Learning Academia Together

  Image: ADOBE STOCK. See: https://stock.adobe.com/in/search?k=research+proposal   Hi fellow researchers,  Hope you are doing well. Or perhaps not, for the viva and admission season is here and I very well understand what all anxieties this season might bring. I have been 'missing in action' for more than a couple of months here. And perhaps I owe you all an explanation because I very confidently claimed in my introductory blog that I would talk to you every week or so. But, isn't this what the academic world is all about- missed due dates, messed up calendars, endless work, procrastination, and our inability to put it all together at once. I was busy writing (and I have a lot to write about that as well, hopefully in upcoming blogs) some necessary stuff and doing preparations for my PhD research trip. But now I have found some relief and hence I picked up my laptop to have this conversation with you all. For the last few days, many of you reached out to me expressin...

             Picture: iStock| https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/low-self-esteem ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi fellow researchers,  I am back. Though I promised to write this blog 10 days from the release of my first one, the tightly packed schedule did not allow me to. Like all of you, I was occupied with figuring out how to organize my chapters, how to prepare tools for my data collection, making a contact list for field participants, applying for and attending conferences and writing. That seems a lot, right! But as early career researchers, aren't we doing a lot already? Figuring all of this out is not an easy task, especially when we do not have a generational exposure to the academic world and a weak institutional guidance. And despite doing so much at a time, we feel lost, insecure, anxious and under-confident. This has been the case with...

  Hi fellow researchers,  I hope you are reading this blog with a cup of coffee, tea or any hot beverage of your preference because as you read further, I want you to feel the warmth of the words that come your way. I am a 25-year old researcher, working at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University,born and brought up in a small town in Rajasthan. I begin with my Ph.D. in 2021 and as two years passed by, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of academia is very hollow, careerist and insensitive. The ruthless competition, high-achiever syndrome and non-collaborative attitude among peers can be heartbreaking and trust me, it can break you to the core. This is pessimistic, but this is my inspiration to start this blog. During many of the discussions with my peers, one thing that would always come up is the absence of an experience sharing platform, where researchers just talk about and share the most granular details of their lives in academia, apart from their core research topics....