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Personal journeys of New Zealand researchers
Personal journeys of New Zealand researchers
Listen to New Zealand researchers share their personal career journey and thoughts on what progress has been made to promote diversity and what more can be done.
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Dr Serean Adams, Aquaculture Group Manager, Cawthron Institute
Dr Serean Adams manages the Aquaculture Group at the Cawthron Institute, New Zealand's largest independent science organisation which offers a broad spectrum of services to help protect the environment and support sustainable development of primary industries.
Dr Serean Adams: Written interview
The Aquaculture group comprises over 50 scientists, technicians and support staff who lead research in a range of areas including selective breeding of multiple species, shellfish hatchery production, shellfish and finfish physiology, algae production, aquatic health, open ocean aquaculture and new species development. The Aquaculture Group works closely with the NZ aquaculture industry, and collaboratively with other NZ and international researchers to provide a practical multidisciplinary approach with science excellence to help realise aquaculture’s potential in NZ. Serean is also the leader of the Shellfish Aquaculture Research Programme which encompasses much of the group’s shellfish research and collaborations, as well as biosecurity and post-harvest research.
What did you study during undergraduate through to post-doctorate?
I studied at the University of Otago. I majored in zoology for my undergraduate degree and then went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Marine Science. I continued on to a PhD in Marine Science – my thesis investigated cryopreservation of gametes and larvae of the sea urchin, Evechinus chloroticus, and of other marine invertebrate species.
How did you make the transition into a fulltime research career?
My PhD was part of a larger research programme at Cawthron. Towards the end of my PhD, I helped Cawthron write a research proposal to secure further funding in this area. I went to the UK for a post doc and then came back to be part of that research programme.
How did you find the transition? Were there any barriers in the NZ science system which may have hindered your efforts- and anything which helped?
I think I was pretty lucky to be honest – I was fortunate that my PhD was part of a research programme which meant I was involved in applied research and writing competitive funding proposals right from the get go. Also, that the leader of the programme involved me and helped me continue in my career.
What progress have you seen to promote diversity in research careers? (This includes gender/ethnicity/ and career stage)
I’ve been really supported throughout my career at Cawthron, even during the years where I was part-time with young children I was able to progress, and I’ve seen other scientists similarly supported which is fantastic – life is not all about research. Cawthron has always had a diverse mix of people but that is more noticeable now with our growth – in my group there are 10 different nationalities. More recently, we’ve been able to take on some early career researchers and it has been exciting to see the enthusiasm, ideas and energy that these people bring to our group.
What would you like to see done to encourage and assist those currently studying, towards a research career?
I’d love to see more post-doctoral fellowships and early career grants for those that are studying to help provide a career pathway - I think these need to link in with larger research programmes to have impact. Also, talent and capability development deliverables within research programmes.
Associate Professor / Manukura Māui Hudson, University of Waikato
Assoc Prof Māui Hudson is the Director of the Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato. Māui is an interdisciplinary researcher who focuses on the application of mātauranga Māori to decision-making across a range of contemporary contexts from new technologies to health, the environment to innovation.
Associate Professor / Manukura Māui Hudson: Written interview
What is your current position, and what are you researching?
I am currently the Director of the Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato. Te Kotahi Research Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute which aims to support Iwi, Maori, and Indigenous development. My research is focused on the application of mātauranga Māori to decision-making, Māori data sovereignty, and Indigenous genomics.
What did you study during undergraduate through to postdoctorate?
I completed a BHSc in Physiotherapy at Auckland Institute of Technology in 1994. I went on to complete a MHSc in Healthcare Ethics in 2004.
How did you make the transition into a fulltime research career?
I initially had a Maori Development role at ESR focused primarily on business development. Over time I was involved in developing research projects that I could also be a part of in a research capacity. My initial research interests focused on traditional Maori healing, and the interface of mātauranga Maori, science, and biotechnology. When I moved to the University of Waikato I continued to split time between research projects and research development activities. Three years ago I moved into an academic role within Faculty of Maori and Indigenous Studies primarily doing research.
