family and that I am not willing to indefinitely follow job opportunities around the world. I am back in Europe and have worked with my old group for the last couple of years.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Every new project and job changed things in some way or another. I don’t think I can identify any specific moments of clarity, it’s always been a gradual process. With time and an increasing variety of academic work experience, I have gained a clearer picture of what I do and do not want, but that didn’t happen in the form of sudden epiphanies.
Tell us one thing that makes you laugh about your work? Funny memory, mistake etc.
I get to do a lot of glacier fieldwork with great people. Sometimes that means fancy science and helicopters, but way more often it means really long, exhausting days carrying heavy backpacks up and down glaciers in all sorts of conditions. There are a lot of memories that make me smile, and they all revolve around team spirit on type 2 fun kind of field work days. There is much humor in absurdity but it’s hard to explain after the fact.
What is the best thing about your work at the moment? What research-related thing makes you excited?
The best thing about my current work is the people I interact with and that I can follow my curiosity where it takes me, at least sometimes. More broadly, I am excited about the trend towards open data, open code, open everything. I think this is already improving many things in my field and the development will continue in the future. I hope existing systems will change to better recognize the work that goes into open source development and other activities that are not “traditional” markers of academic success.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
It is difficult to nail this down to one particular thing. Maybe the funding structure and - this is related - the definition of academic success through metrics like impact factors and publication scores are at the core of the problem. The share of research happening on soft money is huge, which means that the share of academics on short-term contracts with uncertain future perspectives is huge. There is a lot of focus on short-term results because of impermanent funding and jobs, although many things take time to truly understand. Our metrics of success tend to reward individualism rather than community, which I think is detrimental in many ways.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing, and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
For me, it’s rarely been the actual research that was stressful or disappointing, but the circumstances around it. I truly enjoy the process of research. Of course, sometimes things don’t work out, but that’s what happens if you are trying new things (doing research!). In my experience, a lot of the frustrations around things not working are due to the pressure to produce publishable results within the time frame of your funding.
What keeps me going is a more complicated question. I struggle with the lack of career perspectives and stability much more than with practical problems I experience in my research. For now, the people I work with and the fact that I really enjoy my research keep me going. That probably won’t be enough in the long term.
Do you think gender plays a role in academia? If so, how?
Gender plays a role in academia in the way that gender plays a role in society as a whole. Academia is not magically separated from the rest of the world. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories from peers but my personal experience has been pretty good. I am in a male-dominated field but have mostly worked in a group with female leadership. Within that very small bubble within a bubble, I can honestly say that gender does not play a role in our day-to-day work.
However, general structural problems exist that affect everyone, myself included. I will have to decide whether to have children in the next few years. My partner left academia after his PhD and has a permanent, stable job, so I’m sure we could make it work, but it makes me sad that I would have to rely on his job for financial stability and peace of mind since mine does not provide either.
There is a good chance my life will contribute to the “leaky pipeline” statistic. Having said that, I think it is important to note that fixing the leaks in the pipeline does not fix the underlying problems with the pipeline. I have a lot of relative privilege. I am a white person from a rich country, with a supportive middle-class family. I have enough savings and other sources of income to afford to hang on to my very precarious part-time academic job in the hopes of things improving. Many people never even make it into the so-called pipeline that I might leak out of. Focussing on the leaking pipeline ignores and distracts from the larger issue of the pipeline as such. The precarity of academic work, especially at the early career stage, weeds out structurally disadvantaged groups, which reinforces the dominance of more privileged demographics within academia. Gender is part of this, but it is an intersectional issue and I think academia would benefit from treating it as such.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend, or whoever?
There are too many to list. Since this is about academia, I’ll go with this: There are some women in senior positions in my field who are actively organizing in one way or another, making noise and getting into proverbial “good trouble”. They are using their position to try and improve the system for everyone, calling out the bullshit and breaking the tradition of punching down on the way up, all to the significant irritation of “the establishment”. I find that inspiring and hopeful.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
I would like a more equitable and diverse system. Again, I think changes in that direction need to be intersectional or they will exchange one structural problem for another, or fix one problem but perpetuate others. In my personal fantasy world, I could simply do research as my job, with a life outside of work that blends with my identity as a scientist but can also be separate from it, in a team where the whole is more than the sum of the parts, without worrying where the next year of funding will come from.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
Don’t believe anything until you get a signed contract. People, not institutions (academic or otherwise), make the world go round. Find some that you like and cherish those relationships.
There are many cool and rewarding things about academic work. There are also many things that are the opposite of that. The balance has to work for your personal situation. If it doesn’t, there is a whole world out there with other opportunities. Don’t lose sight of that. Science and academia are not worth sacrificing your mental or physical well-being.
Emilia Kilpua
Professor in Space Physics at University of Helsinki
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
Hello! My name is Emilia Kilpua and I am a professor at the University of Helsinki. With my team I investigate gigantic eruptions from the Sun, their propagation and evolution through interplanetary space and disturbances they cause in the near-Earth space environment. These disturbances cause not only auroras, but various space weather hazards, such problems for satellites in orbit. In addition to doing research, I supervise students and postdoctoral researchers, teach electromagnetism, plasma and space physics, participate in doctoral education, try to manage various administrational tasks, and do outreach and science communication.
How did you end up in the current position, and to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
In high-school I got fascinated about physics and decided I wanted to study it without any further plans. I moved from Oulu to Helsinki and started as a theoretical physics student at the University of Helsinki in 1996. During my third year at the university, I was asked whether I would like to have a summer job at Finnish Meteorological Institute doing space science research. I got hooked, did my master’s thesis on the topic and was lucky to have a chance to continue as a PhD student. After getting my doctorate in 2005 I spent three years as postdoctoral researcher at Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley University in sunny California. Then I moved back to Finland and climbed steadily upwards the academic ladder. I was never really seeing myself in a leadership position, but as my team gradually grew larger, I have noticed that it is one of the parts I enjoy the most in my job, to supervise students and work with postdocs.
We would love to know what or who inspires you right now?
I love learning new things every day and working with students and postdocs. Space Physics is a complex, but fascinating field that has both practical aspects (space weather) and open fundamental physical questions. It is often an interplay between small-scale and global phenomena. Right now I am particularly inspired by the latest observations streaming down from new space missions Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe and BepiColombo that are all monitoring the solar wind reaching distances closer to the Sun than ever before and offering unique multi-view point of solar eruptions. It is also inspiring to see how much people enjoy slowly getting back to the office and having face-to-face interactions. Science is not doing things just alone, but group work and collaborations are a huge part.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
Uncertainty regarding career and funding. It is a general trend today, but in academia it can be particularly challenging to find permanent jobs, even if you would perform at top level, and many stay as ‘academic nomads’ for long periods of time. It has of course some perks of moving to exciting new places and meeting new people, but in the long run, most would like to have something stable. As another challenge, I would say fragmentation. Researchers today need to be real multi-taskers, doing not only research, but teaching, science communication, administration, supervision, conference organization and project handling among other things. It is a double-edged sword. Doing many things is interesting, but it is often challenging to focus and requires good time management/organizing skills and realizing that you cannot do everything perfectly. Having free time and flow of mind is paramount for big discoveries. It is also important to have some other things one is passionate about than science.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Academy fellowship was one of the greatest things. It gave me the freedom to do research independently for research for five years.
During your career, have you ever faced gender based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
I have been very lucky to have always very supportive people around me and great female role models. I have had rather encouragement to apply ‘big positions’ than the other way round. I know it is not nearly always like that and gender biases are still unfortunately a significant issue in the field.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Yes, it surely is! But that is just the nature of doing science to have trials and errors. How could you reach something big if you never fail or struggle? Even research tries that are ’left to a drawer’ will teach you many important things that you are likely to benefit in the future. It would be important to speak more about struggles, disappointments, and failures, as often only success stories are shared.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
There are so many great women working in my field in Finland, many being also in leadership positions. I would like to applaud them and this great situation we have here, not the case nearly in all places.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
Maybe someone could come up with having five more hours in a day. There would be so many interesting things to do! Not sure if this is a more realistic wish but would be great to have more long-term funding to focus on doing basic research. That is what also later leads to big practical discoveries. Regarding women in research, I would love to see girls at high school getting increasingly interested in natural sciences. Small children are nearly always wondered by science, but later that often disappears.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
If science is your passion, keep pursuing it regardless of some downsides and struggles. It is a privilege to be a researcher. If you at some point decide it is better to do something else, your education and work surely have prepared you well with many other challenges. And remember to enjoy other aspects of life as well.
Iines Salonen
Postdoctoral researcher at the Japan Agency of Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) in Yokosuka, Japan.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I’m a postdoctoral researcher, currently working at the Japan Agency of Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) in Yokosuka, Japan. I’m a marine microbiologist and in my current project I’m trying to understand the ecology, evolution and symbiotic relationships of deep-sea unicellular eukaryotes, the foraminifera. In my work I mainly use various molecular ecology methods, such as metabarcoding and single-cell genomics. Finding answers to ecological questions with the help of genetic data is a bit like solving a puzzle, and that’s what I like most about my work.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I can definitely say that being a researcher has been my dream since I was quite young, and natural sciences have always been close to my heart. That being said, without coincidence and lucky encounters, I probably would not have ended up doing marine microbiology in Japan. After high school my first choice was biology, but I failed the entrance exam. As a “back up choice” I also applied to microbiology in the faculty of Forestry and Agriculture in the University of Helsinki, and luckily got in from waitlist. During the first year of my studies I was not sure if I made the right choice, but as soon as the microbiology laboratory courses started, I was sold. Looking into a microscope was like peeking into a new universe, and there is also a part of me that really enjoys ultra-precise and pedantic lab work. Unlike majority of my study friends, I was drawn to environmental microbiology, and finally a little bit by coincidence ended up specializing in marine microbiology.
During my PhD I got into foraminiferal research, and I’m still on that path. Foraminifera are really fascinating little creatures, and there seems to be endless open questions related to their ecology. How I ended up here in Japan – to cut a long story short my PhD supervisor had worked together with people here in JAMSTEC before, and during my PhD, I also got to spend a couple of months here collecting data for a part of my thesis. I liked Japan a lot and enjoyed doing research here, so that’s why I decided to come back for a postdoc.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
This is a boring answer, but in general my biggest inspiration is nature. If I would not be endlessly fascinated by it, I don’t think I would work in natural sciences. In my free time I like to go for long random walks, and just look and observe all the plants and birds and bees I spot on my way. Being here in Japan is great for that – there are so many new things to see and it’s green and warm year-round. I also love flowers, gardening, picking mushrooms, and anything I can do outside.
In addition to that I’m inspired my family, friends, colleagues, people who have an original and sometimes quirky way of seeing the world. They often show me that even everyday life can be the most fascinating and inspiring thing, it’s just all a matter of perspective.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
The research world definitely has a lot of challenges. There is a lot of uncertainty, harsh competition and the Academia can sometimes be a very lonely working environment. It often lacks supportive structures and safety nets, and if people face issues, they are left alone to deal with them. If you are lucky, you get to work with good people who are also there for you when it gets rough, but if it is a matter of luck then there is something wrong with the system. This may be one of the underlying reasons why for example PhD students face a lot of mental health issues.
