In this final episode of the 2024-2025 season, I reflect on key themes emerging from the past 20 episodes of 'Changing Academic Life.' These are around creating supportive and inclusive cultures in academia, the role of leadership, career transitions, wellbeing and self-care, and the importance of community. It reminds us to engage in reflection, value our own and others' wellbeing, and contribute to positive changes in academic environments.  Cultivating a good academic life for all is a collective effort.

00:00 CAL127 Season reflections

02:44 Supportive cultures

06:35 Career transitions, choices

11:39 Wellbeing & self care

13:56 Community

16:00 Closing

18:29 End

Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

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I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this is

a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide

ideas, and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively

to change academic life for the better.

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Welcome.

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I'm so glad you can join me here for

some reflections across the season

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that we are just coming to the end of.

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And this final episode is a little

bit late in coming because I've

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had travels and talks and running

workshops, and so I just didn't

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have the head space to do this.

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So in, uh, trying to walk the talk,

I gave myself some grace and took the

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pressure off to be on a fortnightly cycle.

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And finally getting to this.

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We started this season about 10

months or so ago, and first episode

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was on 4th of September last year,

and we are now well into July 25.

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During that time, we've had 20 episodes.

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Seven of them were me talking or

reflecting on a particular topic, and

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there was also one compilation episode.

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And all the others were

interviews and discussions

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with really interesting people.

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And I just want to remind us all

that everyone is interesting.

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Everyone is has a story to

tell or experiences to share.

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And it's interesting that even though I

don't more systematically plan my guest

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schedule, it's rather more opportunistic.

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It's really amazing to reflect on

the themes that have come out across

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many of the different conversations.

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And that's what I want to do now is

just walk through some of those themes.

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So just to give an overview of what I

think they've been, there's one that's

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been around creating supportive and

inclusive cultures of care in academia.

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And related to that is

the role of good leaders.

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There's another theme that's sort of

reflected in a lot of the career stories

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that we heard about career transitions.

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And I want to reflect on that in

terms of making choices and also

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the importance of reflection in

supporting how we make those choices.

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And there was another theme around

wellbeing, mental health and

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self care that we can reflect on.

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And finally, I want to finish

with the importance of community.

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So to the first theme around

creating supportive and

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inclusive collaborative cultures.

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We heard so much about the importance of

the role that every one of us can play

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and the way that we can all contribute to

the co-creation of supportive, inclusive

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cultures, and I think we heard about

that very strongly from Line and Nicklas

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when they reflected on their particular

research context that got the Danish

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Young Science Academy Prize for research

environment, and they talked really

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compellingly about how we all contribute

to shaping and sustaining these cultures.

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And that key aspects of these

cultures were things like, fostering

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trust and open communication.

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You know, the importance of

psychological safety, the focus on

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really caring about people's long-term

development and how to support that.

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And in the process valuing health

and wellbeing so that science isn't

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done at the cost of wellbeing and what

could be done to support wellbeing

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as part of these environments.

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And we saw these themes

repeated in different people's

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discussions of cultures.

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You know, so most recently Johanna

talked about, their mission at Graz

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around creating or her mission around

creating a fun and kind academia and

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that we can do impactful research

and look after our wellbeing.

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And, and she shared some of the

initiatives they're taking more at

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sort of an organizational systemic

level to promote and support that.

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And we also heard, for example, from

Matt and Oana at Glasgow and Özge at Koč

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Univers University in Turkey about their

every day on the ground initiatives to

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support and create cultures of care.

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Matt and Oana talked about micro actions,

which fits nicely with the ways that we

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don't have to have the grand gestures.

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It, we can all contribute.

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And towards that, the compilation episode

that I did provided lots of examples from

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previous episodes that also pointed to the

productive engagement in creating cultures

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of care and respecting differences

and how we can create a culture where

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learning is encouraged and recognizing

learning is often learning from mistakes.