How did you find the transition? Were there any barriers in the NZ science system which may have hindered your efforts- and anything which helped?
I was fortunate that much of my early career has been in research offices where I was being funded to engage and connect with Maori communities and end-users. This provided an opportunity to develop relationships and networks that have supported future research projects. This also allowed me to circumvent some of the barriers in the NZ Science system, which make it hard to get funding for Maori related research projects.
What progress have you seen to promote diversity in research careers? (This includes gender/ethnicity/ and career stage)
The Vision Matauranga policy has been in place for over 10 years now and has recently become a more prominent part of the science system which creates more opportunities for Maori researchers to be included in collaborative research projects. While there has been an increasing amount of opportunities for Maori post graduate scholarships (Masters and PhD's) there have been limited opportunities for those graduates to gain post doctoral or full time research/academic positions.
What would you like to see done to encourage and assist those currently studying, towards a research career?
It would be great if there were more opportunities for internships and scholarships to attend workshops and conferences so that they get a better understanding about the research culture and ecosystem. More support for Maori specific science initiatives and workshops (like SING Aotearoa) and programmes like Puhoro STEM Academy are necessary to increase the interest of Maori in becoming researchers. More post doctoral opportunities and stability for early career researchers would also be valuable.
Dr Siân Halcrow, Associate Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of Otago
Siân Halcrow works in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago. Read about how she transitioned into a full-time academic career and her thoughts on what we should do to encourage more diversity in science and academia.
Dr Siân Halcrow: Written interview
I am a Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago. I am a bioarchaeologist, so I study human skeletons from archaeological sites to answer central questions about human society, health and the environment.
What did you study during undergraduate through to postdoctorate?
I studied a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Anthropology starting at the University of Auckland and then moved to the University of Otago for my third year, then focused on archaeology and biological anthropology for my honours year. After that I did a PhD in the Biological Anthropology at the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago.
How did you make the transition into a fulltime research career?
I was supported by my PhD supervisor into postdoctoral work continuing my work in South-East Asian bioarchaeology. I then attained two consecutive, two-year post doctorates, and then gained a lectureship in 2010. Although researchers are often recognised for their research, that is only part of my job; I teach and convene undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and contribute services to the department, university, national and international bodies. In a precarious university environment, I believe the main reason I was able to secure a permanent job was because I gained external funding.
How did you find the transition? Were there any barriers in the NZ science system which may have hindered your efforts and anything which helped?
The transition was okay in terms of the research and teaching I had to undertake. I taught throughout my PhD and postdoctoral career and learned a lot about grant writing during my postgraduate and post doctorate work. I had my first child as a PhD student, which was challenging as she was young when I started my post doctorate research. My mentor and Head of Department understood the challenges of juggling motherhood and research, which really helped. I had my second child in 2014 as a senior lecturer. I found the transition back to work after three months’ leave was quite difficult with breastfeeding and childcare etc, and I couldn’t afford to take any more leave. I was also landed with an intense teaching load as well as having to convene three papers.
Durham University in the United Kingdom has set up a great initiative where women and men returning to work after parental leave have six months research and study leave. This is so important for supporting researchers who have been away to climb back on the ladder to where they would have been had they not taken parental leave. I talk about some of these issues on the Childhood Bioarchaeology site(external link).
What progress have you seen to promote diversity in research careers, including gender/ethnicity/ and career stage?
We have made some progress, but still have a long way to go in terms of gender equity in science in New Zealand. I was disappointed that a few years ago the Royal Society Te Apārangi decided not to adopt the Athena SWAN Charter. However, in 2018 the Royal Society Te Apārangi has set up Te Kauhuahua, an advisory group considering equity and diversity. The Royal Society also has a Diversity Policy.
