We are happy to announce three key notes, which explore various transitions in researcher education and careers, namely:
A writing retreat is facilitated by Professor Montserrat Castelló, Ramon Llull University
Lynn McAlpine is Emerita Professor at both the University of Oxford, UK, and at McGill University, Canada. Her earlier longitudinal research examined how scientists and social scientists navigated their careers and personal lives during and after finishing the PhD. Intrigued by the numbers of graduates who transitioned to the private, public and non-profit labour sectors, she shifted her focus to such careers: trying to understand how PhD graduates make sense of the global trends, national policy regimes and institutional affordances and constraints they need to negotiate to work towards their life-career hopes and intentions.
PhD life-career transitions: Exploring careers beyond the academy
How do PhDs and PhD graduates make sense of and negotiate their futures in light of their past experiences and present circumstances? Especially given the evolving socio-economic trends, local through global, which are changing the employment possibilities for highly skilled workers? In this session, I will draw on recent research to explore some of the factors influencing such life-career decision-making, particularly how career literacy and mobility options can provide some traction for negotiating the future. I end by highlighting under-researched areas, ones ripe for exploration.
Presentation slides can be found here.
James Burford is Assistant Professor of Global Education and International Development at the University of Warick. James’ research interests converge around international higher education, doctoral education, academic mobilities, and queer theory. James is currently leading a research project which investigates institutional practices that surround pre-application doctoral communications. He is also co-leading another project investigating ‘distance’ doctoral education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. His recent publications include a co-edited collection Re-Imagining Doctoral Writing (2021) with Cecile Badenhorst and Britt Amell and a forthcoming book with Emily F. Henderson titled Making Sense of Academic Conferences. James tweets at @jiaburford
Uneasy transitions: Disappointing academic mobility
A host of norms circulate around academic mobility. Often configured as a transformative force for individuals, institutions and national development, there is some sense that academic mobility can be relied upon to set positive things in motion. However, increasingly proponents of a critical academic mobilities approach (e.g. Tzanakou & Henderson, 2021) have highlighted its turbulence and unevenness, accounting for those who may be immobile, stuck in perpetual movement, or stranded as a result of their travels. In this talk, I think with accounts generated during a research project which explored the experiences of academic migrants in Thailand, a mobility destination that frequently exceeds conventional academic mobility scripts. I argue that attending to private narratives of mobility disappointment often opens up larger questions about the impact of transformations to academic labour and enduring legacies of colonisation. I conclude the talk with some thoughts about what might be done with disappointment for mobile academics and for academic mobility researchers alike.
Presentation slides can be found here.
Kirsi Pyhältö, PhD. is professor of higher education, at the Center for University Teaching and Learning (HYPE), and director of Doctoral of School Humanities and Social Sciences, at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is also extraordinary professor at the Centre for Higher and Adult Education, University of Stellenbosch, South-Africa. Her research interests include learning and wellbeing among PhD. candidates, supervisory and research community support, and PhD. careers. She has over 200 publications.
Becoming a PhD. supervisor – resources for enhancing supervisory development
Supervision has been recognized as a key determinant of doctoral education. A strong body of evidence has shown that both quality and quantity of supervision contributes to study progress, degree completion, productivity during the degree and overall study experience. In fact, supervisory interaction is one of the most studies areas of doctoral education. The landscape of supervision is however transforming rapidly. Drivers for the change, for example, include diversification PhD. candidates and of PhD. careers and almost inclusive transition to remote supervision due to the pandemic. The changes have provided new challenges for supervision and systematic meand to support supervisory development. At the same time, research on supervisory development and effective means to support it, is still surprisingly limited. In this keynote will try to offer insights on supervisory development and reflect resources for enhancing it at the universities. In my presentation I will summarize recent research on supervisory development, including gaps in the field. The presentation will be concluded with reflections on the research-informed means to systematically support supervisory development.
Presentation slides can be found here.
Montserrat Castelló Badia is Full Professor in Educational Psychology at Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona, Spain, where she has been Vice Dean of Research and Doctoral Studies at the Graduate School of Psychology and Educational Sciences. She is also Director of the Research Institute on Applied Psychology at Universitat Ramon Llull and the head of the interuniversity doctoral program on Education Psychology, elected member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) (2013-2015), and of the Executive Committee of the European Federation of Psychology Teachers Associations (EFPTA) (2003 - Act.). She is the founder and co-convenor of the EARLI Special Interest Group on Researcher Education and Careers (SIG-REaC). Her research activity and publications focus on Academic Writing Strategies and identity of Early Career Researchers and she has published more than 200 scientific contributions on these topics. She is involved in the European Literacy Network, ELN-IS1401 and leads the Erasmus+ project on Researcher identity development.