5 grad students walk into a bar

Charu Mehta (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
CM Manasvi (University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology)
This session was offered as part of 2021 Inclusive SciComm Symposium. For more information, visit inclusivescicomm.org/2021symp...
Abstract: Five grad students walk into a bar' is a podcast initiative by The Cosmic Treehouse - a community of science enthusiasts to facilitate conversations around experiences, concerns, and lives of graduate students engaged in scientific research to be launched in July 2021. The two hosts are Indian women in science and research who have faced multiple challenges of their own during grad school (Ph.D. or Masters). The primary motivation for this initiative is the fact that graduate students are highly overworked, grossly underpaid, and have a 10 times greater likelihood to suffer from anxiety and depression compared to an average population (www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4089) and these numbers may be worse for graduate students in low-income countries. Institutional support for graduate students is underwhelming. Due to the organizational structure in universities and research institutions where one's career is highly dependent on reference letters, there is not much graduate students can do to get out of the vicious cycle of oppression. Our goal is to build a community of graduate students to provide support, career development, engage in conversations around equity and inclusion, mental health, and work-life balance. We especially want to reach out to graduate students from low-income countries and connect them with mentors and build a healthy support system. We would greatly appreciate an opportunity by Inclusive SciComm to expand our reach to their community and help us build our own.
This networking session was sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion and the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science & Technology.