Changing Academic Life

Geraldine Fitzpatrick
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Feb 13, 2017 • 1h 12min

Kia Höök on challenges of success & value of slowing down and re-connecting

Kia Höök is a professor in Interaction Design at KTH in Stockholm Sweden, director of the Mobile Life Centre and an ACM Distinguished Scientist. We talk about her early research career, and her experiences securing a large amount of research funding with some colleagues then co-leading a large research centre, building a culture, and managing relationships with industry partners. She also talks about how her year-long sabbatical gave her time and space to reflect on the challenges of success and to reconnect to what is important, to re-set her own rules and to re-think how she wants to engage as an academic."You end up in a situation where everything you do you do in order to be able to work more…and that is not a good life.”“All of that stuff that you get worked up about, is it really that important, or even if it is important, can I have a different attitude.”“It is about finding your core, knowing yourself, slowing down, and being more empathic with other people.”She talks about (times approximate) … [Research background]1:57 Evolving research foci from information searching to social navigation to affective computing – carving out new research areas8:57 Developing the proposal for 10 years funding for the Mobile Life research centre[Shaping and running a research centre]11:27 Learning how to interact with industry to win their funding support, what are their drivers, who to speak to15:57 Learning how to manage a large research centre, learning the hard way – IPR, growing a research group, sharing the funds among the four leaders, the challenges of cross-fertilisation across the four groups19:07 Reflections on wishing they had shared research methods across the groups more and thoughts on what they could have done instead23:17 Strong culture based on seminars, the Swedish Fika – the ‘enforced socializing’ every week -, joint trips25:07 The challenges when some of the four leaders leave and the changes in dynamics27:28 The challenges when some of the key company partners are no longer there and contributing matched funding; now knowing what to look for to see something going on with industry; being able to shape relevant research agendas29:32 Practical suggestions for how to work with industry partners, e.g., needing to communicate what the research means, connecting the dots for them (“what are we seeing that they should care about, translating that”), making everyone work for 3 months with a partner and having people from the partner sit in the research centre, joint workshops34:12 Lessons on managing people, building a culture – the challenges of having researchers from different disciplines, putting together teams based on competences and personality and creating safe creative spaces36:40 Moving from being a researcher who can control the research to being the vision person - scaling up the vision, seeing the connections, … but then losing contact with the reality of the research[The sabbatical experience – reconnecting with what is important]40:34 The amazing invigorating sabbatical experience, time for reading, writing, connecting with the passion, sitting under a tree talking philosophy – “reconnecting with why we are doing this”, why it is important44:22 Not only reconnecting with research, reading etc but reconnecting with herself; time alone, being lonely, unraveling strong personal ‘survival’ rules that were about being productive and efficient to function managing a household and work46:35 “You end up in a situation where everything you do you do in order to be able to work more”47:09 “And that is not a good life, you don’t live to constrain yourself in this way. It is not helping your creativity.” But taking time to get down from this, crash landing in Florida48:27 “I actually do believe that one can change” - now recognising the emotional state and what might be an alternative emotional state she could transfer herself into … feeling collected, slowing down, listening to very small signals in your body, the benefit of Feldenkrais at work51: 27 “What you have to remember is that all of that stuff that you get worked up about, is it really that important, or even if it is important, can I have a different attitude”52:00 Being leader, the worked-up Kia did not spread a good work environment around herself – strong bodily signals you give off – so trying to listen to the alternative self that is more collected54:21 Being flattered as an academic with invitations, awards etc but not being able to do all of it, needing to make choices, have new rules now about what to say yes and no to56:39 “You have to know why you are doing it so if you do it because you are flattered and because it’s a notch on your belt or are you doing it because you are actually learning something important or you are communicating your research or whatever. So I have to think about that.” Making people email her so that she think first before replying/agreeing or not57:42 Other changes – putting effort into the book she is writing, accompanied with the kind of exercises that connects her to what she is writing about, trying to do things she enjoys59:00 Conflict of caring for students, keeping promises and looking after her needs, needing to promise less1:00:21 Also needing to think about what the organization tells us we need to do to be a success and taking a stance about what is important, and what is enough funding1:03:19 Risk of being flattered by recognition for your work, by prizes, “but if you don’t have a core, if you don’t know why am I doing this research, what is it that I am changing in the world that I actually believe is good” … “it is about finding your core, knowing yourself, slowing down, and being more empathic with other people ... it is a much slower way to success but one I do believe in … If you don't have your core, then it doesn’t matter if you get to be the ACM distinguished whatever, that is just shallow”1:06:02 Hard to get recognized internationally when you are in Sweden, longing for that recognition, now not taking that so seriously1:07:27 The struggle that comes along with the success, the sick leave because of stress, the colleagues who aren’t always supportive or happy for successes, the gender aspects1:12:28 EndRelated LinksMobile Life Centre http://www.mobilelifecentre.orgThe first iphone was released June 29 2007.Fika: https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/fika/Lars Erik Holmquist http://blog.siggraph.org/2012/07/qa-with-siggraph-2012-mobile-chair-lars-erik-holmquist.html/Oskar Juhlin http://www.mobilelifecentre.org/people#oskar-juhlin-Annika Waern https://katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N13-228Barry Brown http://www.mobilelifecentre.org/people#barry-brown 
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Jan 20, 2017 • 1h