One of the biggest challenges is the inequality in research. I’m concerned also about the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon, which is definitely an issue in STEM. Of students even majority may be women, but their amount gets less and less, and finally when it comes to scientific leaders, women are a minority. The lack of female representation has many negative cumulative effects – it discourages younger female scientists, may create opportunities for misuse of power and harassment, and also just simply limits the diversity of ideas and approaches. When it comes to the big challenges we are facing at the moment, we simply can’t afford to neglect the ideas and skills of half of the population.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Yes definitely. My first big turning point was when I was still in my bachelor studies. At the time I was not a very good student, and although in the back of my head I had this dream of an Academic career, I honestly did not think I’d be cut out for that. Mainly because I wanted to travel, I ended up doing an Erasmus work internship in Kiel, Germany, working on a marine science related project. That changed my course completely. I got to assist in a very interesting research, with very bright and inspiring (female) researchers, who taught me a lot and also gave me a lot of confidence and most importantly, responsibility. During that internship not only I realized I’m not a bad student after all, but also that I want to specialize in marine microbiology.
After Kiel the course was clearer and I was able to find my way better. Among other significant experiences I had was carrying out my Master Thesis partly in Max Planck institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, and finally getting my dream job as a PhD candidate in the University of Helsinki. My PhD project has definitely influenced a lot where I am now – it was in general a very good experience which encouraged me to continue in research, and also during that time I made many important connections that build my scientific network today.
During your career, have you ever faced gender based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
Until my current job, I had mostly worked in female-dominated research groups which for sure has shielded me in a way. Nevertheless, there have been moments when I have felt I’m treated a little bit differently or being slightly underestimated because I am a woman. Sometimes these situations are quite subtle, yet significant, and often they have to do with inclusiveness. I definitely I feel that men are more inclusive to other men, meaning that they are more prone to see other men as experts and future collaborators and include them into important discussions. Maybe it has to do with the stereotype of the male genius, which is still very much influencing the Academic world. As a woman it sometimes feels that you have to work twice as hard to prove yourself and break into the inner circle of guys and be recognized as an expert and taken into account.
Currently I work in deep-sea research in Japan, which is a very male-dominated field. There is still a lot of work to be done to reach equality, and I would definitely like to see more female scientists in leading positions here, too. However, I believe that things are slowly changing everywhere, and I hope that I can do my part in ploughing the way.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
For sure. It is difficult to cope with the uncertainty of research, as life can only be planned a year or two ahead, and the constant questioning of oneself is tiring. There are times when this job feels quite lonely and isolated.
For me, the best antidote for this is discussing with colleagues and seeking peer-support. I also think it’s especially important to network and share experiences with other female colleagues, and support and help each other. I always get some new ideas after discussing with other people in a conference, seminar or just over a coffee break, and the negative things feel smaller and solvable when shared with someone.
And, ultimately, what keeps me going is that despite all the difficulties I really love my job and research itself. There is nothing else I would rather do.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I have many! I would like to applaud my PhD supervisor Karoliina Koho has always been a great support and also someone I look up to. I especially admire her can-do attitude.
I’d also like to applaud my colleague Dana Hellemann, who is a dear friend and such an inspiring female researcher. Our endless discussions and rants have saved many seemingly hopeless situations!
I’d also like to applaud my mom and my sister Hilma, who are the most intelligent, funny and kind women I know. Their support and encouragement means everything to me.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
If anything was possible, I would like to see more funding, especially to fundamental research. I would also like to see better work contracts and terms for grant researches and overall a possibility to maintain a better work-life balance in Academia.
In 30 years I want to see more women as professors and in other leading research positions.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world?
Moving to the other side of the world is not an easy thing to do, especially in the middle of a global pandemic. Getting here was very difficult, first I had to wait half a year before I got permission to apply for a visa and come here. Now I am here, but my husband is still stuck behind the border, and I’m not sure when will I be able to see him or my family again. So at times it has been quite stressful.
How has it impacted your research?
At this moment when I’m writing this, the situation in Japan has been relatively ok, so luckily I have been able to keep on doing field work and lab work almost normally. But, research in my field is very international, and the whole community suffers when researchers are stuck behind borders and unable to start their work and carry out field campaigns as planned. I’ve also started to miss actual conferences, and talking to people IRL.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
I know that Academia can sometimes appear as a very harsh place where you can’t trust people and everything is about competition and who eats whom. Sometimes it can make people feel like they need to toughen up and also start pushing their way using their elbows. But I want to say to all those people who have felt like they are too soft, too calm, too quiet, too something – that it is ok to be who you are. You don’t have to transform yourself to resemble some kind of idea of the Great Academic Genius. I still believe that in the end the quality of the work matters and not who shouts the loudest.
Also my advice would be to go abroad if you can, even for a short stay. For me my work experiences abroad – in Germany, the Netherlands, Japan – have been the most useful for my career and given me the most confidence. On top of the usual networking and CV benefits I think just getting to know and understand different systems, cultures and people is incredibly valuable.
And finally – remember to have holidays and avoid reading emails on the weekends!
Essi Skaffari
PhD student in a doctoral programme Population Health at the Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki.
Together with her friend Henna, they communicate about research, nutrition, and public health through a platform called Aivosumutorvi (eng: Brain foghorn).
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
E: I’m Essi Skaffari, a PhD student in a doctoral programme called Population Health. I do my research at the Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki. In my thesis, I study sosioeconomic differences in children’s diets.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
E: I became interested in nutrition science when I studied to be a nurse. When I was doing my Master’s thesis in nutrition science, I was inspired by research work. During my Master’s studies I ended up working on various research projects at our department and continued to work on these projects after my graduation. I was pleased to work as a research assistant and project coordinator for many years, and at first I didn’t plan to do a PhD. However, my mind changed when I found a topic that really interested me.
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Henna Vepsäläinen
Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki.
Together with her friend Essi, they communicate about research, nutrition, and public health through a platform called Aivosumutorvi (eng: Brain foghorn).
Read the full interview below
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
H: My name is Henna Vepsäläinen and I work as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki. I have a PhD in human nutrition, and my research topics revolve around food behavior and related factors in families, food education, and dietary assessment methods.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
H: Research was never my dream career, although today, I could not imagine another profession for myself. My interest in human nutrition started during the last years of my studies at Aalto University, where I studied bioinformation technology. After graduation, I was not sure what I was supposed to do with my technology degree, and ended up studying again, this time nutrition at the University of Helsinki. Once I started the studies, everything just clicked - I was fascinated by the scientific method and the diversity of nutritional science. When I was finished with my Master’s thesis, I was given the opportunity to pursue a PhD in nutrition, and here I am, working with the most interesting topics with the most inspiring people!
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Essi Skaffari & Henna Vepsäläinen
We would love to know what inspires you?
E&H: In addition to nutrition science, our common interest is science communication. We have a blog together and we also host a podcast. Communicating about science inspires us, and our goals are to promote scientific world view, bring scientific knowledge and understanding of the scientific method to social media, and teach critical thinking.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
E&H: It is impossible to talk about research without mentioning funding challenges. The situation is absolutely untenable: highly educated people have to use such a large share of their precious time to apply for funding, which is often granted only for 6-12 months. A minority of projects get funded. On top of that, you also compete against your colleagues and friends. Research is also often accompanied by uncertainty about the continuity of work, as funding and employment contracts are usually short-term.
During your career, have you ever faced gender based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
E&H: Most students and researchers in the field of human nutrition identify themselves as females. Thus, many female researchers have had the opportunity to lead research groups, which is awesome! However, we feel that the public still considers male researchers as more credible and more reliable. The media has its own role - by inviting expert comments from different researchers they could broaden the picture of a scientist.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
E&H: All the time. In research, you need to put up with disappointments, stress and the fact that things progress extremely slowly. On the other hand, it’s really rewarding when you finally move forward. We find research very meaningful, and therefore we have stayed on the field, even though things do not usually go as planned.
Research work is also very diverse and creative. Even though a big part of our work is to sit down, read papers, run analyses and write articles, we have also participated in designing and developing a mobile application (the Mole’s Veggie Adventures aims to increase vegetable acceptance among preschoolers and is available for Android and iOS devices), designing, creating and updating web pages (DAGIS research project), communicating about research and public health nutrition through social media (Aivosumutorvi at Instagram & Twitter), meeting new people in international projects and conferences, and teaching dietary assessment methods, public health nutrition and nutritional epidemiology.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world? How has it impacted your research?
E&H: We’ve been lucky, as corona has had little impact on our projects. Now we are already used to working remotely, but of course it has its pros and cons. We miss most our workmates and eating together at UniCafe! The endless Zoom and Teams meetings are exhausting, and usually not very fruitful. On the other hand, it is easier to get absorbed in reading or writing at home, where you don’t have all the distractions of the office.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
E&H: Research is really inspiring, but at times heavy too. In order to cover diverse aspects and research questions, different people with different skill sets and perspectives are needed in research. Not all scientists should be alike. Of course it doesn’t suit everyone, but if you are interested and motivated, you should definitely try!
At the same time, we want to remind all researchers that life is more than just research and work. We are hard-working people, but we should not regard research as the whole world. As many scientists pour their heart in their research, it is easy to get totally immersed. It is also common in the research community to somehow - either subconsciously or not - glorify long working hours and working at weekends. We would like to play our part in improving researchers’ work-life balance.
Erica Åberg
Senior researcher at INVEST flagship, University of Turku. Photo: Suvi Elo
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
Erica Åberg, recently PhD'd economic sociologist and senior researcher at the University of Turku. After four years of working as a project researcher & doctoral student in Economic sociology, I started working in the Unit of Sociology and INVEST flagship at the beginning of this year.
My main research interest is physical appearance, and my dissertation was about gendered norms regarding physical appearance in Finland. In my post-doc career, I am interested in social media and its curiosities, such as body hair and consumption. As my dissertation was mostly about women, this time, I am shifting my focus to men's appearances and their peculiarities. I am methodologically diverse, enjoying both qualitative and quantitative methods; however, I do not consider myself particularly skilled in either. I love the 'elasticity' of sociological thinking; it can be applied to various topics and methods. Using your 'sociological imagination' can make anything interesting.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Sociology was my biggest dream when finishing high school in 1996, but I had not adopted proper learning skills back then. I tried to get into the University of Helsinki four or five times, but never actually read properly to the entrance exams. I went to study at Polytechnic and worked for years in a big rental housing company.
However, after having my firstborn in 2009, I decided to give sociology one more go. I read the book many times, took notes, attended a preparatory course (I remember feeling so old among the pouty twentysomethings in their Smiths t-shirts and imagining them thinking that I possibly couldn't understand anything because of my age and being pregnant and all). I had a panic attack in the exam and cried for a week after it because I was tired of all the excitement.
However, I got into my second choice, The University of Turku, and it was one of the happiest days of my life. In 2011, we moved there after my second maternity leave, and I started studying sociology. I had two children in between the studies, and I remember those years as busy but happy.