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And related to this, I also did a solo

episode just to unpack the notion of

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psychological safety a bit more because

it's such a prominent concept and topic

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at the moment, and actually so important

about how do we create environments

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where people can feel that it's okay

to speak up, to have an opinion, to

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contribute without, personal risks.

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And towards this, we also heard about

the really important role that leaders

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can play in setting the direction for

this sort of culture and role modeling

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the sort of behaviors, whether that's

the micro actions of care and connection.

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Matt particularly talked about the

importance of empathy and being

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really intentional in the way that

you show up recognizing the humanity

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of yourself and everyone else.

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So, you know, the way he

sought feedback as well.

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And Özge also talked about initiatives

to create the care and the open

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communication being really important.

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Another interesting theme that emerged

was around, a number of people who were

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reflecting on different career transitions

and whether that was Evan peck making a

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decision to move from one particular type

of university with one particular emphasis

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to a different sort of university.

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Or whether it was people like Vikki and

Tina who both eventually chose to move out

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of academia into different career paths

that still connected them with academia,

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but more in coaching and support roles.

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And also we heard about Johanna who

made different career choices that were

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around trying to protect her wellbeing

and manage her boundaries that took

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her into some different sector work.

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And then again, moving back to quite

a different role than a traditional

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research oriented role in a university.

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And we have Graham who talked about

moving from, PhD to industry, to academia

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and research to, to start up to being

sort of more entrepreneurial and then

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moving on yet again to go back to learn

based on the experiences that he had.

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So all of these career stories

were interesting, weren't they,

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because no one had planned

those paths from the beginning.

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And I think that's something

that's worth reflecting on.

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And through their discussions, we

could also hear the journey of growing

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self-awareness and discovery about

what was really important to people.

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You know, Vikki talked about strengths

and aspirations and Tina talked

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about getting more familiar with

your natural talents and Liam also

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talked about choices that were

really aligned with values and goals.

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Özge talked about the importance

of values, understanding your core

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values as a guide for behaviors,

as did both Evan and Johanna.

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So this theme of getting clearer over time

of what are your values, what's important

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to you, and what are your strengths.

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I also talked about them as superpowers

or in your natural talents because when we

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can operate working with our strengths, we

do our best work, and we are more engaged.

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Excited by the work we

do and do better work.

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And that also connects to

what's the difference we want to

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make, tied up with all of that.

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And we heard that come out as themes,

like what's the difference you

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wanna make was, the difference that.

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Graham talked about, and Evan

talked about in particular, in

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making the choices to move.

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We also heard around how people

navigated the different trade-offs.

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You know, because there's never a clean

choice where everything's perfect, there's

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always losses and gains, isn't there?

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And so I think it was really

interesting hearing about lots

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of people's transitions, the way

they arrived at those choices.

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And as Evan talked about, career

decisions are always deeply personal,

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multifaceted, and take place in a

continually evolving professional

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landscape and an evolving landscape

of your own personal priorities.

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You know, and that trade off,

balancing all of those concerns

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it's is really important.

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And I think tied up with this, if we're

going to have the insights into what

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our strengths are and our values and

what difference do we want to make, we

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also heard across all of these, we could

hear and people being very reflective

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and like Evan talked about a constant

reflection on that negotiation around his

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own personal values and broader impact.

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And that it's a lifelong learning thing.

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And so.

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Towards that, Matt offered a

framework for reflection that he

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gives to students, but could also

be really useful for all of us.

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And for my end of year podcast, I

also offered a framework of questions

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that might support reflection, to help

start to get more insight into what's

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important and who you are at your

best . And part of this reflection

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is, as Vikki talked about, a lot of

self-compassion and, the knowing yourself.

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And she had a lovely way of talking

about being your own best boss.

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People also talked about being

realistic about what you can achieve.

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And then this connects then I think, to

the theme of wellbeing and self care.