Cliff Lampe on the joy of academic service, faculty meetings & peer networks

Cliff Lampe is an associate professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He also plays numerous key service roles in the HCI and CSCW peer communities. He talks about faculty meetings and peer service being joyful, the importance of social capital and relationships, how he decides what to say yes/no to, how he manages his work. He also talks about concerns around the production of busyness, the push for quantity not quality, and the increasing community burden of peer review. He challenges to think about new models and to play our role in making academia work. If nothing else, he will change the way you think about faculty meetings and peer service. “Academia runs on social networks and relationship development is something we spend not enough time training PhD students to do”“Academia requires a rich heterogeneous set of people to make it work and we can all play different roles” He talks about (times approximate) … 01:45 On being a Michigan boy… building a career in Michigan04:44 On being willing to work hard and having 80 different jobs06:38 On work being its own reward… being joyful … and loving faculty meetings09:51 Being a better participant in meetings by attending to what is being talked about11:00 Experiences in coming back to Michigan as a faculty member after having been a student there15:00 Being a bad grad student by only having one paper published but being good at knowing what makes an interesting research problem18:00 His first faculty job, what was challenging eg re-establishing work-life-balance in a different way, and what clicked eg building relationships21:34 Social capital building and reciprocity in academia23:20 Taking network building out of the shadows – Phil Agre’s paper ‘Networking the network’24:42 Mentors, Judy Olson, and the generosity of senior researchers27:10 Paying it forward with his research group, advisees28:38 Various peer service roles30:10 Always being dedicated to service – “if you can do something you should do it”, loving the service work33:00 How he decides what to say yes to – and saying no to things that he thinks he won’t particularly add to or if someone else can do a better job or if he’s just not interested – working to his strengths35:32 How he fits it all in, being unwilling to rob time from his wife and son, and his practical strategies38:02 High commitment to teaching as well, doing client-based classes, and his service learning perspective – the intersection of teaching and research and service being compelling40:38 Practical strategies for managing the work, differentiating between managerial work and creative work, setting up bundles of like work in the same day, delegating and letting go44:08 The importance of humour, not taking anything too seriously, having a strong capacity to let things go – “if you project positivity everything becomes more positive; we can choose how we react to things”48:12 The problem of the “production of busyness” and the “cult of being overwhelmed”, and wanting us to slow down - artisanal craft research - where we take our time, and appreciate the heterogeneity of different types of research, the willingness to listen to each other51:38 Also concerned about the burden of review and service load for volunteers; the continuous amping up of expectations re numbers of publications that is going to break the community or degrade its quality -  thinking through options to make this more sustainable54:40 Over the next 5 years we need to fundamentally re-think how we disseminate our work55:44 What a good academic life will be, what sort of senior professor he wants to be58:02 Encouraging everyone to get involved in service and to choose how we think about service – academia requires a rich heterogeneous set of people to make it work and we can all play different roles1:00:27 EndRelated LinksWhy I love academic service: https://medium.com/@clifflampe/why-i-love-academic-service-8c7e4da19092#.dmayhcwtyPhil Agre’s article on Networking the Network: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~ksheth/astr8500/networking_the_network.pdfCliff and others serving SIGCHI: http://www.sigchi.org/people/officersCliff's article on Citizen Interaction Design: https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/november-december-2016/citizen-interaction-design 
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Jan 2, 2017 • 8min