Some of the international conferences that I attend have childcare provided. A great example is the American Association of Biological Anthropology, which provides free childcare at their conference venues. Childcare is a gender issue as caregiving mahi is mostly undertaken by women and is a real barrier for attendance at conferences, especially international conferences. I have talked about this on my blog(external link). The Division of Health Sciences at the University of Otago is currently trialling a childcare subsidy for parents to attend conferences, which is very pleasing to see.
I am a past co-convenor of the University of Otago Early Career Researchers Advancement Group. It comprises top early career researchers at the university and aims to promote and support these researchers. At that time funding remains the biggest issue for early career researchers, and issue has only gotten worse today. At the moment many funding grants do not provide enough funding to cover full-time salaries, which means that most institutions will not support non-permanent staff applying for these grants.
The Royal Society Early Career Research Forum is active in supporting the development of early career researchers across all areas of research in New Zealand, and I was honoured to have an opportunity to be a founding committee member. This Forum represents the national voice of Aotearoa’s early career research community and to celebrate their contributions in physical, biological, social sciences, and humanities. One of the focuses of the forum is gender and equity.
What would you like to see done to encourage and assist those currently studying towards a research career?
There should be flexible work hours for parents and those with other caring responsibilities, and more recognition of the other barriers for academic mothers. There needs to be breastfeeding rooms and storage fridges provided to staff, and universities should consider extending paid parental leave to be on par with government leave (McAllister et al. 2021).
We need to support Māori and Pacific researchers and research at our universities (see Naepi et al. for an excellent review of this issue), and put more strategic funding into supporting this research.
The Pakaru ‘Pipeline’: Māori and Pasifika Pathways within the Academy(external link)
Professor Kate McGrath, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) at Sydney University of Technology
Before her current role, Pofessor Kate McGrath held the position of Vice-Provost (Research) at Victoria University of Wellington, and previously was the Director of the McDiarmid Institute.
Professor Kate McGrath: Written interview
I am currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research). This role is the lead role in a university responsible for all research within the university, from strategy to operational, from mandatory reporting to strategic intelligence analysis. I get to know about all the research that is happening in the university and work with researchers to help them realise their research ambitions.
What did you study during undergraduate through to postdoctorate?
As an undergraduate I did a four-year BSc(Hons) degree with a major in Chemistry. I also did a lot of Math and Physics in my undergraduate. In my PhD I worked in molecular self-assembly, a then quite young subject but now explored and utilised in a wide array of research areas and commercial processes. The study of systems that undergo self-assembly to form a multitude of different structures is often thought of sitting in physical chemistry, biophysics or chemical engineering. This became my major research area and so were what I did in my two postdoctoral fellow positions as well.
How did you make the transition into a fulltime research career?
After my PhD and the two postdoctoral fellowships, I became an academic and being a researcher was a fundamental part of that role, so it was a natural growth to become a lead researcher after 6-7 years of training.
How did you find the transition? Were there any barriers in the NZ science system which may have hindered your efforts- and anything which helped?
I began my academic career in the late 1990s and things were different, there weren’t grants for people just starting out, you had to compete along with everyone else, but I was fortunate to get a couple of Marsdens early and of course that helped enormously to establish my research career. The system is enormously different now than when I started. Being an academic is vastly different as well. I think there is a greater expectation and much higher entry level into academia and being able to be successful in the system.
What progress have you seen to promote diversity in research careers? (This includes gender/ethnicity/ and career stage)
The system and different institutions now recognise and support people who are just starting out and so there are many different opportunities to help people get started. There are also many different flexibilities built into the system to allow the system to be a more inclusive environment. But I think that research and research institutions, including universities are still not as inclusive as is necessary. Considerable focus in recruitment, the environment, the expectations, and the work hours need to continue to create fuller inclusion.
What would you like to see done to encourage and assist those currently studying, towards a research career?
I think that there needs to be a much greater visibility and understanding of just how broad a research career can be. There is still too much traditional context surrounding and setting the structure of the teaching and this fundamentally needs to change.
