Objectives:
- To learn and practice concrete skills for supporting peers, like validation
- To debunk misconceptions about the jobs post-Ph.D.
Pre-class work:
- Mental health in academia (part 2)
- Read: Validation in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
- Provide an example of an invalidating conversation/experience you have had so far in your Ph.D. (or in your life). What made it invalidating? How could that conversation have been more validating?
- Provide an example of a validating conversation/experience you have had so far in your Ph.D. (or in your life). What made it validating?
- Why are we asking you to learn about validation? What about this technique from DBT is important in a research community?
- Life after the Ph.D.
- Have you thought at all about what you might want to do after the Ph.D (no worries if not – you have a lot of time)? If so, what are you thinking about?
- Read: The Jobs I Didn’t See: My Misconceptions of the Academic Job Market by Evan Peck. Following the same analysis in the article, what would make you happy in the next stage of life / what are you looking to prioritize?
- Read: Most Ph.D.s aren’t professors. Everything one can do other than be… by Amy J. Ko. Are there any jobs on this list you’ve not considered before? If so, why do you think that is?
In class: [slides]
- [10min] Socialize
- [10min] As a group, what did folks take away from last class’s pre-class work about depression and anxiety?
- [60min] Present the concept of validation, present students with scenarios to respond to in groups. As a class, deconstruct students responses by carefully examining what the language implies to the listener, and whether it will have unintended (invalidating) consequences.
- [35min] Life after the Ph.D: What things might you look for in a job? Discussion of academia vs. industry, different types of academia, types of jobs students may not have thought about before, etc.
- [5min] In-class survey: what did students take away from today’s class?
Example Scenarios
- Your Ph.D. peer has been working on a problem set (that you already finished) and has been struggling to finish it. They’ve compromised their sleep, research, work/life balance in order to try to finish it.
- You’re working with a junior student. They came back last week with a ton of plots, none of which make sense to you, and upon some discussion, you realize these plots are not relevant to the project / aren’t what you agreed on last time.
- Your friend who is graduating has multiple job offers at all the places you want to get a job. Instead of being happy, they seem really stressed out and upset that they have to make a decision.
Tips
- Before responding, pause and think: what does your choice of words imply about the listener?
- Ask open-ended questions
- Summarize what was said, repeat it back, and ask if that was correct?
- “Read minds” – see if you can “guess” how they feel, and ask if they agree/disagree?
- Practice non-judgemental body language
- Replace words such as “but” and “however” with “and”, and “in addition”
- Do not offer advice, unless you’re asked to, or unless you explicitly checked that this is what they want