Reflections to kickstart the new year of 2017! (Solo)

This is a very short reflection [07:55 mins] from me on 2016 and the wonderful diverse stories we have heard. And looking forward to 2017 as we continue to explore together how to create a better academic life.I would also love to hear your feedback on the podcasts so far and your ideas for what and who you want to hear about in future podcasts:            Email: gerifitz at changingacademiclife.com  or Twitter: @ChangeAcadLifeWishing all of us a balanced, authentic, vibrant, joy-filled academic life for 2017, whatever that may mean for each of us!Contributions via Twitter to end of year reflections - thanks! [marta] overall learning about career paths, hearing how everyone goes thru hard times and how they come out of it + practical tips[anna] that there's no one-way to be successful in academia. Every podcast has told a different story[anna] the power of personal stories. I feel like I know all of these people now even if we've yet to meet.[ari] The resounding wish of everyone to see more empathy in academia for everyone's struggles, choices, and circumstances.[jenny] I am loving the @ChangeAcadLife podcasis. So many interesting stories and valuable lessons to learn.
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Dec 15, 2016 • 57min

Lone Malmborg on academic performance measures, benchmarking and strategies

Lone Malmborg is an Associate Professor and heads the Interaction Design Research Group and the People and Computational Things Section at the IT University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She talks about what is happening in Denmark and ITU around performance measures for academics. She reflects on the impacts of what gets counted and how counts get benchmarked and what this means for things like publication strategies and stress levels. She also shares strategies that she has tried out in her own section to turn individual counts into cooperative activities, as well as her personal strategies. [On performance measures:] “We know that big ideas take a lot of failing but we can’t afford failing. If we’re stuck with performance measures, we have to get the foundation of the model right or fair so we’re not measuring ourselves against something completely impossible. What is giving people stress is not having given tasks, but always having tasks you can never fulfil.” She talks about (times approximate) …  01:30 Her early studies, then working, and making a decision to pursue a PhD opportunity that was offered to her; PhD on limitations of formalisations06:35 What drives her now in her research – wanting to do things that makes a difference to people, working with seniors, having agendas with a political and social part around technologies10:00 Getting funding resources for these sorts of societal challenges being easier than for basic research; Challenges with different value systems between funding agendas with expectations vs seeing seniors as resourceful people and quality of life – a fight to get this agenda on board12:37 Not being able to get the big funding for these areas in the same way as other areas of science13:48 What’s going on in Denmark now re benchmarking all research and measures at IT University (all faculty ‘have to’ spend 1 million DKK (Correction: should be 878,000 DKK) each year) but being difficult when you don’t need to spend money on expensive equipment15:34 Impacts of benchmarking of funding on culture in the university; Measurements being about efficiency, and not trusting people to do their best – introduced in all sectors; and what makes an ‘efficient academic’18:00 Started counting teaching, ‘student production’ and various bonuses eg if students graduate on time, and how this can lead to lower requirements at exams19:30 Now counting publication - all publication channels grouped into levels and credits/points for publication channels, and numbers of authors; Measuring how much people teach, publish, how much external funding they attract.21:23 Long process set up by Ministry of Science and Education; being a member of one of the groups setting up the publication channels/levels; implications for new publication venues; and difficulties arguing for HCI conferences.24:44 Creates all kinds of strange publication strategies – rather than picking exactly the right journal in terms of the topic, you pick the publication venue that gives you the highest credit; Universities then having very different ways of handling this – ITU ‘harvest’ twice a year to see points for publications, but no points or visibility for publications rejected or proposals rejected – how much work that is not recognized27:10 Very unhealthy in terms of allowing yourself to fail, risky to try out new ideas, and supports research strategy where you never fail, but good research requires a lot of failing – see the consequences of this is boring research28:35 Strategies for helping people in her section to deal with the stress – moving to a collective model to give people the feeling of helping each other out; Series of workshops with all section faculty once/year to discuss funding strategies and having access to an external company that helps write the applications; value for junior faculty to learn the process32:00 Retreat idea first invented as a paper writing retreat around a conference deadline – structured writing activities – coming with an idea and leaving with a draft paper; taking shared responsibility; value of support of external companies35:44 strategies for helping people manage stress39:40 Her strategies as head of section – writing retreat, creating new relationships between people as side benefit, changing the way people work together41:37 Personal strategies for dealing with this – having something very tangible as an output that satisfies her in another way e.g., cooking, eating together, something you can see the immediate result of43:50 Being quite seriously ill giving her a new perspective, to focus on what is important; liking her job, her colleagues, but work being never ending and able to work for 12hrs/day easily; so buying a country house after illness and being immersed in picking up the weeds or painting the house that keep her attention on other activities48:30 Going into a new managerial position and trying to make some decisions about how to be a good manager and not put stress on her colleagues; one example is avoiding sending emails to people in the evenings, also leaving office at 4:30 then people shouldn’t feel bad if they leave at 4:30; People shouldn’t work for free but can’t see how performance measures can be done in 37 hr work week51:08 Finding arguments for other ways of benchmarking our research, not against national average but other departments in our area; a way of compromising that if we have to have benchmarks, they need to be more realistic; No other area with this amount of quality control that we have – acceptance rates of conferences as a form of quality control so why do we need another one53:33 “Everybody is doing it the best they can. We are so longing for the honour of being a good researcher. It’s what drives us, we want to be the best.”54:07 We have so many ways of making sure that people are doing good work. We are just creating stress that prevents people from doing deep thoughts; We know that big ideas take a lot of failing but we can’t afford failing55:00 If we’re stuck with performance measures, we have to get the foundation of the model right or fair so we’re not measuring ourselves against something completely impossible. “What is giving people stress is not having given tasks, but always having tasks you can never fulfil. … We have to take this feeling away one way or another. … It’s so unhealthy.”57:29 EndRelated LinksLone's blog https://lonemalmborg.wordpress.com/Give&Take Project http://givetake.eu
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Dec 2, 2016 • 1h 7min

