S6E1 Welcome to the new season

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Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

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I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick and this is a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide ideas and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively to change academic life for the better.

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Hello, and welcome to this new season of the changing academic life podcast.

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I'm really excited to be able to bring a new set of conversations and

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discussions to you over the coming months.

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As we explore together.

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What we can do to make academic life.

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More sustainable and also more fun.

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And often perversely as a side effect, rather than a primary driver, then

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also more effective and productive.

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And this is because we're doing it from a position of prioritizing

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looking after ourselves.

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Because if we're not in a good space, we're not going

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to be able to do good work.

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Of knowing ourselves better and knowing where we're most energized,

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where we do our best work.

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And that's often when we're able to really use our unique strengths and where we're

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able to line our choices to our values.

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And what's important to us.

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And so that enables us to do work where we know that we can really

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make the biggest difference.

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And so that's aligning our teaching, our research and our professional engagements.

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Towards those things, where we can make the best impact where we're

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bringing our best selves to what we do.

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And we're also able to be more effective and productive.

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Because we're looking out for each other.

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And we're working on how we can create great research cultures together.

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And great research cultures enable us to do great work.

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So to my personal situation.

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You may remember from some previous episode discussions where I've

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talked about various transitions that I've been going through.

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And one of those transitions was end of last September.

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When my permanent full-time professor position came to an end.

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And for the last 12 months now, I've been doing a part-time

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position in a different role.

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That's towards improving a better pension situation.

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And I, again, I also talked in previous episode about the challenges that come

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with mobility within the academic context.

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So that 12 months part-time for me comes to an end at the end of September, 2024.

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And that will bring about yet another transition.

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And I think it's setting up a really interesting period then of exploration

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about how my new life might play out and ways that I can continue to.

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Make a difference and contribute.

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But first.

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At this transition point.

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I'd really liked to take a bit of time right now to acknowledge and

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celebrate and thank all my wonderful colleagues in the human computer

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interaction group at TU Wien.

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Or you may know that better as technical university of Vienna and that's past

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colleagues and present colleagues.

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Because you've made it fun and you've made it great.

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And you really have contributed towards a great research culture there.

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And I've appreciated so much the support and the friendships, the

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intellectual curiosity, and energy.

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Um, and the care that you all bring to your work and to your relationships.

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I also want to thank the hCI group human computer interaction group for their

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willingness to have supported this podcast as well, both in allowing me time to

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put in the work towards the podcast.

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As well as contributing some financial support.

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Because the many different platforms and tools that I need in order to deliver

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the podcast, the costs really add up.

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And I'm grateful that in particular, that they've agreed to continues to support

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this podcast again for the coming year.

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So, thank you.

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Thinking about the transition as well.

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I'm sure I'll be doing some more reflections on this as the time goes on.

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And I do also want to just make clear that one of the things that

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I will be exploring is how I can.

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Put my work time and work efforts.

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Now more towards the things where I think I can make the biggest

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difference, which is around the changing academic life agenda and

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towards developing people and culture.

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So towards this, I'll be prioritizing work efforts on the courses and workshops and

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coaching and speaking and whatever else.

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That that will contribute to this.

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And you can read more about, or see more about what sorts of topics that I cover

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there in Geraldine, fitzpatrick.com.

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And so for that reason, if you asked me to do any reviewing or thesis

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examination or other professional work, that's more on the research side.

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I'm most likely to decline because as I said, where I am going to put

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in work effort, I will be directing it more towards these other areas

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and it's also because in this transition period, I want to

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explore what might be a good mix of work and play and just time out.

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Well, reconnecting to people and hobbies doing travel and so on.

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So I'll be really curious to see how this year, next year unfolds.

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So onto the podcast, which will be part of the work that I, I

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will continue for the next year.

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In the past season of the podcast, I was able to release 23 episodes.

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And these were a mix of some conversations and discussions with people, as well

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as some solo reflections and musings or talking about particular topics.

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And I was particularly excited in the last season to be able to celebrate

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the hundred episodes of the podcast.

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That's really amazing when I think back at the beginning and never imagined

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that it would still be going now.

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So I'm really appreciative of your support that we're still here.

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And the last episode in the last season went out in may 20 24.

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And I had planned or intended to put out more episodes as part of that season.

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But various life circumstances conspired against it, whether it

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was sickness on my part or the other person's part or travel and so on.

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So I'm looking forward to this new season that we'll be starting now and bringing

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a mix of conversations and discussions.

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As well as my own musings and reflections.

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And I anticipate that I will be putting out episodes every fortnight.

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At the beginning of last season, I did have the ambition to

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release an episode every week.

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And that just proved.

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Too much for me alongside everything else that I was trying to do.

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And I've also heard from some people that they also found it a

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little bit harder to keep up with.

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And I appreciate now that there are so many more podcasts and interesting

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content out there to consume that it can be quite overwhelming.

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So I'm incredibly grateful that you are here and still listening to this.

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So, as I said, my ambition for this new season is an episode for every fortnight.

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And I may occasionally put out a short episode in between,

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depending upon topics and relevance.

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And I will also give myself grace to sometimes fall off that schedule a

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bit, if there's too much else going on.

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So that's it by way of a short introduction to this new season.

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There will be the new website going up and then probably later end

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of this month, early next month.

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The URL will always stay the same changing academic life.com will

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always point to the current website.

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And on the new website, you will find playlists on themes and topics.

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If you want to catch up on some of the past episodes.

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And, uh, Also just to say that I have been slower than I had hoped in getting all

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of the audio transcripts up on this new platform for some of the older episodes.

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So that's still a work in progress.

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If there are any episodes where you do need a transcript or what would

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really help you in being able to consume some of the early episodes.

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Just send me an email and I can send you the transcript directly.

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And the intention is to get them all up soon for you.

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So.

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As I said, I look forward to sharing new episodes.

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With you, I look forward to hearing back from you.

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And any feedback or suggestions that you have of people to interview or

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topics to talk about and wishing everyone all the best for those of

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us in the Northern hemisphere who are starting a new academic cycle.

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And all the best for people in the Southern hemisphere, in the

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middle of academic cycles, as you see out the rest of the year.

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Take care.

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You can find the summary notes, a transcript and related

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links for this podcast on www.

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changingacademiclife.

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com.

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You can also subscribe to Changing Academic Life on iTunes,

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Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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And you can follow ChangeAcadLife on Twitter.

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And I'm really hoping that we can widen the conversation about how

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we can do academia differently.

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And you can contribute to this by rating the podcast and also giving feedback.

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And if something connected with you, please consider sharing this

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podcast with your colleagues.

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Together, we can make change happen.