Reflecting on 2023

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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 to this short

episode at the end of: 2023

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And in this.

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I just would like to reflect on.

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What's happened in 2023.

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Both for the podcast to myself,

as well as to provide some prompt

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questions that you might find useful.

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To help you reflect on 20 23 as well.

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And what I particularly be wanting

to encourage us all to do is to.

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Stop and take some time.

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To reflect on the year and in

particular, just to celebrate.

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What we've done, we've been able

to achieve what we've been able to

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get through and that we got here.

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We often don't take the time.

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To just sit with and recognize what

we've done, because especially in

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academia, there's always the next thing.

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And.

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Yeah, so end of years, always.

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It's nice transition points

for just taking that time.

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So with the podcast.

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I did an end of season reflections and

transitions piece in July this year.

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So just reflecting on

the episode since then.

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We've produced 13 episodes.

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At.

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Up to this point, this'll

be the 14th for the year.

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Some of them have been

interviews with people.

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Some have been more my reflections

bouncing off something that was

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said in one of the episodes.

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Doing a quick recap, we had Karen

Stroobants Talking about how we can change

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research culture and reform research

assessment, and particularly talking to

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us about what's happening at the European

level in terms of the CoARA initiative.

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Which is really exciting in terms of just

seeing some of these shifts taking place.

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Suzanne Bødker talked about yeah,

similar issues around culture.

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Importance of research culture.

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And also what I thought was particularly

interesting was the making of choices.

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That aren't just about advancing

career, but bringing in other

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values that are important in life

around family and connections.

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We had Irina Shklovski also talking

to us very honestly and openly.

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About her burnout experiences and

the process of coming back to work.

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And again, just through that we

heard about the value of having a

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supportive, collegial research culture,

because her colleagues were really

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key in helping her being able to.

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Take the time off that she

needed to heal and recover.

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And then the process of coming back

and just learning how to do enough and

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be enough and saying no appropriately.

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And continuing this theme.

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We also had Mark Reed talking about the

challenges of mental health and burnout.

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And the importance of self

compassion and self reflection

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and self care in that process.

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And he also talked about being driven

by a desire to make a difference

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and what having an impact means.

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In academia, sort of pointing to

some of the work that he's producing

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and putting out into the world.

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I often find myself since then

asking the question that he poses.

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Which is what would love do.

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And it's been an interesting

and valuable exercise.

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So thanks mark for sharing that one.

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And the laSt episode in terms of

conversation was with Katta Spiel and

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part two will be something to look

forward to in the new year and . In part

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one Katta talked about the precarities

that were discussed particularly by

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Sarah Davies in, in a previous episode.

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And what that means, the tensions

there and also Katta, engaging with

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issues around gender identity and

health all through this process.

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And the reward of the ERC

grant that's starting soon.

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And as I said, my in-betweeners were

often just reflecting on some issue

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that was raised in a previous interview.

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So in this new season, I had

tried moving to a weekly program.

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I also was in the process of moving to

a new platform, both in terms of the.

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Tools for recording the interviews

as well as for processing the audio

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and producing the transcripts.

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And also revamping the website.

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So there'll be a new website

launched in the new year.

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I think I'll be moving back to

fortnightly or giving myself permission

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to do release episodes, flexibly

between weekly or fortnightly,

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depending upon what else is going on.

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It was in hindsight or on reflection.

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A little too ambitious, given everything

else that's happening to aim for weekly,

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given that it's a team of me basically.

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And one of the reasons for it being

a little ambitious was it has been

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quite a turbulent or not turbulent,

but a year of transitions for me.

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And.

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Part of that was dealing with

a lot of uncertainties as well.

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So we talked previously about having

mandatory retirement at our university.

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So that happened for

me at end of September.

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And that was interesting.

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Just the whole.

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Emotional journey around that, as

well as the practical journey of just

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cleaning at your office and years

of things that you've kept there

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filtering through books to decide

what you keep and what you take away.