Ben Kraal on moving from academia to industry

Dr Ben Kraal recently started working as a User Experience Consultant, having chosen to leave a contract research (and teaching) position after 9 years in academia for a position in industry. He talks about his early career, doing a PhD and then working for 9 years on time-limited university contracts. He reflects on the challenge of being legible within an academic system when you are not in control of your own research agenda. And he talks about making the decision to leave academia for industry and how he is now able to be more present and engaged at home and he gets to do all the parts of his research job that he loved in his new industry role. I encourage you to also look at Ben's blog post on academic burnout and the Guardian article below that happened to also come out today. “It’s a job that doesn’t ever stop. That’s ok if you are enjoying it and I think I’d gotten to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. And my family had long stopped enjoying that fact that I had ever enjoyed it.” He talks about (times approximate) … 01:20 From degree to industry to a PhD position05:16 Going back to academia, doing a PhD at Uni of Canberra09:20 Moving cities to take a post-doc research position12:46 Working on research projects15:20 Moving into more teaching work21:15 Publishing interdisciplinary work, boundary crossing, and using an editor for papers23:15 Working on soft money, shorter contracts when soft money runs out, 26:30 Being an illegible person in the university system28:52 Making the move into industry, making the choice to stay in Brisbane31:08 Talking at a practitioner conference, taking students along, making connections, framing his expertise to be relevant to industry35:40 Telling the university, he is leaving36:53 The family’s reaction to his leaving, and getting to the point of not enjoying the work, the increasing pressure of meetings and impact on working at the weekends39:00 Now much easier being engaged, being present to the family at weekends40:25 Breaking the news to his students, colleagues, tying up final research work43:14 What he is enjoying about his new job; doing all his favourite bits from being a researcher; and the long commute48:15 Not doing email on weekends, “which is fantastic!”, because the firm doesn’t! Not doing email when he gets home; being told he looks so much happier when he comes home50:50 “The pace is faster than the university but the rhythm is more consistent.” … as an academic having multiple plates in the air, “and if you can keep them in the air someone gives you an extra plate”53:00 Will probably miss teaching - “Better at being a teaching academic than a paper producing research academic”54:40 “Because I’m illegible in the university system, I’m actually interesting in the commercial world”; Discussing the way the academic system looks for people going deeper and the challenges of being cross-disciplinary57:25 About Tom Rodden’s experience not being his experience, as Tom was able to be in charge of his own research and able to tell a coherent story, being legible into the wider system; And Marcus Foth also being able to tell a legible story; and being able to tell his own story in a way that is interesting to industry65:00 Lucky to have had long term contracts compared to others not employed for more than a year at a time “so the university can keep them in a box”67:07 EndRelated LinksBen on researching the airport of the future: an interview with Gerry Gaffney:  http://uxpod.com/researching-the-airport-of-the-future-an-interview-with-ben-kraal/Ben’s blog post “On Academic Burnout”: https://benkraal.com/2016/12/01/on-academic-burnout/Ben's review of 2016: https://benkraal.com/2017/01/01/2016-year-in-review/See also a 2 Dec 2016 Guardian article on experiences with casual/short term contracts: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/dec/02/short-term-contracts-university-academia-family?CMP=share_btn_tw Symplicit: Customer-Led Innovation Consultancy - where he is now working: http://www.symplicit.com.auPeople he mentioned:Inger Mewburn: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/mewburn-iHelen Purchase: http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/staff/helenpurchase/Vesna Popovic: http://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/popovic/Previous interviews he mentioned:Tom Rodden interview: http://www.changingacademiclife.com/blog/2016/11/2/tom-roddenMarcus Foth interview: http://www.changingacademiclife.com/blog/2016/9/25/marcus-foth 
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Nov 2, 2016 • 1h 1min