After graduation in 2016, my supervisor, Outi Sarpila, got two-year funding for her 'Finland as an appearance society’-project from Emil Aaltonen Foundation, recruited me there, and I started doing my PhD.
Therefore, it seems like a long journey to where I am now. I am happy with the way things turned out, and I could not have even dreamt of how wonderful studying sociology and especially economic sociology would be.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
People and their funny ways! Social media and music, especially young masculinity in Finnish hip-hop really inspire me, my friends, family, funny tableware, and baking. Vintage Vuokko-dresses, floral caps, flowers. Finding heavenly research curiosities on GoogleScholar about men, porn, body hair, you name it!
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
The constant struggle of doing your best, but thinking you could do better. You are competing against your friends in funding, envying your friends for being better writers/having more funding/better research themes/having more time/having academic partners/their smaller or fewer children, etc., and sometimes it is emotionally really draining.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
When starting my university studies ten years ago, I always felt like an outsider or 'wrong' because I had a working-class, single-parent family background. I was also older than most of the other students and missed my friends in Helsinki. When I started the PhD studies, I was too embarrassed to tell anyone I was a doctoral student because I thought I was soooo bad at what I do.
However, after a couple of years, coming to terms with my stage fright and especially after speaking in foreign conferences, this all had mystically disappeared. I remember thinking that one day I will not think like that anymore, and actually, I am rather proud of my background and value the things I have learned from life before academia!
During your career, have you ever faced gender-based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
I think that my age and age-based confidence and having children is something that, in a way, 'protects' me from certain everyday discrimination and I’m able to set my boundaries. I sometimes wonder if people assume I get everything done strictly out of 'middle-aged mom rage' because that is how I have rolled until now. Sometimes it would be wiser to sit down and think before doing, but I have not tried that yet :).
However, I know that I would be more susceptible to discrimination if I was younger because academia is so competitive. And you do not have to be a nice person to do well in research.
In my earlier career, I think it was sometimes underestimated just for being a young woman in customer service. Anybody could walk in and vent their anger on me, and that is not happening anymore.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing, and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
The best part of doing research is daydreaming of different research or project topics, inventing catchy titles, and writing in the heat of the excitement when science hits you! I usually work on many things simultaneously, and when I find myself being fed up with one thing, I usually start devouring on other papers for a while. If I hate them all, I do something with my family, meet with my academic peer group and go for ‘bike and beer’-trips, post something on Instagram or knit. After a while, I usually think of something that needs to be written down and get excited again about the first paper.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend, or whoever?
I want to applaud many women in my life!
My supervisor Outi Sarpila and colleagues Iida Kukkonen and Kirsti Sippel are always proofreading and securing my academic back in terms of publications. My Turku PhD collective friends, Hanna and Elina, for securing my unofficial science back, discussing academic insecurities, science and books with me, and making me appreciate slow Turku life. It is a privilege to be around such wonderful people!
Also, I would like to applaud women working in science and leading interesting academic careers, such as Professor of Media studies Susanna Paasonen and Professor of Sociology Suvi Salmenniemi. In addition to these women, I would also like to acknowledge my opponent, Docent Nina Kahma, for how she handled the public defence of my doctoral thesis. I was not shredded to pieces and survived.
What would your fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
I would love to see more interdisciplinary collaborations, festivals and laughter! I would like to see academia becoming friendlier, humane and more welcoming to people from different backgrounds— cultivate inclusivity, not exclusivity.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world? How has it impacted your research?
Coronavirus exposed how interconnected we are and how fast a local virus can spread like a pandemic. It should be considered as an eye-opener to global inequalities but also encourage policies to, for example, reduce meat-eating and other global cruelties.
It has also affected my research tremendously, as I have been mostly working from home. Three of my children are at school and one at daycare, meaning that my average day starts at 9 o'clock and the children come back home usually at 1 o'clock. At this very moment, I am homeschooling a quaranteed pupil. I admit that sometimes family life is irritating as it distracts 'my great scientific thoughts', but I'm still sure I'll remember these times with great warmth. Also, I love to see how my children appreciate someone being here when they come home, even though I just work quietly.
I would be lying if I would say I do not miss the conference trips, though. For a family woman like me, they were the highlights of my year. Picture this: multiple days of discussing sociology with colleagues worldwide and conference dinners somebody else has cooked, sleeping alone. It makes me weep to remember those times.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
If by any means possible, try to research things you find interesting, not on what other people say benefits your career or is easily funded. Do not be ashamed of your personality and forcefully fit into something you think is considered a 'proper scientist' behaviour. We come in all shapes and sizes, and that is the beauty of it all. If ever possible again, attend conferences to find people interested in the same topics as you and remember those times when you are later rejected in funding or other evaluations.
Try to surround yourself with nice people, both in and outside academia and remember to enjoy life. Work is work in academia also. If you find yourself not getting money for doing it, consider it not worth your time or well-being. Be courageous enough to leave, there are other nice places to work, but the internalized ‘cruel optimism’ of academic life makes you lose sight of that. And even though you sometimes might feel tempted to engage in trash-talking behind other people’s backs to feel better about yourself, remember to be kind to other people.
Mona Mannevuo
Postdoctoral research fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS), University of Turku
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am an early-career researcher with a multidisciplinary academic background in the humanities and social sciences. Since January 2021, I have worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) on a project called Organising the Disorganised: Social Engineering in Post-War Finland, 1945–1955. Working at TIAS has been a dream come true. It has been an immense privilege to receive funding for independent research for three years.
I am also a leader of the consortium ‘Communication across borders: Shifting boundaries of politics, science and public relations’ funded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation. In addition, I occasionally write columns for Yle.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Well… through a very complicated route. I completed my MA in cultural history (2009) and defended my PhD in gender studies (2015) at the University of Turku. In the spring of 2015, when my thesis was under preliminary examination, I was selected to work as a research fellow for a consortium called Social Science for the Twenty-First Century: Employment Activation and the Changing Economy-Society Relation (2016–2017). I then received a grant for 7 months from the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, which allowed me to start dreaming about publishing a single-authored monograph.
In August of 2018, I was recruited to work as a research fellow in the Tackling Biases and Bubbles in Participation (BIBU) consortium. Once again, I had to change my research topics rather drastically, but fortunately, my colleagues were highly supportive, and I was able to continue working on my book alongside the consortium work. The book, titled Ihmiskone töissä. Sotienjälkeinen Suomi tehokkuutta tavoittelemassa [Human machine at work: the quest for productivity in post-war Finland], was published in the fall of 2020 by Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press.
I guess I have always wanted to be a researcher, but I have not been particularly strategic in terms of career building. I even ended up working to contemporary history by accident, and now it will be my affiliation for the next three years. Working in different environments has given me rich knowledge of various fields, but at the same time, I have had to become a workaholic. After finishing my PhD, I have worked in four different research projects and published articles covering diverse topics, from 1930s industrial experiments at the Hawthorne factory to the connections between behavioural economics and Finnish basic income trials and productivity imperatives in Finnish parliamentary work.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
I am inspired by eloquently written academic books, especially in the fields of history, cultural studies and science and technology studies. I simply love well-written monographs.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
The structural problems that academics complain about on a daily basis: competition, precarity and uncertainty within academic careers. At the same time, I am a bit frustrated about how academics tend to blame abstract ideas such as neoliberalism for their own shitty behaviour – this work is hard for everyone, but you can still be kind and generous to your colleagues. Academia is a perfect playground for Machiavellians, but it doesn’t have to be.
I am also worried about the fast-paced rhythm of academia. I realise that we all have to publish frequently to stay in the game, but I don’t think that is an ideal way to do research. Hopefully at some point, we will reach a saturation point where we realise there are more publications than ever before, but no one has time to read them. (I do not equate taking cursory glances with reading.)
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
The first turning point was receiving funding for my PhD from the Gender Studies Doctoral Programme. It also gave me some confidence when my PhD received two awards: the 2015 Faculty of Humanities award for PhD of the year and the prize for distinguished dissertation accepted by the University of Turku in the 2015–2016 academic year.
The second turning point is the moment where I am now. I have struggled substantially to acquire funding for my own post doc project – TIAS was my last chance! I have sacrificed so many evenings and weekends writing unsuccessful funding applications that I almost wanted to give up. Last year was particularly difficult: I received positive reviews but I just didn’t get funding. I ended up either on a reserve list or got a message that there was insufficient money to fund all excellent applications.
That said, I have been fortunate because I have not been unemployed, and I have had many great colleagues who have supported me through difficult times. But nevertheless, at some point I started to feel as though I am participating in a strange self-exploitative work culture that has no rules or limits and therefore may be psychologically damaging. It was such a relief when I was appointed to TIAS.
During your career, have you ever faced gender based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
I have mainly worked in supportive and non-competitive surroundings and I haven’t encountered gender-based discrimination. However, in the beginning of my post doc career, I met some nasty people. But I quickly learnt my lesson, and the last couple of years I have been more aware of my rights as a co-author and a research team member.
I have also encouraged early-career researchers to learn the rules regarding responsible conduct in research by heart and to contact someone in case they witness any research misconduct or academic bullying, such as isolation from one’s research team.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
I think all academics know the meaning of stress and disappointment. Academic work is a roller coaster ride, so I guess the excitement and enjoyable experiences – of which I have had plenty – keep me going. I have also written articles and columns, either alone or with my dear colleague Elina Valovirta, on the exhaustiveness of academic work. It has been rather therapeutic.
I never grow tired of reading and writing, so I love my job. Nonetheless, I have come to the conclusion that a romantic relationship to academia is not merely a difficult relationship; it is a bad relationship – one that it based on unrequited love. I strive to keep in mind that there is life outside the university.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
As I cannot select only one woman from my friends and colleagues, whom all I adore and would like to applaud, I decided to applaud my eleven-year-old daughter Hertta. She was born just before I started working with my PhD, so I guess I have never been an ideal mother (no one is). While I have struggled with my precarious career, she has grown into to a strong, independent young woman who has a witty sense of humor.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
In my fantasy research world, scholars would have time to concentrate on their research rather than multitasking on several projects and writing numerous applications. In addition, academics wouldn’t have to perform their productivity and future potentiality on a daily basis; instead, researchers would be able to take time for thinking, reading, writing and discussing. This kind of academia wouldn’t glorify workaholics or Machiavellians, but it would support interdisciplinary research based on collegiality, co-working and sharing.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world?
Working at home has been lonely and I miss my colleagues, but I don’t want to complain. I was able to build a small office in my cellar, and thus I have been able to continue my research. Things could have been a lot worse. I feel really bad for everyone who has lost their employment amid the current Covid-19 crisis.
How has it impacted your research?
I have been able to continue my work, so I don’t want to make a fuss about that.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
Academic work is quite overwhelming, but at the same time, it is a privilege. If a world of precarious and limitless work does not freak you out, it is worth giving it a try.
