PhD Life: Choices, Limitations, Struggles, Solutions. A Panel Discussion

When: Friday, September 18, 1 - 2 pm Dublin Time

Where: Zoom (link sent to attendees 1 hour prior to event)

Have you obtained your PhD or are you in the process of obtaining one? Today, we witness unprecedented pressures and anxiety to succeed in research with feeble resources offered by academia. The situation is best described by Professor Dave Reay, University of Edinburgh: “The pressure to publish, make an impact, win funding, chase tenure, engage the public, shine on social media and influence policy, combined with failing experiments, lone working and rigid hierarchies, are all threats to our well being" (Reay, D. You are not alone. Nature (2018) 557:160-1).

We welcome 4 panelists to engage in this much needed conversation:

Darren Fayne: PhD researcher, Ireland's Eurodoc representative, Chairperson Trinity Research Staff Association

Laura Murphy: PhD student in Physics, committee member of TCD PhD Worker's rights group, Women in Technology and Science (WITS) Ireland executive committee member

Sarah Hughes: MS/MSc researcher, Student mental health programme manager, Union of Students Ireland

Vivian Rath: PhD researcher School of Education, IHREC Disability Advisory Committee, Convenor of TCD Staff & PhD Disability Forum

Discussion will be moderated by Dr. Susan Fetics, Co-Director and co-founder of Women in Research Ireland

Q&A from audience at the end

Event will be recorded and added to WIRI's YouTube channel