Dr Margaret Hyland: Vice-Provost (Research) Victoria University of Wellington
Until recently, Dr Margaret Hyland was our chief science advisor from 2017 to July 2018 and a lecturer at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering. Hear Margaret talk about her experience in the New Zealand Science System and how she made the transition from studying a PhD to her career today. Margaret also shares her thoughts what is being done to encourage diversity in the science system and what we should focus on going forward.
Video Transcript
I’m Margaret Hyland, I’m Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. And I’m also an academic at the University of Auckland in the faculty of engineering.
After I finished my PhD, I applied for a range of post-doc positions. Within a couple of years, of being in that post-doc position a new lectureship came open, and I applied for that lectureship and got that lectureship.
One of the common things that women going into an academic career often think about is how you manage a family. It’s often thought of as something that works against you if you have a career, where it really adds to your career. So I learned a lot about how to manage people, how to manage expectations, how to stick to my guns about something. A lot of skills that have since that time really helped, in my career.
[MBIE asks “Where do you see progress being made to encourage diversity in science?”]
What’s good is that we’re recognising that diversity is really important. That a diverse range of views from people with different backgrounds different nationalities, men and women, you know as much diversity as we can get. That adds to whatever organisation or whatever activity you’re doing. So it’s great that we’re now acknowledging that, that there’s a real advantage to it.
I think it’s important that we make a distinction between diversity and equity. Diversity is making sure that our organisations do include a range of different people, different views, different backgrounds. Equity is where we need to be very purposeful about inclusion for groups where they may not have had the same opportunities to be included. And if we think about in our science system - where we’ve got evidence there women are really under represented, but also maori and pasifika. For a lot of structural reasons and other reasons they don’t necessarily have the same opportunities to contribute to the science system to be active researchers and therefore we do need to think particularly about those three groups and how we address the inequities there.
But the delivering on that is a lot harder. And inherent bias is one of those things that we just can’t get past. We have inherent bias when we make decisions about who to hire, about who to promote, in universities about who gets to go on academic leave, about who we’re going to fund, about who wins awards or prizes or fellowships. And although there might not be a huge bias each time, it accumulates.
[MBIE asks “What can Organisations like MBIE do to encourage more diversity?”]
I think MBIE as a funder has a really important role and I think MBIE as an employer or other employers have very important roles. I mean they’re big decision makers. Having role models is one, where if you can see people in that role who look like you, then you realise that you can do this thing. If we do that then it opens it up for a lot of other people as well.
Dr Lucy Stewart, Marine Microbiologist, GNS Science
Dr Lucy Stewart is an early career researcher and a Marine Microbiologist at GNS Science, She is also a member of the early career research forum hosted by the Royal Society.
Hear Lucy talk about her current research, how she made the transition from studying her PhD, to a full-time career in research science and what further support she feels is needed to increase diversity in New Zealand’s science system.
Video Transcript
My name is Lucy Stewart; I’m a marine microbiologist at GNS Science. At undergraduate, I went to the University of Canterbury and I did a BSc Honours in biology and I then went overseas to the US to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and I did a PhD in microbiology.
My work during my PhD studies was mostly looking at the microbiology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. So there’s are environments where because of volcanism at the bottom of the ocean, you get hot water coming out and it creates environments where special kinds of microbes live, which I studied, and I then approached someone in New Zealand about writing a post-doctoral fellowship proposal for funding for two years – to look at some hydrothermal vents which are located to the north of New Zealand and also hot springs and the microbes that grow in them, in some islands to the north of New Zealand. So the Kermadec Islands, Raoul Island and Curtis Island.
So I came to GNS with that funding for two years and then while I was at GNS I got involved with another proposal to study the microbiology of still the deep sea, but this time microbes that live in methane seeps, which where methane naturally seeps out of the ocean, and there’s microbes that eat it. And there’s proposals to mine that methane, and so I’m looking at if we did do that – what would the environmental impacts be on both the microbes that live in these areas but then the wider ecology that actually depends on microbes to provide energy for them.
[MBIE asks “What barriers did you encounter when making the transition to a research career?”]