Briitta van Staalduinen
PhD candidate in Government at Harvard University
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am Briitta van Staalduinen and I am a PhD candidate in Government at Harvard University. My dissertation investigates how social policies in Western and Northern Europe shape the job opportunities available to immigrants and their children. My research is influenced by my Finnish-American background, specifically certain disconnects I see between my observations in Europe and academic portrayals of social democracy.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
It has actually not always been a dream, largely because I didn’t know what a PhD was until the later years of my Bachelor’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My father is an ophthalmologist, and so I only knew of doctor in the medical sense; I had no idea what my political science professor meant when he said “you should do your doctorate” in 2011. Although I had really enjoyed coursework, upon graduating in 2013 I was more focused on moving to the Netherlands where my current partner lived. I did move, but then had trouble finding a job in Amsterdam without a Master’s, which was expected for applicants with backgrounds in political science. Only being eligible for certain Master’s programs due to my American coursework, I ended up somewhat by chance in an interdisciplinary social science program at the University of Amsterdam focused on immigration and social cohesion. After studying the factors shaping processes of immigrant integration for two years, I still had many questions, and decided to apply for PhD’s back in the US. So, it was definitely a windy path to where I am now.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
I am most inspired by artists who use their work to question and confront prevailing social and political processes. These works help me to remember there are endlessly creative ways of exploring a given issue, and also that there is often no endpoint. Over the past few months, the work of Toyin Ojih Odutola has been a big source of inspiration.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
One of the biggest challenges that academia faces is the centrality of publication as a metric of achievement, and the way this influences what kind of research is done and what kind of research gets the spotlight. The top journals in my field tend to favor a particular kind of research that can distort the motivations and incentives driving scholarship, and in doing so make it challenging, if not impossible, for many young scholars to get published and find an academic position. I sense the tide is slowly changing, not only in terms of a broader representation of research topics and methods, but also in terms of an understanding of achievements that extends beyond publications. But there is a long way to go.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
I see my career thus far mostly as the accumulation of many small things, but there is one point that was formative in directing me towards immigration. I spent the summer after my freshman year of university learning Arabic in Amman, Jordan. While there I was struck by the number of times I was asked by strangers if I could help them move to Europe. To me, these aspirations to move to Europe were at odds with the rising anti-immigration politics in Europe at that time. That summer and the years thereafter I kept wondering, what factors determine who migrates to Europe and when? What factors determine how welcome this immigration is in Europe? Why do countries prioritize certain kinds of immigrants? What are the life experiences of immigrants and their children in European societies, and what factors shape these experiences? And I’m still trying to find answers to those questions today.
During your career, have you ever faced gender based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
I have been very privileged by my dual nationality and ability to travel, which have not only helped to motivate my research interests but also facilitate my access to a wide range of academic institutions. I have experienced certain assumptions being made about the form or quality of my work based on me being a woman researching immigration, assumptions that I mostly noticed after leaving my Master’s—which was 98% women—and coming to Harvard. The past two years in my department and others have painfully revealed how toxic the environment is for women and especially black women and women of color, and the efforts of my colleagues to change this have inspired me and also taught me a lot about the intersection of race-, gender-, and class-based privileges, an intersection from which I have mostly benefited. These last two years have prompted me to reinterpret the few situations I have faced and think about how I can help make these situations less frequent for all women.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Yes, definitely. The harder days are marked by exactly those emotions. What keeps me going is an awareness that there are very few jobs where I could read, think, and write about something I’m deeply interested in, and with relatively lots of freedom to do so, both in intellectual terms and in terms of where and when. More tangibly, though, what keeps me going are small things, like reading a news story, often sent by my mother, that raises issues my research could help address, or the art and music that, I believe, is laying the foundation for new conversations about racial inequality and ethnic diversity in Europe.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I want to applaud my mother, who I admire so much for sustaining and pursuing her intellectual curiosities while also raising four children, and for relentlessly believing in the purpose of my work even when I do not. I also want to applaud my friends Charlotte and Jillian, both intensely honest, empathetic, joyful, and wise women from whom I have learned so much and to whom I owe many of my happiest moments.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
My fantasy research world would be richly diverse across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, gender, sexuality, religion—and structured in a way that celebrates diverse viewpoints and puts them in conversation without having them always compete; it would be more open and accountable to public interest; it would be as well funded as the tech and start-up world is today. The tenure track system would be absent from my fantasy research world, replaced instead by a collection of much more varied combinations of teaching, research, and administration that offer more equal guarantees of job stability and income. In 30 years I would like to see that women in research are free to pursue their interests at their own pace without financial pressures or pressures emanating from social norms.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world?
On many levels, I feel like corona has brought things up from under the surface; things that need attention and that pre-corona life may have made many us too busy to give attention to. I think, hope, that we will collectively learn a lot from this moment, but the fact that this learning had to come at the cost of such a loss of life will always cast a shadow. Given I still feel knee-deep in the mud of 2020, my reflections have yet to fully form, and while they do, in the meantime I have loved reading Zadie Smith’s essay collection, Intimations, in which she shares her own reflections.
How has it impacted your research?
I was in Finland conducting research, with plans for subsequent travel to Germany and the UK, when corona took off in March. In requiring a change of plans for collecting data, it has forced me to think more open-mindedly about the aims of my research and how I should pursue them. Corona may ultimately delay the completion of my dissertation, but I weirdly think that, in making me slow down, it has given me a chance to improve the project.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students?
Encouraging, depressing, anything?
The most valuable thing I have learned—and am still learning—is to remember that at the end of the day this is my job, that at the end of the day, I, too, should come home from work, so to speak. Such a long-term, single-person project can become all-encompassing, the highs and lows trickling into other areas of life, and just keeping perspective despite this tendency is important. Other than that, I’d say pursue your research in a way that you enjoy, and that feels true to you; don’t let prevailing standards dull the new angles you bring to the table.
Keshia D'Silva
PhD student in Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
My name is Keshia D’Silva and I am a PhD student in Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki. I am from India and I am currently studying the campaigns of gender justice organizations in India. I did my master’s in Social Psychology, also at the University of Helsinki, and my bachelor’s at the University of York in Applied Social Policy.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Two years ago, after finishing my master’s, I was traveling by myself in India and trying to figure out what to do with my life. I was torn between two career paths- academia or NGO work. Around the same time, India was named the most dangerous country in the world for women which triggered a lot of public debate. I found the public discussion so fascinating that it sparked the idea of trying to research how gender organizations in India campaign about dangers to women and how this affects societal discourse. I literally began writing my research proposal to the University of Helsinki on a 15-hour train ride from India to Bhutan. A few months later, my plan was accepted and I got a four-year grant from the Kone Foundation to fund my research. Being favoured by such good fortune two times in a row made me realize that this was not an opportunity I could allow myself to miss.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
At the moment, the situation in my home country for oppressed groups in general and women, in particular, isn’t exactly very optimistic. For people coming from a place of privilege such as myself, the reactions to this situation can often range from apathy to lazy cynicism. I must confess that I have my proclivities towards both these tendencies but when I look at the hundreds of thousands of activists who risk their lives every day trying to fight for a more just society in India despite all the odds stacked up against them and the horizons looking quite bleak, it pushes me out of these bouts of bourgeois ennui and inspires me to make my modest contributions towards their struggles.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
I find the excessive corporate influence over certain fields of academia concerning as it can limit what is being researched and set incentives to avoid or embrace certain topics or points of view. Personally, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have been given complete freedom to explore a very polarizing and controversial issue but I know this isn’t always the case for many researchers.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Coming from a country where the education system does not always encourage critical or creative thinking, I looked at education as simply a means to an end. It was only when I came to Finland for my master’s and had the freedom to take a lot of different courses from different departments and simultaneously work as a research assistant during my studies that I discovered that I really enjoyed academic work. Having very encouraging supervisors who saw the potential in me during my master’s work also gave me the needed confidence to pursue an academic career.
During your career, have you ever faced gender based, or other discrimination? Are there still situations like that?
As my research career is still in such early stages and much of it has taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic where all my work is remote and very solitary, I cannot say that I have personally experienced any discrimination, whether gender based or otherwise. I also have a hunch that my position as an Indian woman studying gender issues in India gives me some kind of legitimacy in my specific and very narrow field of study. However, I’m sure that in other circumstances, this would possibly not be the case and I am very aware that academia is a long way from being free of the curses of racism, misogyny and other toxic tendencies.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing, and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Sometimes? More like most of the time! I submitted a manuscript two years ago, had multiple revision rounds and was convinced it would never see the light of day when I didn’t hear back for several months at a stretch. However, when I recently got the news that it was accepted, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such satisfaction. But of course, those moments are rare and on a more everyday level, what keeps me going is the fact that my topic is something incredibly close to me. It also isn’t a topic that receives a lot of attention in academia in the Global North so I feel a personal responsibility to make some noise about it.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I would like to give a big shout-out to my friends and colleagues Marguerite Beattie, a fellow social psychology PhD student at University of Helsinki, and Yên Mai, a sociology PhD student at the University of Uppsala. Academia can be such a competitive, brutal world but these two women have always had my back in moments of glory and weakness, forwarding me material relevant for my work and providing me an outlet to voice out all my frustrations, work-related or otherwise. Also, my mum. She’s one of the smartest people I know but because of Indian society being the way it is, she didn’t always get many opportunities to fulfill her potential. That made her even more determined to give me access to everything I could possibly need to become and succeed at whatever I wanted to and without her sacrifices and support, my life would probably be a lot different.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible!
In my fantasy research world, universities would be able to offer secure funding, there would be more representation of people and research topics from the Global South and less reliance on publishing as a sole way of measuring a researcher’s performance. As for the gender question, representation in terms of numbers is important but without addressing other paternalistic, chauvinistic tendencies, it becomes purely tokenistic. Only recently, the credibility of Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin was questioned simply for posing for a Finnish jewellery advertisement in a buttoned-up blazer without a shirt. Meanwhile male leaders around the world from Urho Kekkonen, famous for his sauna diplomacy to Gandhi whose chest was permanently on display for the last 30 years of his life never had such accusations thrown at them. Sadly, academia is not immune to these double standards and I hope that women’s professionalism as academics stops being judged by the way they dress and the amount of skin they show. I also hope that this wouldn’t take 30 years to materialize and would happen within the next few years already.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world?
Honestly, the biggest feeling I’ve had during this pandemic period is guilt. It’s been a really difficult time for millions of people, losing jobs, struggling to make ends meet and losing loved ones. I’ve had the fortune to not face any of these things and I feel incredibly grateful but also guilty for having this luxury.
How has it impacted your research?
Fortunately, a big part of my research involves analyzing online content so it has not disrupted my work that badly. However, I was supposed to travel to India and collect some field material to complement the online content and that isn’t looking too promising at the moment. I’m in the process of formulating a back-up plan with my supervisor and considering how I could collect more material virtually. Of course, this isn’t ideal but in some ways, I feel like this is just part of a regular research process- needing to adapt and change some aspects of your study depending on the circumstances.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
Fire away, we are ready to face them.
