Academic Careers Workshop
Academic Careers Workshop
Embedded Files
Date: 8th March 2022
Time: 15:00 - 17:00
Venue: Conference Room, ICOSS
Description
This session is split into two parts. First, an interactive talk on the challenges faced by women in academia led by Professor Penny Dick. Second, a hands on discussion with Dr Esther Allen on navigating those challenges and exploring the options available to women academics. This session is for staff and students who identify as women and are dedicated to an academic career path.
Part 1:
Penny will outline her own career journey and will discuss this in relation to the difficulties and challenges which attach to the pursuit of an academic career for women. She will discuss how many of the indicators that are deemed important for academic advancement continue to favour particular performance criteria which are characterized by a bottom-line and masculinalized mentality, that is as prevalent in academia as in commercial organizations.
Part 2:
Navigating a path into an academic career can be littered with uncertainty and challenge. Dr Esther Allen will join us to share insights from her role in supporting researchers making the transition into and pursuing academic careers. She will discuss the support available at TUoS and how there is no one approach to following or having an academic career. We hope this topic will promote lively group discussion and questions will be welcomed.
Speakers
Professor Penny Dick
Penny is a professor of organizational psychology at Sheffield University Management School. Prior to her academic posts, she worked as an Occupational Health Psychologist for Northumbria Police and Tyne and Wear Fire Service, responsible for developing services for the psychological support of operational staff. It was during this time that she developed her research interest in how language is implicated in what we take for granted in the world and what we see as natural and inevitable. She has used this broad framework to investigate and critique how stress and inequalities are understood and managed in workplaces.
Dr Esther Allen
Dr Esther Allen forms part of Think Ahead, the Researcher Development team at The University of Sheffield. Esther's role as a Researcher Development Manager is diverse and varied; alongside supporting the professional and career development needs of researchers in the faculty of Social Sciences she is also the team lead on mentoring for researchers and supports several researcher-led networks across the University.
Esther's initial higher educational background is in Chemistry having completed her MChem (a 4-year combined Chemistry UG and masters course) in 2011 before she changed fields to undertake an industry-sponsored PhD in Chemical Biology. After being awarded her PhD in 2016 Esther spent a year working and travelling in South and North America before returning to the UK to start a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position at The University of Sheffield within the Department of Chemistry.
Esther balanced her position as a PDRA with her work advocating for Early Career Researchers and Postgraduate Researchers. Through several volunteer and nominated positions, Esther became interested in pursuing a full-time position in Researcher Development and joined the Think Ahead team in 2020 to continue to work in supporting researchers and research culture.
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