Tom Rodden on doing good work, metrics, failure, funding, and family

Tom Rodden, Professor of Interactive Computing, discusses research, insecurities, funding models, and academic family life. Emphasizes pursuing interesting projects over strategic decisions, handling academic rejections, and understanding the impact of metrics in academia. Highlights the importance of work-life balance and efficient time management in academic life.
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Oct 18, 2016 • 49min

Saul Greenberg on supervising, building a lab, creating good work life balance

Saul Greenberg is an Emeritus Professor and Faculty Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary in Canada, where he led the GroupLab, doing research in the area of HCI/CSCW/Ubicomp. He discusses his experiences picking and supervising students, strategically building a research lab and community, taking control of our own work-life balance, publication strategies, remote working, and moving into retirement. "Work will never end and it’s up to me to balance my life. [...]  The question I would ask myself is: if I said yes, which I really want to do, what should I stop doing?” He talks about (times approximate) ...02:43 Being a supervisor, how you pick good students (or not) and still learning right to the end07:05 Students finding their own topics or working on yours, growing a lab, nurturing promising students12:50 The strategic things to think about when designing/creating a lab, creating a community and a culture, and what wasn’t so successful in setting up the lab20:50 Choosing where he wanted to live to do the outdoor activities he loved, then choosing the job23:00 Tele-commuting, partitioning work, walking the talk with remote working and lessons learnt29:00 Realising work will never end, making choices, and his strategy for deciding whether to say yes or not36:00 Sharing teaching materials as a by product of making teaching easier – “you can be both selfish and give things away”38:00 How academic life has changed, increasing pressure to publish, and making hiring decisions43:20 Making the decision to retire and move into emeritus status45:30 Final tips (lots of pearls!) – no easy solutions, being strategic, scheduling time, not being driven by the next conference deadline, don’t let your work take over, don’t get into the vortex of more intense colleagues, and it’s a great job, we’re our own worst enemies48:50 EndRelated links:Saul’s Grad Tips: http://saul.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pmwiki.php/GradTips/GradTipsGroupLab: http://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/
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Oct 9, 2016 • 52min

Yunan Chen on getting tenure, the two-body experience & negotiating motherhood

Yunan Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Informatics at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) at the University of California, Irvine.  Yunan shares her experiences moving from a medical degree in China to a PhD at the intersection of medical informatics and human computer interaction in the US. She also speaks out about her tenure experiences, being part of a long distance relationship, and the struggles negotiating academia and becoming a new mother.   “We don’t talk about our stress publicly.” “Give yourself a break after the baby.” “It’s ok to be lost [after getting tenure]” She talks about (times approximate) …01:35 Moving from medical school in China to a PhD in the US09:00 Applying for faculty positions, getting applications rejected, moving to Irvine12:41 Challenges being a new faculty member, learning paper and grant writing17:20 Having great mentors19:30 Having a baby, learning about life beyond work21:10 Having a long distance relationship with a partner who is also an academic, working hard22:10 No longer being able to count on evenings/weekends for working24:00 Having a baby puts in a boundary on time, and using time more wisely25:30 The first year with the baby, after tenure27:08 Making the mistake of thinking it was still possible to be on a Program Committee, “if others can do it, maybe I can … but it turns out to be very difficult” … “First time I realised my life is forever different” … “My time is not as flexible as before”30:20 Posting to Facebook that she “just feel very tired doing this”, one lesson, “I didn’t have to do it”; Her advice “give yourself a break” and “no-one talks about the challenges”33:00 Trying to build a work-life balance and family life little by little, and moving to a bigger house and lowering expectations lower (ok if home not perfect, a bit messy) to achieve a better and happier life38:48 Experiences of a mother support group, struggling with being a good mum and being a good researcher and quitting the support group, and stopping feeling guilty41:38 Final thoughts: talk to a lot of people, we don’t talk about our stress publicly, don’t be afraid of approaching others, don’t be too harsh on yourself, things get easier43:58 Being on academic mamas Facebook group and learning from other people’s experiences48:00 Being lost after having a baby and after getting tenure, and finding what to do next, but it’s ok to be lost51:45 EndPermalink
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Sep 25, 2016 • 46min