I have been taking a pedagogy class recently and during one of the lectures, our teacher asked us to reflect on what got us interested in our fields and create a Flinga board with our answers. The reasons varied quite a bit from reading an interesting book, inspiring teachers, people around you, political situation and “an accident.” But what I find interesting is how no one said this is something they’ve always wanted to do- it’s usually something that has been shaped by factors throughout their schooling and education. Personally, I know that if I hadn’t taken a certain course that threw up some thought provoking questions or had encouraging supervisors, I probably wouldn’t be in the field I am. It’s inspiring and terrifying to think that you can have that kind of influence over someone’s life path and it’s definitely made me reflect a lot on how I can be kind, encouraging and supportive in all my interactions with students and other people potentially interested in this path.
That said, a research career with its stresses, disappointments and snail’s pace as you so accurately described isn’t for everyone and I think it is really important to have a topic that you are genuinely passionate about so that you wake up in the morning feeling motivated and inspired even on days when it is hard to get out of bed.
LaFreda J. Howard
Postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
" I wish we could take a step back and realize that although publishing papers is vital for our careers, there are other ways to measure just how great of a researcher someone is."
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
My name is Dr. LaFreda J. Howard, a native of a small town called Jeffersonville, GA. I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX. My current research focuses on kidney diseases in pediatric patients.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I completed my PhD training at the University of Arkansas where I was recruited from Fort Valley State University, a historically black college and university. After graduating in 2019, I relocated to Texas to begin my postdoctoral training. I had no clue that I would end up in research. Honestly, I had no clue that I would ever attain the "Dr." credentials. My dream was to move out of a small town and make a difference in the world. I guess you can say that I've done that.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
My parents and twin sister inspire me the most. They have NO CLUE what my research is about, but they never let that stop them from asking questions. I'll love them forever for that.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
Generally, I absolutely hate the idea that published papers are the currency for researchers. There are so many other factors that contribute to a great scientist. I wish we could take a step back and realize that although publishing papers is vital for our careers, there are other ways to measure just how great of a researcher someone is.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
A pivotal point in my career was when I realized that there's nothing wrong with wanting to communicate science more than being behind the bench and performing the experiments. Once I realized this, I was able to find my "happy space" in the science world.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of a female? Are there still situations like that?
Of course not! I love being a feisty female! I will admit that I'm often in situations where I wonder if I would be treated differently if I was a caucasian female.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing, and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
I think this every single day. One of the most rewarding parts of research is chasing the unknowns. That's what keeps me coming back to it every day.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I would love to applaud my mom. She is the strongest woman that I know. If I could only be the wife and mother that she is all while being a scientist, I would seriously be a superwoman!
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible!
A world where all experiments actually work on the first try. IS THAT POSSIBLE? In 30 years, I hope all women in research will realize the amount of power that we have. I would definitely love to see more black women in research.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
Fire away, we are ready to face them.
GET COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE.
Trisha L. Andrew
Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst & the Director of the Wearable Electronics Lab
"Young scientists are often best served by trying to fit in to a preexisting clique and following unofficial rules of a community before becoming daring and innovative. These social dynamics frustrate me the most, I suppose, because I think science should be the great equalizer. The ultimate meritocracy. But we all know it isn't. "
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am Trisha L. Andrew, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the Director of the Wearable Electronics Lab, where we create unobtrusive smart garments for health monitoring and electronic textiles for energy harvesting and storage.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I was supposed to be pre-med, but I liked the everyday realities of research too much when I was completing my undergraduate studies. So I decided to try my hand at graduate school, so that I got to work in lab everyday. It was the best decision I made in my life. I love the action of research—the details are always different, different techniques, different protocols, but the thrill of asking questions and discovering answers is unmatched. Even today.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
Work wise, I just always like to solve problems, new or old. Thats what I like most about being an academic research scientist—the freedom to choose which problems to focus on, and change your mind. So I suppose Im constantly inspired to use my knowledge and research experience to solve problems I read about at a given time, to see if my lab’s work and expertise can provide a unique or useful angle to a problem that needs multifaceted solutions.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
Conservatism, I think. In the sense that science and research is still influenced by very mundane, human constructs, like social capital and disciplinary boundaries. Ideas coming from a "brand name” are lauded but the same will likely be overlooked (or worse, derided) if proposed by a “no name.” Young scientists are often best served by trying to fit in to a preexisting clique and following unofficial rules of a community before becoming daring and innovative. These social dynamics frustrate me the most, I suppose, because I think science should be the great equalizer. The ultimate meritocracy. But we all know it isn't.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Winning funding that is unrestricted was a huge turning point. Grant money that is not tied to a specific, narrow proposal but, instead, is granted openly to allow the recipient to follow their passion and gut instincts is a game changer. It was a grant like this, the Packard Foundation Fellowship, that allowed me to get into textile electronics when I was a second-year Assistant Professor.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of a female? Are there still situations like that?
I mourn the obvious antagonistic gender dynamics that I always, inevitably observe in groups of scientists (and race dynamics, and age dynamics…). But at the same time, I suppose that it never occurred to me to mourn being born female (and a minority in many other senses). Ive always strived to lean from my older female colleagues and some social scientists that I follow and uplift or support other women and minorities in the professional groups, teams or panels that I participate in. Maybe my life will not become better anytime soon, but if a younger person I support matures and change the social dynamics for the better in the future, then Id be satisfied.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing, and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
You know, I see the frustration in my students sometimes. Im old enough now that my memories of the same frustrations during grad school have eroded away. And this is what I tell my students today—the thrill of scientific discovery, however big or small, and the thrill of solving a problem, however big or small or frustrating, will be the emotion that you remember eight years from now. The frustration and what one might be tempted to call a "crushing depression" from constant failure—it must be noted that I was a rather melodramatic grad student—will fall victim to time. You only remember the best parts, the experiments and endeavors that worked, the rest become insignificant. So, when things are slow, think about how many small problems you have already solved and how many obstacles you’ve already conquered—you will do the same for the problems ahead of you, even if may take a bit longer than in the past.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I have found that female colleagues who are maybe five, ten years senior to me (professionally) are my most precious resource. There are three who I’ve embarrassed in the past by naming and thanking publicly, so Im not going to repeat that mistake here. But, suffice it say, they have taught me how to be a better colleague, be better research mentor and, simply, be a better female adult.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible!
My fantasy research is exactly what my lab is doing right now :)
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Always strive to be the most creative scientist in the room, with the most well-informed ideas. This gives you real, unambiguous power and strength, which no one can disqualify or take away from you. And always lift up your juniors—your personal excellence is nothing if you make life harder for folks that come after you!
Marja Jalava
Professor of Cultural History, University of Turku
"If this is what you want, do not give up! But remember, though, that there is life outside the university, and it is at least as valuable as the world of research."
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am a historian, whose research interests lie in the modern history of Finland, other Nordic countries, and Northern Europe. Among my long-term interests is the study of nationalism and cultural radicalism during the “long nineteenth century.” I have also focused on the history of welfare state, particularly from the viewpoint of education and the university system. More recently, I have specialized in the history of historiography, the history of emotions, and history in relation to the human-animal relationship.
I obtained my Ph.D. in Finnish and Nordic History at the University of Helsinki in 2005. During 2006–2010, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of History (HU) and in 2010–2015, as Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Economic Studies (HU). In 2014, I was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Political History (HU). I have also held temporary professorships at the University of Tampere (Professor of Finnish History, 2012–2013) and at the University of Turku (Professor of Contemporary History, 2016–2017).
I began working as a professor in the Department of Cultural History at the University of Turku in August 2017, and I will work at this position until 31 December 2021.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Academic career was not a self-evident choice for me. I have been interested in history as long as I can remember, but I was also interested in literature and visual arts and even studied painting a couple of years in the late 1980s. Moreover, at the university, I also considered taking up sociology, philosophy, or the study of religions as my major subject instead of history. After a while, however, I realized that history as an academic discipline allows me to study society, as well as philosophical and religious views, so by choosing history, I could have them all.
While doing my Master’s thesis, I noticed that I get great pleasure from research and academic writing. I started to think about doctoral studies and was encouraged to do so by my thesis supervisor. When I managed to get my first research grant for my PhD thesis project in 1999, my future was determined, and I have been working in academia since then.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
It may sound like a cliché, but the possibility to learn new things about the past provides constant inspiration for me. In this respect, my own research projects and cooperation with colleagues are essential sources of excitement, but I also enjoy teaching MA and PhD students, whose topics vary from the ancient Greek historiography to the struggle for same-sex marriage in contemporary Finland. It is a privilege for me to be able to work and collaborate with such a varied amount of highly talented students and scholars.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges in today’s research world is enormous competitiveness that is combined with diminishing resources and constant assessments. No matter how much you work and achieve, you should always do more and better. In Finland, the student to teacher ratio at the university is one of the lowest across OECD countries. As I act as a professor with a relatively large responsibility for teaching and supervision and, thus, I have very limited time to focus on research, the feeling of inadequacy often takes over me. On a more general level, harsh academic competition is eroding the sense of community at the university, because the “result or out” principle increasingly dominates professional relationships.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
To mention just one highly important turning point, I managed to get the Academy of Finland’s 5-year post as an Academy Research Fellow in 2010. I was thus able to work independently on my research; for instance, I could really focus on time-consuming archival work in Finland and Norway – something I can today only dream of…
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of a female? Are there still situations like that?
I do not wish to be a male, but a PhD student or a researcher certainly benefits even today from being a male. For instance, even at the university, women typically get less salary from the same position and have poorer chances of being promoted as a professor than men. This has particularly been the case in history as an academic discipline because it has remained a male-dominated field until very recently. Indeed, I have sometimes felt that I have to work double as much as my male colleagues to get the same grant or post.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing, and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Among the most stressful and disappointing issues in relation to research are certainly the unsuccessful applications for funding. It takes an enormous amount of time to write an excellent funding application, but it is never enough as such because there are always more excellent applications than money available. Thus, often all the hard work turns out to be fruitless in the end. I allow myself one day to moan and complain after a negative funding decision, but then I move forward and begin to think about new possibilities. After all, on a global level and in comparison with most women of the past, I am in a privileged position and hence try to keep some sense of proportion.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend, or whoever?
The most important woman in my life is naturally my mother, who has encouraged me and supported me in my career.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
If anything really was possible, I would like to allocate much more funding for academic teaching posts and basic research so that both women and men at all career stages would have better opportunities to work on research. It would be great to be able to say that one’s gender does not matter in research anymore.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
The academic world is simultaneously highly demanding and highly rewarding. If this is what you want, do not give up! But remember, though, that there is life outside the university, and it is at least as valuable as the world of research.