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And Johanna, I think was particularly

interesting to hear the way, through

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a process of reflection about what was

important to her, became really clear on

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what were the boundaries that she wanted

to hold, and accepting the trade-offs

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in the choices that she made around what

was needed to protect those boundaries.

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And self-care also figured in lots of

people's discussions, whether it's Matt

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and Oana, or Vikki or Özge or Johanna.

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It was a really common theme

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and mental health also figured, you

know, so Matt and Oana talked about

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depression and burnout and shared

very honestly and vulnerably about

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their experiences there as did Özge.

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So recognizing that we're not alone

with a lot of those struggles.

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And Vikki also talked about

experiencing ADHD type behaviors.

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And managing that as well.

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So I think that that's really

important to think about how do we

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deliberately cultivate practices

of care for ourselves and also

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extending that as care for others.

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And that also is, that brings

in the self-compassion.

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And

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that's not selfish because we need to be

able to bring our best selves to our work,

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to our interactions with our colleagues.

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And so it's so important that we

prioritize our own wellbeing and that,

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we heard about that in terms of the

culture discussions as well, that there

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are things we can do both at like a

bottom up our own everyday practices

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and then what we can do from a top down

in terms of what might be the policies

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and procedures and exemplars that we'd

want to propagate from an organizational

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perspective as well as what we can do

with one another in our interactions

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to promote wellbeing and to make that

a norm that it's okay to care for that.

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And then I think that connects nicely

with the theme of community and the

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critical importance of community.

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We don't do academia alone.

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And we don't need to do it alone.

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And there's lots of discussion across

the episodes about the supports of

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other people and how valuable that was.

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And again, in that sense of top

down, bottom up, we heard from

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Johanna about the initiatives at

Graz to create collaborative peer

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support network, support groups.

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And I had a solo episode after that

that gave an overview of things to

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think about if you wanted to set up

your own peer support group and the

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different types of groups that you

could think about, because we can put

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these in place for ourselves as well.

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And we also heard it from Liam

just about his own reflections.

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The lovely Liam who very sadly passed

away in September last year, who really

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wanted to share with the community

about the importance of thinking about

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what's important and how to balance

between professional ambitions and

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personal wellbeing, and particular

the importance of relationships.

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And I followed that up with a solo

episode, just reflecting on networking

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and how we might reimagine it not as a

strategic career maneuver or something

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that we have to do and something that we

can be really scared of, but as a process

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of how do we build genuine connections

and how do we use those genuine

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connections to have an impact on others

through our everyday micro interactions.

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So coming back, the full circle

culture is created in our local

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environments, in our institutions,

in our professional communities.

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And I always talk about the top down

and the bottom up, and I so believe

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we need actions from all levels.

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And I don't want to downplay the

importance of the structural constraints

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and issues and challenges and that

are actually increasing at the

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moment, which makes me really sad.

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And at the same time, recognize

that there are little moments

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of power and connection that we

have, that we have some power.

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And we have that power to create

connection, to contribute to building good

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cultures, to make some choices and accept

the trade offs that may be entailed.

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And just returning to Liam's call

about being true to ourselves and being

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reflective about how we balance between

our professional ambitions, our personal

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wellbeing, and investing in relationships.

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So I'll finish here and wish

you all a good couple of months.

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For those of us in the Northern

Hemisphere, it's our summer break

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time, and I will be back in the

autumn with some new stories, new

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people, and looking forward to it.

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Take care.

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Be kind to yourself.

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It's okay to take a proper break,

have a proper holiday, and enjoy it.

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You can find the summary notes, a

transcript and related links for this

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podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.

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You can also subscribe to Changing

Academic Life on iTunes, Spotify.

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And I'm really hoping that we can

widen the conversation about how

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we can do academia differently.

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And you can contribute to this by rating

the podcast and also giving feedback.

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And if something connected with

you, please consider sharing this

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podcast with your colleagues.

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Together we can make change happen.