Marcus Foth on creating a research niche and building a lab

Marcus Foth is an i/Director of the QUT Design Lab, founder and former director of the Urban Informatics Research Lab, and Professor in Interactive & Visual Design, School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology. Marcus talks about being on sabbatical, creating a research niche at the intersection of disciplines and publishing in diverse venues. He also shares his experiences of setting up a new lab and of chairing conferences.  “We need to first focus on the passion and zest of our researchers - and it’s not these bean counting KPIs, it’s the beans themselves” He talks about (times approximate) …01:41 His sabbatical experience (long professional development leave) – nice to have time to think04:10 Moving from Germany to Brisbane Australia and finding a PhD focus09:15 Finding his PhD niche at the intersection of various fields12:45 Choosing a deliberate publication strategy across different disciplines, rejecting a monolithic approach (not just think of CHI)15:55 Publishing edited books and value of the process for networking, building a new field20:45 Lessons learnt choosing a publisher23:35 Conveying the narrative of your research, helping people interpret your publication venues25:35 Starting up the Urban Informatics Lab and building a culture and identity – the value of the sign on the door29:45 Lessons learnt leading a group, needing time to grow, and promoting inclusiveness34:45 Reflecting on service roles, chairing a conference and the opportunities that come with service40:05 Lab activities and when the lab grows too big42:35 Needing more conversations about the research beans, not just counting the beans46:05 EndRelated links: Urban Informatics Lab - http://www.urbaninformatics.netReferences to his books from here - http://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/foth/Smart Cities Summer School – http://summerschool2016-smartcity.tuwien.ac.atJaz Choi - http://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/choih/Designing Interactive Systems (DIS2016) conference - http://www.dis2016.org
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Aug 18, 2016 • 46min

Katherine Isbister on finding your fit, being productive 8-5 and praising yourself

Katherine Isbister  is a full Professor in the Department of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she is a core faculty member in the Center for Games and Playable Media. Katherine talks about her experiences working on the west and east coasts of the US, and in Japan, Denmark and Sweden, and working in industry and academia. She talks about the importance of fit, being an interdisciplinary researcher, and how she lives out her commitment to work life balance.“Reflect on your productivity and praise yourself”“Make sure you’re having fun with your research practice”She talks about (times approximate) …01:05 Challenges finding a PhD topic06:10 Post-doc experiences in Japan and dealing with cultural challenges09:00 Moving to work in a start up in industry, teaching a class at Stanford on the side, and teaching becoming appealing13:45 Applying for academic jobs, moving to upstate New York, writing a book16:10 Experience of the tenure process and having wonderful mentors19:00 Moving to Denmark and dealing with cultural fit and family issues23:20 Having a baby during the tenure process26:20 Love of writing papers, wordsmithing, writing tips29:10 Dealing with different cultural contexts and politics and having a critical mass of people around you31:30 Challenges of being an interdisciplinary researcher with broad ideas, the value of mentorship, and looking for closure when things don't feel right34:25 Setting strict boundaries on family time, learning to work within 8-5 and trade-offs38:05 Week end review, trouble shooting, praising yourself and planning the next week40:35 Challenges talking to people about how many hours you work43:50 Final reflections45:30 EndFinal notes:Clifford Nass https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2trZ2IYAAAAJLaurence G. Boldt, Zen and the art of making a living, Penguin 2009. Latest book: Isbister, K., How Games Move Us: Emotions by Design. MIT Press, 2016. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/how-games-move-us

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