Finding Community as a PhD Student with Jen Leigh

This week’s episode picks up on some of the themes from last week in terms of negotiating caring responsibilities alongside completing research work but it also explores the importance of supporting diversity and inclusion in academia.

Jen Leigh is a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice within the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Kent and, amongst many other things, the Vice-Chair (People) of WISC (Women in Supramolecular Chemistry).

In this episode Jen talks about her journey through two very different PhD experiences and what she learnt about the importance of choosing a good supervisor and of having a supportive community around you.

Jen outlines the work of WISC and explores the equality, diversity and inclusion issues that the association addresses through activities such as mentoring schemes and skills workshops and we discuss this as a model with the potential to be rolled out into other disciplines - bring on the revolution!!

Here are some helpful links:

WISC's website www.womeninsuprachem.com

The essay in Angewandte Chemie https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202015297

WISC tweets as @suprachem with a dedicated public engagement account @labXX 

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