Saara Särmä
A researcher at University of Tampere, an activist, an artist and a feminist. Saara is the creator of “Congrats, you have an all male panel!” and co-founder of the Feminist Think Tank Hattu. Photo: Jonne Renvall / TAU
We are excited to have Saara here. She has some smart, cool & kind thoughts.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I’m Saara Särmä, a feminist, an activist, an artist and a researcher. Currently I work at Tampere University as a post-doctoral researcher and my project titled Making Meaning Out of Meme-making – the Politics of Online Image Circulation (MEMEPOL) is funded by the Academy of Finland (2019-2022). Additionally, I do some public writing and speaking, e.g. write columns for YLE and Aamulehti.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I think it happened quite accidentally, when I was working on my Master’s thesis I already got a few short term gigs as a research/project assistant at the department where I was studying, so I sort of drifted towards starting doctoral studies, because I was interested in doing more and diving deeper into the topics and theories, but I also couldn’t figure out what else there would be to do in life… Less than a year after I had gotten my doctoral degree (Doctor of Social Sciences) in International Relations, again really accidentally, I became known (famous even?) for inventing the “Congrats, you have an all-male panel!” tumblr-site, that documents all male panels and other all male compositions in various fields. It started just as something where my international colleagues and I can collect manels and make fun of them, but then it went ‘viral’ globally and I became a public feminist. A role I never thought to pursue, I always thought that I would just be one of those ivory tower researchers, whose research is just mainly theoretical and methodological discussions within an academic discipline, maybe interdisciplinary across some social sciences and humanities, but not really engaging with the wider public. Of course now that has all changed and I’m much more interested public engagement and trying to think of new ways of making research more widely accessible. All of this has also led me to a fantastic co-operations such as the short film series Force of Habit produced by Tuffi Films, for which I wrote a screenplay for Let Her Speak together with Ulla Heikkilä (who also directed it).
In the post-doctoral stage I’ve been unemployed several times, funded by the Kone Foundation, worked in an Academy of Finland funded project at the National Defence University and now finally have my own postdoc project for 3 years, which feels like a really really long time after the more precarious period.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
Kindness and other feminists, young and old.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
All the structural issues: precarity and uncertainty, lack of funding and jobs for a lot of very talented and hard working people.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
See above the all male panel stuff…
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female?
Yes and no. In many ways academia would be an easier place to navigate as a man, but then again I think I’ve done much more interesting work and things because as a woman I’ve come across those walls (as Sara Ahmed would say), and have been enraged because of the gendered injustices I’ve seen. There is more awareness about gender issues and more work towards equality these days, yet the work is far from over. And the backlash is real. Also, we need to keep intersectionality in mind when looking at inequality in academia and working towards a more just academia.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
All. The. Time. Sometimes it feels like all I’ve done in the last 10 years is to complain that I think, read, and write too slowly. I honestly don’t really know what keeps me going, stubbornness maybe? Or the fact that I think I have things to say and to contribute? Lot of the time it’s all the fantastic people that I’ve met in academia (and outside of it too), at worst academics can be nasty and horrible, but at best they are amazing and I try to find ways to mainly work and interact with the latter.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I want to applaud every single woman in academia who makes it through this pandemic. As we are already seeing, this time is a huge unequalizer and as such danger to women’s careers and I think we need collectively to make sure it doesn’t harm women, and especially women of color and women from the global south.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
I want to see true diversity in academia, not only in terms 50-50 gender division, but in terms of other axis of differentiation.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Be yourself and do work that truly excites you, find kind people to work with and to support you, and always be kind to others.
Hannele Savela
PhD, Research Coordinator at Thule Institute, University of Oulu. Photo: Ari-Pekka Kvist
Sohvi: I have had the privilege to get to know Hannele through our yoga-teacher training. I soon found out she also shares the passion towards Arctic science! Hannele is one of a kind - always positive and encouraging.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am a research coordinator and work at Thule Institute in the University of Oulu in Finland. Since 2011, I have been the Trans-National Access Coordinator in INTERACT, the International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic. www.eu-interact.org
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I was working in coordination of an international Masters’ Programme when the position opened up in INTERACT. The network of Arctic research infrastructures and the work description sounded super fascinating and something that would suit my best abilities, so I decided to apply for the position. And here I am, still loving my job after nine years! Originally, it was my dream to become a research scientist. During my PhD studies, I realized that I’d probably always be a rather mediocre scientist, but instead had a real strength in my organizational and social skills, which led me to the field of project coordination. However, my research background has been a huge benefit when working with research infrastructures and scientists.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
It inspires me to see people create ideas and work together to reach common goals, to see how the “bigger picture” starts forming from small bits and pieces, and to help putting all of that together in a coordinated manner.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
At least in the field of long-term monitoring, conducted by many research infrastructures, the problem is the lack of long-term and sustained funding. It’s a challenging situation when long-term monitoring has to be sustained with short-term project funding.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Definitely the biggest turning point was when I realized my talent is in coordination more than it’s in actual research and decided to apply for a position in coordination in 2002, while still working on my PhD that I completed in 2005. The three years doing both research and coordination at the same time, while also being a single parent, were the most challenging in my life but confirmed that I’ll have what it takes to be a coordinator. The second biggest turning point was to apply for the position in INTERACT network, which led me to the world of research infrastructures and international collaboration.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female?
Are there still situations like that? No, that is something I have never wished for. Actually, I remember thinking already as a little girl that I’d never want to be a boy, life as a male seemed so boring to me!
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Yes, research can often be all of those things, and the same applies to research coordination. What keeps me going is that from experience I know things often take time to develop and mature, and in most cases things “come together” eventually. Hard work, patience, and flexibility to change approach are needed to overcome the challenges.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I want to applaud the woman nearest to me throughout my life, my mother. She has provided me with the roots and wings to succeed in life and has always been my biggest support and role model.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
In 30 years, I would like to see a research world where women and men alike do not have to feel they are treated differently because of their gender. And that parental responsibilities would be shared gender-equally in a way that would enable women to have the same career possibilities with men. Nowadays I think women still bear more responsibility in parenting and that often poses a challenge on their (research) career development.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything?
Fire away, we are ready to face them!
I use the same words of encouragement that my mother always told me when I was growing up: Keep your head high, you are just as good as everybody else. When you do your best, you can always be proud of yourself, no matter what.
Aino Kalmbach
PhD candidate at Aalto University's Department of Economics.
"At the start of my PhD I thought that it would be easier to live with the gender imbalance in economics. It has however proven to be quite stressful, and if has had a serious impact on my career aspirations."
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am an economist with a master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Helsinki. Currently I am a PhD student at Aalto University’s department of economics. I study labor economics and economics of education. I’m mostly interested in understanding educational choices and how our childhood environment shapes our attitudes as adults in the labor market. I’m in the fourth year of my PhD and hoping to finish it in a year or so.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Before even finishing my master’s degree I was recruited as an economist in a policy institution where I had previously done a traineeship. I worked there on labor market policy – the work was challenging but also rewarding. I was there for almost two years, but at some point I realized I was more interested in really getting to the roots of the issues I was working with and understood that to do so I would have to pursue a career in research rather than in policy.
I was tempted by PhD studies already at the end of my studies, but getting an exciting job offer led me elsewhere temporarily. Research hasn’t always been my dream – for a long time I thought I wasn’t smart enough for it and that I wouldn’t fit in the academic world. I think having virtually no female faculty in economics at the university during my bachelor and masters studies contributed to this: it never even occurred to me that “someone like me” could work as a professor.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
Currently I’m inspired by the many opportunities I would have if I would finish my PhD, haha!
One of the most fun part of my PhD has been teaching and interacting with students. It is definitely something that inspires me a lot: how could I teach a difficult topic so that it would make most sense for the students? I learn a lot from teaching and preparing my lessons. Also students are very smart and fun and interacting with them is great.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
The work is lonely and it is hard to see real progress. I often feel like for each step forwards I take two steps backwards as every problem solved always leads to discovering new problems. Learning to deal with these feelings is probably part of the process of becoming a researcher, but it does not mean that it is easy.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
I had the opportunity to visit MIT for a year as a visiting student at the department of economics. I learned a lot and it was a very inspiring year!
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female?
Yes: often. Not only because I think that my surroundings would take me more seriously as a male, but also (as research has shown convincingly) men are a lot more confident than women. I see this in my peers, too. I would definitely need a boost to my confidence every now and then, even a slight amount of overconfidence might not hurt when it’s time for me to pitch my research ideas.
Also, as all our department’s faculty are male, I think that some social situations might be easier if we had at least our gender in common. Even though I wish it wasn’t so, I have noticed that my male peers find it easier than I do to socialize with senior male faculty members.
To be honest, at the start of my PhD I thought that it would be easier to live with the gender imbalance in economics. It has however proven to be quite stressful, and if has had a serious impact on my career aspirations.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow-paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Haha yes! I absolutely think so. For me, what works is that I keep track of my working hours. Even when I feel I am not making any progress, I can look at the numbers: I have worked this much this week, if nothing worked out then it is not because I did not try. Also maintaining a healthy lifestyle and having fun and interesting hobbies helps – basically, it’s good to have a life outside of work, too.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I’m inspired by all the brilliant female scientists who persist regardless of the masculinity of their field.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
The research world, to some extent, still seems to be designed for a person (most often a man) who has someone to take care of the home and family so that the researcher can only focus on their career. The rest of the “team” is expected to follow as the career-maker travels across the world pursuing jobs with usually very little employment protection. This is seen as normal and “essential” to the progress of science. Sacrificing one’s personal life is taken as granted. I wish that things could be done differently. Also, in the future, women in research would be equal to men.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Always put your health, both mental and physical, first. This might seem like an easy choice, but it’s not. Don’t live your PhD as it were a “transitory” phase before the “real” working life: rather you should shape your PhD as representing the life you actually want to live. To students I’d like to say: research at its best is extremely rewarding and when the work goes well it’s a lot of fun. So if you think you might be interested in pursuing a PhD, go for it!
Karoliina Hurri
PhD candidate in World Politics at the University of Helsinki. Affiliated with the
Aleksanteri Institute (Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies) and the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). Photo by Enni Kallio.
Sohvi: Me and Karoliina met when we both started working in the same research group a few years ago. The journey would have been very different without her! I admire her work
ethics and self-discipline - sometimes I have to lure her to have coffee with me during the day, when she just wants to concentrate on work and I want to gossip.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently
I am Karoliina, a second year PhD student researching climate politics and particularly construction of China’s climate leadership. My background is in Development Geography but I have slowly drifted from Kumpula’s Science campus to the City center campus of Social Sciences. My dissertation is in World Politics but I would still say that I am a geographer at heart. Currently, I am working in an international research group on environment at the Aleksanteri Institute, at the University of Helsinki. I have also affiliation with the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). Besides my career, I love board games, coconut ice cream, water slides that are not too fast and I am a sworn fan of Harry Potter.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
I ended up to research really topic-oriented. I think this is the way to do my share for climate change and build awareness of climate politics and its challenges. My dream has always been to work with global climate negotiations, but be based in Finland. A more personal dream, having followed the climate negotiations for more than 10 years now, was to attend an UN climate conference someday. I always thought this would happen when I have grey hair. I still have to pinch myself to believe it is true but now I have already attended three of those because of my research and I am only 29. So, I guess I can say that this job has always been my dream. Through achieving these goals, I have also realized how much I wish to continue working with the climate negotiations after my PhD.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
The fact that things are changing for the climate. Finland has the carbon neutrality goal. The inspiring thing about corona virus was to witness how quickly the society is able to change if we want to change it. People getting excited about Greta Thunberg. I am surprised how much Greta’s attitude has inspired me, for such a young person she has the wisdom to listen and let everybody else talk. I met her in the UN climate conference; her press conference created a traffic jam at the security control in COP25 Madrid in 2019. When everybody arrived there, she decided to sit their quietly and let the other young activists speak who do not get so much media attention otherwise. I have respect for this kind of gesture; she used her attention for a good cause in a smart way. I think this is also an example of the unfortunate unfairness that sometimes the focus is too much on the fact who is speaking rather than what they are speaking.