I came to university knowing I wanted to do research science, so I was quite focused on that goal. The big problem really, both in going to the US and then coming back to New Zealand, have been the big problem for everyone which is finding funding. So to go to the US, I could only afford to do that for a PhD if it was going to be a university with a fully funded program and there are not that many of them. It’s like any job really, where you can get the job defines where you can go. And coming back to New Zealand, I was again very lucky – I got a Rutherford Post-Doctoral fellowship. They offered seven in the year I got one; normally it’s more like five. It used to be they offered a hundred a year, in New Zealand and that was the primary source, and now there’s five. So if I hadn’t got that I probably would’ve left science, just because of the limited opportunities to do the kind of work I do.
If you did your PhD in New Zealand, you really have to go overseas to do post-doc so that hugely changes the way New Zealanders do science because they are basically obliged to go overseas to get jobs and experience before they’re qualified for jobs here. And this wasn’t a problem for me, I was very lucky, but particularly for people who have family obligations or disabilities that mean it’s very difficult for them to go overseas, that’s a huge barrier.
At the University level, women are now most students. So we had about 75% female PhD students in my programme, there were only three female professors out of about fifteen in the faculty and all of them had had children in their forties, essentially because they couldn’t take time off to have kids before they had permanent jobs which they’d finally had at the university they were at.
There is a persistent drop off as people progress through their careers. And I think this is, it’s due to the same reasons that women face issues in other careers, it’s made very hard for them to integrate family life and work life.
[MBIE asks “What progress do you think there has been to promote diversity?”]
While it’s improved a lot since the mid-twentieth century, a lot of areas of academia – the people who run it are the older people who have a lot of publications. And so there’s kind of a self- perpetuating cycle where some of them are great, and some of them they pick people to mentor who look and are like them, they promote the peers of people who are like them, and so women keep coming in and trying for a few years and going – you know what I can’t be bother being the person who has to break the cycle, it’s too much work, and moving into other careers.
The places where its worked successfully and I have seen them are places where they pro-actively recruit more than one woman and more than one person of colour and give people communities. Because being the only black professor, or the only Maori professor, or the only woman on the staff is really tough.
[MBIE asks “What would you like to see to encourage more diversity in Science?”]
Ultimately in New Zealand, we just need more money in research, if we’re going to have more people in research; we have to have more money. Both institutions and academia have to pro-actively work to change the balance if they think they don’t have enough diversity. They cannot rely on merit. They have to go out there say our goal is to hire women; our goal is we’re going to hire Maori researchers.
Dr Kelly Dombroski, Senior Lecturer at University of Canterbury, College of Science
Dr Kelly Dombroski is a senior lecturer in the college of sciences at the University of Canterbury. We caught up with Kelly to ask about her journey from studying a PhD to working in the science and research workforce. You can watch Kelly talk about her experience and what she recommends to help early career researchers make the transition into the workforce.
Video Transcript
Kia Ora, My name is Kelly Dombroski and I’m currently at the University of Canterbury. I did my undergraduate degree in environmental studies, a bachelor of arts in environmental studies at Massey University, and then I did a Masters in Philosophy in development studies and then I did a PhD in Geography starting at the Australian National University, transitioning to western Sydney University. When my supervisor moved universities, I went with her. My first job was as a lecturer in geography at Macquarie University in Sydney and I hadn’t finished my PhD.
[MBIE asks “Did you encounter any barriers in your transition to a full time research career?”]
So I had two children during my PhD and my third child, I got pregnant with my third child while I was working at Macquarie University and I actually applied for my job at University of Canterbury while I was about this pregnant. Some people perceive it as being a barrier so you really have to perform yourself as being super, super competent in order to try and convince people that you can do the job. So on top of that barrier is the barrier of inadequate maternity leave. So as a PhD student, my first baby, I got no maternity leave so I had to keep studying, and then with my second I was entitled to three months maternity leave but employers or funders sometimes would judge the fact that I was a mother of a young baby as being that I wasn’t capable of being able to do what I said I would do.