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In some ways there's shedding of

identities and then the opportunity

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to reform reshape identities.

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And I'm hoping to do that more.

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With some more consulting and

development and training work.

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Cause I think I can still contribute

and help towards making a difference in

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creating more collegial, collaborative

research cultures and enabling

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researchers to find their version

of what a good academic is as well.

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So if I look back on my 2023,

it's been a big year and I'm

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proud to be standing here today.

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Having gone through all that.

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And I.

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Would like to encourage us

all to think about what.

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When we look back on our

23, that we've enjoyed.

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Achieved survived.

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Learned.

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And to take a little bit of time

to pat ourselves on the back.

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And just sit with these achievements.

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Just for a little bit of time.

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I can give some particular prompts

that may be useful for you.

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If you want to gift yourself five or 10

minutes, just to sit maybe with a piece

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of paper and pencil, or maybe just to

sit and think, and you may want to take

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note of these questions, or you may

want to pause the recording and just

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reflect on each one as I go through them.

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So I just offer these questions

for whatever they're worth.

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They may or may not connect for you or

be relevant, but let's see how you go.

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And here are the questions.

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What three words would you use

to describe your last year?

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What are you proud of?

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What went well?

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And it could be the usual sort

of achievements that we often

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celebrate, like publications or

grants or collaborations or so on.

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It could also just be things

like we made it to the end of the

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year, met the challenges we faced.

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Or how we were able to look

after ourselves and others.

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And then when you reflect on,

when you've been at your best.

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This year, when you felt most alive, most

energized, most engaged when you've been

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most in love with what you've been doing.

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How do you reflect on that in

terms of what it says to you

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about what's important for you?

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Not for anyone else.

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What your strengths

are . What your values are

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.

When and where and how is it that you're able to have most impact.

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Because if we can reflect on these things

and identify those patterns, We could

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start being more deliberate, maybe about

making choices in the next year, that

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enable us to connect more to our values.

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Use more of our strengths, do

more of the things where we.

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We're at our best and have most impact.

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We can also reflect on what

maybe didn't go so well.

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Not in terms of blame , but

really through that.

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What do we learn from it ? What

do we learn about ourselves?

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Or what do we learn about the issues

that we were trying to address?

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And what might we take away

from these experiences?

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That we might take forward into 2024

to try to do differently next time.

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And then we can ask.

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What are we grateful for?

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And who are we grateful for?

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I

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guess there's so much in our day-to-day

life that we can take for granted.

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And whether that just be the everyday

social connections at work or family,

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whether it's our health the relative.

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Peace and safety of where we live.

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Having enough to eat.

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What are we grateful for?

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And who are we grateful for?

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The people who've been important to us.

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So just encouraging you to take

some time to stop and reflect.

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And to celebrate and savor.

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What you've achieved and think about.

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What you want to take

forward into next year?

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What you might want to leave behind.

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And what you might want

to be doing differently.

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So thank you for listening

with me for this year.

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And for the feedback that you send

in, it really makes a difference and

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makes the work that goes into this

worthwhile, knowing that it does

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connect for people in different ways.

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Because I am really committed to how we

can change academic life for the better.

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And that's a collective endeavor

and I also often talk about it.

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And so do other people indeed about it?

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Being both a top down and a bottom

up process and we can all contribute

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right where we are right now

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.

Wishing you all the very best for your holiday season.

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However you celebrate it.

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May you have time to, with to

spend with people you care about.

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To take time for yourself

to rest and relax May it be

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filled with laughter and joy.

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And see you back in 2024 and

we'll have part two of the

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conversation with Katta Spiel.

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You can find the summary

notes, a transcript and related

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links for this podcast on www.

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changingacademiclife.

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com.

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You can also subscribe to

Changing Academic Life on iTunes,

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Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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And you can follow

ChangeAcadLife on Twitter.

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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.