What do you find are the biggest challenges in research world in general?
Well I guess the competition for funding and its influence in research, but I am going to answer something that receives less attention. I think that the importance of recovery is not appreciated enough in research world. It is so sad that hurry and even exhaustion seems to be almost the new normal in academia and in work life in general. The competition, pressure to succeed or pressure to find funding and the lack of regular working hours make people work all the time or feel guilty when they are not working. It is a delicate balance to simultaneously be ambitious and be proud to leave the office at 4 o’clock. You have to find the practices that suit you and be confident enough to not compare your habits to others’.
Can you identify some turning points, that have influenced your career?
I think that without the Copenhagen climate meeting in 2009, I would not be researching this topic. Particularly the communication between the developed and developing countries seemed frustrating and I wanted to understand this interaction better in my Bachelor’s thesis. China was blamed for the failure in Copenhagen, which is probably why I started looking at China in my Master’s thesis and since then I have remained on this path. Also, my student exchanges in Fiji Islands and India, and seeing how they face climate change there, has strengthened my will to hear developing countries’ voice stronger in the climate negotiations. In addition, a clear turning point for my career was my first grant from Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation in 2018. I will probably always remember the moment when I heard the news about the grant and I realized like “Ok, I am really gonna do this dissertation”.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female? Are there still situations like that?
No, not really but I have noticed that there have been moments where I have been extremely proud to be a young female researcher and this way understood that possibilities for men and women are not always the same. Sometimes I wonder if men suffer from similar kind of imposter syndrome thoughts. Particularly, I have noticed at least in my circles that men are often more self-confident to apply for a job even though they would not necessarily fulfill all the requirements of the call.
How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
I hope that in 30 years, the number of women in top-level positions would have increased. I hope that the situation would be more equal that women would not have to fear that for example maternity leave would influence research funding or hiring. At the moment, I think that women also participate in joking about when is the “appropriate” time to have a kid during your PhD which I think is quite sad.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
Yes and I am often my own worst critic. You have to find the way to praise yourself. During a long project, I have tried to celebrate achievements also on a lower level. For example, if I have completed all the tasks for the week on Friday, I have gone to the movies or something else. After I returned my first article, I received a prize from myself: a week’s holiday. I believe that scheduling is one of the most important skills in doing a PhD. I try not to work during evenings and weekends but when a deadline is approaching, it gets complicated. I try to be gracious but it is a learning process. I have noticed that walking home from the office is best for calming my thoughts. In addition, I believe in listening to nature sounds from Spotify when I write, doing Pilates and meeting my best friends for “Tuesday-wine therapy” after work. I definitely need also evenings when I have nothing planned.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I wish to applaud my sister for her courage to make decisions in life by prioritizing well-being. I think she would be a great example for many. At the office, I have to applaud Sohvi, the editor of this blog, for the important peer-support and being my PhD twin sister. I believe it is quite rare that you meet a person through work that you instantly know is going to be your friend for the rest of your life.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible!
One day I was wondering what would happen if everybody in academia would have to follow working hours for example from nine to five. I appreciate the freedom to work whenever and wherever too much to support this idea but still there is something tempting about it. Everybody would have the same rules, now it sometimes seems that the ones willing to sacrifice the most, are the ones who succeed. In my fantasy research world, working during holidays and weekends would not be something to be proud of and funding competition would not influence the research topics. In addition, I think that in academia where everything you write is (and also should be) questioned, it is important to develop skills to give constructive feedback and turn more
and more negativity into positivity.
Feelings about corona? Work, life, world?
I am grateful that I am still able to continue my work despite this lock-down situation. I am part of the risk group, so I have been mostly at home which I have actually enjoyed a lot. I consider this as nature’s way to get us to stop and notice that we are going to the wrong direction, to remind us about the truly important things like health, solidarity, loved ones and our beautiful nature. I think it was somewhat reassuring that all the things in my calendar was in the end cancelled so easily. I feel that when working from home, it is even more challenging to distinguish your work and other life. There is a risk for attempting to overachieve the things that you otherwise are “too busy” to do. So in this sense, I wish that the situation would have slowed me down even more. World-wise I am worried about the impacts on developing countries. In Finland, we argue whether the thousand mechanical ventilators are enough but what happens when the virus spreads for example in the slums of Mumbai? We are so privileged here in Finland with
unemployment benefits, clean water and healthcare.
How has it impacted your research?
Well, my plans to do research visits in Copenhagen and Beijing this summer have been postponed or cancelled which are the most visible impacts for my research. Also, the UN climate conferences that I follow have been postponed which will influence my research on longer term. I am scared how this will influence countries’ climate ambition. I would not like to be pessimistic but this was supposed to be the year of increasing the ambition, and countries delivering their enhanced plans and targets. With the economic impacts of corona, it is difficult to view that for example China’s targets would be upgraded sufficiently. I think this is an excellent example of what societies can do for the emissions rapidly if they really want to. It is so sad that emergencies like these need to happen before people can actually see blue skies in the Chinese cities, for example. I believe corona is kinda like the last opportunity for us given by the Earth to change our way of life. But following the discussion of juxtaposing corona and climate change also in the Finnish media, it seems unlikely that this opportunity would be seized.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Well, I start with the depressing. Be prepared that at least in Finland achieving a PhD study right does not mean so much before you are able to receive funding. And receiving funding, well it takes time. The application periods and waiting times are long, be prepared to wait at least a year before you can actually start. Part from that, there is so many positive things. When I started at the university, my professor told us to always choose to study the things that truly inspire us. Then you will actually become good or even top at that field because you care so much. I think this is so true and so important. I could never do a PhD if I would not really care for my topic. And go abroad. Visit different institutions. Do exchanges. These experiences will
revolutionize your worldview!
Katariina Koivusaari
Katariina Koivusaari, a visiting researcher at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and PhD student in a doctoral programme called Food Chain and Health in University of Helsinki.
Maija: I have been lucky to know Katariina since 2010 when we started our bachelor studies together in food technology. I suppose we both would have laughed out loud back then if somebody told us we’d someday be studying for a doctoral degree in food science. It’s been exciting to see how Katariina got very excited about her master thesis topic, nutrition, and research in general. She is very precise in writing and excellent at finding typos in any text.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am Katariina, a PhD student from Helsinki University. I am enrolled in a doctoral programme called Food Chain and Health, and I do my research at the Public Health Unit of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Research has definitely not always been my dream. At the time I was finishing my master studies, I was pretty sure I would never study again. During my graduation I was working in a company in quality assurance, and my Master's thesis supervisors asked me if I would be willing to continue with my thesis topic. I considered it for a long time but finally decided that I am so interested in the topic that I want to continue. At the same time I said goodbye to a permanent job and salary, but saluted the freedom of being a PhD student.
The first time I got interested in research, however, was earlier, as I was working in a lab in Parma some years ago. My supervisors there introduced me to science, and I really liked working there. Before that, lab work was also something I thought I would not like to do for living.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
Especially one of my supervisors shows a very genuine, inspiring interest to science (for her it's not that much of work but pleasure to read my paper during the weekend, or at least that’s what she says). In addition, two of my scientific idols are Katri Saarikivi and Lauri Reuter. Both are very talented in popularising science, and they appear in media very optimistic and enthusiastic.
What do you find are the biggest challenges in research world in general?
Financing, obviously. I have been lucky to get funding for my studies at least so far, but not everyone is as lucky. It also feels that timetables never keep in science, things proceed very slowly. Sometimes there can also be some ethical problems behind the scenes.
Can you identify some turning points, that have influenced your career?
I would definitely mention my internship in that laboratory in Parma. Also starting my master's thesis at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and getting to know the data I use also now, and my supervisors. I doubt that I would be doing a PhD if I had ended up doing the master's thesis at the uni.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female? Are there still situations like that?
Not really, this has never crossed my mind. Perhaps because my topic is related to nutritional epidemiology and food sciences, both of which have a lot of women working on them.
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
I do, especially slow paced. But I also think that it's marvelous that someone pays me for studying things that interest me, and that I can work on my own project. It might be sometimes disappointing, but it's also luxurious to have the possibility to attend many courses, seminars, conferences etc. and have named supervisors who you can go to, if you really need help.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
My mum, of course, in many fields of life. I could also mention several girl friends of mine, who work determined and do super cool things (e.g. Maija 😄)
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
There would be no conflicts about the order of the authors of a paper. PIs would have good leading skills. To the last question: equal to men.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Some people seem to think that doing PhD is very cool, but I think one doesn't have to be especially intelligent to become a doctor, just be interested in learning and have enough motivation and self-discipline. I also want to recommend the funny PhD accounts in Instagram for all PhD students out there, they help me go through a tough day!
Pinja Näkki
PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki & Researcher at the Marine Research Centre of the Finnish Environment Institute. Photo by Jani Järvi.
“To my own surprise, doing research hooked me completely!” Pinja is a marine biologists working with microplastics in Helsinki. You can follow her fascinating research at @sykeresearch on Instagram!
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
I am a biologist (M.Sc.) graduated from the University of Helsinki. I am working as a researcher at the Marine Research Centre of the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), and currently preparing my doctoral dissertation on the fate and impacts of microplastics on seafloors. As a member of a marine litter research group (“Roskasakki” in Finnish), I am working with a wide variety of issues related to marine litter. During my years in SYKE I have participated for example in the monitoring of microlitter in the Finnish waters, estimating the sources and emissions of microlitter in Finland and conducting experiments on the ingestion and impacts of microplastics in food webs. Besides research I also actively take part in marine litter education and public outreach done in SYKE.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
As long as I can remember, I dreamed about becoming a biologist. I entered the university in a strong belief that I would become a biology teacher, as I love to share my enthusiasm to the natural world and spark it in others, too. At some point during my studies, I got distracted and developed interest in science communication and environmental education, and for a brief moment I considered those as alternative career paths.
However, until starting an internship and my master’s thesis at SYKE during my last years of studies, I was still relatively confident about becoming a teacher. To my own surprise, doing research hooked me completely! Research allowed me to use all my strengths, and also satisfied my need to immerse myself deeply in a topic that interests me – and that’s how I ended up here! It wasn’t a straight path, but I’m happy I got the chance to explore and develop other skills that I now can also utilize in my job as a researcher.
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
I find inspiration from thinking researchers as modern-day explorers or voyagers discovering new worlds. It is exciting and rewarding to work on the limits of your own and communal knowledge, and to be able to add your own tiny piece of information to the “world map” or puzzle scientists are collectively building. And of course, the most important aspect is that I am working for the environment and feel that my work contributes to making the world better!
In addition to that, I am inspired by people who are passionate about what they are doing. Passion and enthusiasm are contagious, and sharing those feelings gives also other people the desire to find what they are most passionate about.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
A universal problem in the research world is the lack of funding and the vicious problems it produces. We are educating more and more scientists, but at the same time the funding situation is getting worse. This leads to harsh competition for limited resources among researchers. Grant writing is laborious and takes time away from the actual scientific work, which also needs to be done in order to produce publications and to secure funding in the future.
"Publish or perish” is a phrase often heard in the scientific world, and to put bluntly, often the quantity of publications is more important than quality. Bold results get published more easily compared to research not finding effects or replicating studies done previously, which distorts the reality and can eventually lead to bad science. Research is already demanding, and adding the pressure to apply more and more short-term grants and to compete with your colleagues on top of your work creates a pressure to work long hours, which in turn leads to decline in general well-being.
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
Definitely! One of them was my student exchange; spending half a year studying marine biology in Gold Coast, Australia, turned my head from terrestrial ecology to marine biology, and as I came back to Finland, I started immediately looking for possibilities to continue studying marine biology here. That quickly escalated into an internship at SYKE, which sparked an interest towards a career in research. Without my study exchange, I would have not ended up where I am now.
In general, my career since then has been highly influenced by coincidence, mainly by who I have been lucky to meet. I would say that another big turning point was starting my PhD, which has led me to many amazing experiences, and for that I must give credit for people around me, who have given me support and also advocated me in their own networks.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female?
I can’t remember a single occasion, but this does not mean that I have not had negative experiences as a young woman in research. However, I have many times found myself wishing I had more self-confidence to defend myself in unfair situations and to appear more credible and professional in the eyes of others. Nevertheless, at the end of the day its not your appearance what matters, and it is the best feeling to prove someone’s assumption of you wrong!
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
I completely agree – I would even say, that it’s often stressful, disappointing and slow paced. I have struggled with these thoughts, too, but found it reassuring to change the perspective by zooming into details rather than looking at the bigger picture. Desmond Tutu has said that “there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” So I have tried to be patient and instead of worrying about the whole timeline of the project, I try to focus only on manageable chunks of the project, such as one week or a month, and notice and enjoy all the small successes and advancements during that time. It also helps to think about the nature of research – if one is generating new information and doing something that has maybe never been done before, how is that supposed to be easy? Disappointments are part of the deal, even though they really suck sometimes.
Do you want to applaud a woman in your life? At work, home, friend or whoever?
I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my mentors Maiju Lehtiniemi and Outi Setälä at SYKE. Without their encouragement and support I would have never had the courage to start pursuing a career in research.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
I would really hope to see an improvement in the balance of skilled researchers and available funding, and in the lengths of funding periods. Longer funding would enable long-term projects and more efficient collaboration between different disciplines, which in turn could lead to better quality of research and bigger discoveries.
I also hope that researchers’ time would be seen more valuable and they could use their days efficiently in doing research instead of drowning in the administrative work.
When it comes to women in research, I hope that the phenomenon called “leaky pipeline”, i.e. the progressive disappearance of women as they advance in their career, is fixed, and that also other minorities are well represented in the scientific world.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Dream out loud! Tell your friends and colleagues about your aspirations. This has two benefits: first, it makes your dreams more concrete, and you get yourself to think about the possible ways to reach those goals (it also gives you some pressure to start pursuing your targets, when others know about them).
Secondly, you never know, what the other person might be able to offer you. It might be a valuable piece of advice, or you might find like-minded people willing to collaborate, or somebody knows someone who can help you. If people know what you want, it is easier for them to help you.
And remember to also help your peers when you can :)
Judith Pallot
Emeritus Professor in Christ Church, Oxford University & Research Director in Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. Photo by Niina Into.
Sohvi: I have had the pleasure to get to know Judith through my yoga classes, which she faithfully attends. We work at the same institute, so this interview was done face to face - she had such interesting stories that it was hard to stop! I cannot but admire her.
Hello, tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do currently?
Well, first of all, I am pretty old. I went to University in the late 60s, so I am part of the 60s generation. At that time in the UK the number of people that went to University was about two percent, (or could have been the number of women), but however the number was really small and women were a minority.
I come from the south of the UK, but did my degree in the north, in University of Leeds. At some point I got interested in Russian studies (Soviet studies back then) and did my doctoral degree in University of London (?). After that I worked as a lecturer in Leeds University, until I was offered a lecturing position in Oxford.
It was 1979, and I was the first woman member of the governing body of Christ Church, one of the most traditional colleges in Oxford. There had been no females there before, besides cleaners etc. I was appointed a year before female undergraduates were allowed. There is actually a portrait of me in Christ Church, I am the only woman on the wall (apart from the two queens!).
I am formally retired, but no one really retires in Oxford. But anyhow, I was a professor in Oxford, I retired, and then decided to move to Finland and bring my new research project here.
My first degree is from geography, from historical geography. I got interested in Russia, or Soviet Union at that time, early in my studies. First I worked with peasants in the Soviet Union, and then I became interested in prisons. Actually my interest towards prisons arose in rural areas of the Soviet Union, when I met women prisoners who had been sent far far away.
My current research is focusing on prisons in Russia and how difference is handled in the prison.
How did you end up in the current position, or to research in general? Has it always been your dream?
Luck! Christ Church, the college in Oxford from which I got the position, had just changed its status to a mixed college. It was one of the last ones to change the status to allow women to become members of the governing body of the college. This had changed a year before I got the position.
I had never been to Oxford before - so I really did not know what to expect. There was a row of men in black gowns, I did not know where I was!
You got to understand, the difference from today's academia to back then is huge. When you were part of a very small percentage of people who had academic degree – well, everything was possible! They told me: Judith, the world is your oyster! During the last years in University, you didn’t have to worry, you had so many opportunities it was almost a problem.
I was kind of on the sellers position, and when the possibility of doing research was presented to me, I realized it also meant I could go to Soviet Union and spend time in the University of Moscow.
You know, I always liked to do something slightly different from the others. Everyone else went to India to meditate and to smoke substances, or to the US, to rent a car and drive from coast to coast. And by contrast I went to do my research in Russia, which is that sort of thing I always liked to do. I have kind of devoted my whole career to Russia (or to Soviet Union).
We would love to know what or who inspires you?
Well, first of all the amazing Soviet women, for example Natalya Gorbanevskay. She was a dissident and civil rights activist, who was arrested during a demonstration on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1969 and put to psychiatric hospital.
In the academia – well, women who have pursued academic careers from the beginning of the century, banging their head to the glass ceiling. Women who have become professors, who have aimed to be recognized as serious scientists, women who have paved the way – such as Dorothy Hodgins.
When I went to Oxford, I joined a group of women – you know women from these men’s colleges, there was one or two women in each of the colleges, and we formed a women’s group. The result of our actions was a gender office, which intervened with harassment and so forth. There were such inspirational women there, I was hopeless compared to them! They were truly remarkable people.
In Leeds, surely I had met few intellectuals, but in Oxford I was surrounded by these amazing women, who had gone through the Oxford system. Before that women were not allowed to graduate, and there was still a debate going on about changing women’s colleges to a mixed system. You see, when they were changed, all the posts went to men and there was a need to reserve places for women.
Women have been a minority in Oxford, even ten-twenty years ago, and only very recently the balance has started to change.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in the research world in general?
Hmm, generally speaking – I find the biggest challenges to deal with the neoliberalization of higher education. Of course, I have a nostalgic view on how things were when I started, but the influence of business, of state, of grants…they are all threatening the autonomy and integrity of research.
It is getting increasingly harder to find funding for blue skies research, when you have to describe in advance the output and impact of your research. I mean, the problem with that is that you have to know in advance what your outcome is. You know, it might not have an impact, it might, who knows.
The other thing is the overproduction of research outputs. Young academics are to produce a certain number of articles in certain years, with all those restraints and strings attached. It has a bad impact on scholarship.
The structures are undermining informal cooperation, I think that as emphasis is on interdisciplinarity, co-operation and so on, the proper change of ideas is undermined by some of these requirements. And of course, teaching is less and less valued, while administrative stuff has grown like topsy.
I am pleased I’m not entering academia now, even though you younger people are of course socialized to it. I had a contract with one sentence, and no pressure to get research grants or so on. I didn’t actually apply for one until the 1990s!
Can you identify some turning points that have influenced your career?
My first visit to Soviet Union for sure, I was very intrigued by that. Then of course
getting a job from Oxford, no-one in their right mind would have considered leaving it.
Having my daughter made a big difference. It was back in the days when you felt pressured to show that having a child does not affect your work functions, so I had to make different kinds of arrangements to make it work. My husband and I met when I was 30, and for a while we lived in different places. Then he got a job from Oxford and we had the child.
Another turning point was moving to Finland, getting that ERC grant and bringing it here.
Oh and of course, the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was so much work - rewriting all the lectures and so on - but also an opportunity to move my research in a different direction. It was then when prisoners started to interest me instead of peasants, after the collapse we were allowed to go to the field, before that researchers had to stay within 30km from Moscow. I could go to the places I had been writing about! It was so interesting - collaborating with people, interviewing people in the rural areas during the transition. I met some prisoners in the north, and that's when I got interested in them - why they were still sending them to peripheries, particularly women were sent further. So that was definitely a turning point in my career.
During your career, have you ever wished you were a male instead of female? Are there still situations like that?
Hmm, I would say I have had points in my career when I wished all my male colleagues were women.
There have been certain stages in my career, when I was more hesitant to put myself forward than my young male colleagues. I still see such situations, when a young man immediately applies for the professorship, and women waits for 10 years. Of course not all, but certainly, looking back, lots of research shows that women have been less successful getting big grants.
But this does not mean I wish I was a man!
We think doing research is sometimes stressful, disappointing and slow paced. Do you ever think so? What keeps you going?
I would say...I would add to the list – loneliness. Especially in the PhD stage, when you are the only one who knows your topic, particularly in the last phases, it can be a lonely period. When you have deadlines and so on, it's stressful.
The process certainly has changed, and does the system support the process now, I wonder.
The number of good academic jobs that constitute the career - there are a lot of short term contracts, that affect negatively on young people. When you look at the people – people have to change their research focus to get a postdoc all the time. Nowadays you see people with extraordinary CVs, they have had to shift the focus to get postdoctoral places.
In my generation I became fascinated by something and continued, and that’s not available for young scholars anymore. Once you get a postdoc, after a year you have to start to search for a new one. This certainly has a negative impact on the project.
So I would say something is not right with the system.
What would your own fantasy research world look like? If anything was possible! How would you like to see women in research in 30 years?
Hmm women in research in 30 years...well I would like to see them!
My fantasy would have to be something to do with managing work life balance. I would like to see women on top level, (equally or slightly more), at all levels of careers and not have to make difficult decisions on everyday choices: how to manage having children, domestic life, having time for leisure.. Still women have to make choices men don’t in relation to work life.
What would you like to say for young researchers and students? Encouraging, depressing, anything? Fire away, we are ready to face them!
Keep at it, keep fighting. It's worth it. And it's important for society, it's needed. There are a lot of women out there to support and encourage your endeavors.
Go to yoga.
Academic life gives you enormous freedom with interesting things, meeting
extraordinary people, being in a place when you meet young people...it is fascinating.
It is a world of ideas.