Well you know I keep saying I would rather take on a mother PhD student than anyone else cause they might only have four hours on campus but they get it all done in four hours and they’re not mucking around on Facebook or anything.
I think what I found really difficult was that most of my research was in China and when I only had one child I would just take her with me. Once we got up to three children it’s too expensive to do that, and also they’re in school and stuff, so I found it was a really big transition for me to actually try and find a research topic I could do in New Zealand despite having all my research experience in China.
[MBIE asks “What progress have you seen to promote more diversity in the scientific workforce?”]
It was really good coming back to New Zealand from Australia and seeing the progress that’s been made around trying to be a bi-cultural society I think what could be done more for funding in terms of diversity is mentoring around those funding strategies. I find a lot of my male colleagues have very good mentors in research and innovation or they know a lot of older men who have had a lot of grants and they get that kind of mentoring around the beers after work or something like that. Whereas I think, especially for those of us with very young children, you don’t get that – I mean you’re in there for the four hours and you do the work and then you go home.
I think in New Zealand we think we’re very fair but often we’re not and I think we need to make a bit more of an effort to make sure that we have a diverse range of people coming into research. It’s really difficult for PhD students, especially coming from overseas. I’ve got nine PhD students and eight of them are from overseas. And when they look at who got the latest grants or who got the latest Rutherford or who got MBIE grants they don’t see people who look like them getting grants. It’s not so much about advise for those people but what we can do to support younger people coming through and I think that’s partly again trying to mentor and come alongside people. Include them on your publications co-write with them and you know when you’re putting in a grant application think about who else can you include.
You often need to include some professor to get it noticed, but who else can you bring along behind you to include in that. None of this kind of care work is part of your job description right, so you don’t have to do it officially and people aren’t allowed to ask you for it officially but there’s no way that we can change the face of science without having this kind of mentoring relationships and collectives of people helping each other.
Dr Gradon Diprose, Senior Lecturer at Massey University in the School of People, Environment and Planning
Dr Gradon Diprose is an Environmental Social Science Researcher at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. We caught up with Gradon and asked him to share his journey with us.
Gradon Diprose: Written interview
What is your current position, and what are you researching?
I’m currently employed by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research as an Environmental Social Science Researcher. I’m currently working across a variety of projects including the New Zealand Garden Bird Survey(external link), innovations for climate adaptation(external link), social return of food rescue(external link), circular economy practices(external link), urban wellbeing food and waste(external link), and reporting of myrtle rust(external link). These projects are funded through different National Science Challenges, Endeavour and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. While I work across quite a range of projects, I generally use social science research frameworks to highlight and amplify the positive work individuals, communities and government are already doing to respond to the pressing social and ecological challenges we currently face. In other words, I tend to focus on the good practices people are already doing, and how these can be evidenced, supported and resourced.
What did you study during undergraduate through to post-doctorate?
I studied a Bachelor of Social Sciences, majoring in Geography and Resource and Environment Planning, at the University of Waikato. I then did a Masters in Geography from the University of Otago, and completed my PhD in Geography at Victoria University.
How did you make the transition into a fulltime research career?
My working career has involved a range of jobs, from retail, community libraries, teaching and tutoring in the tertiary sector to working in local government as a planner. While completing my PhD in 2012 I got a part-time job at the Open Polytechnic teaching social sciences in the Bachelor of Arts programme. This was my first waged job that involved a research component. In 2018, I had a one-year fixed-term contract at Massey University, and then moved to Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research into a permanent position in 2019. Working at a Crown Research Institute means I get to focus on research full-time, which I am really appreciating.
How did you find the transition? Were there any barriers in the NZ science system which may have hindered your efforts- and anything which helped?
My transition to research-related jobs has been relatively slow and characterised by temporary and part-time contracts. Most of the jobs I’ve had since leaving planning in local government started as a fixed-term temporary contract. While there are a number of reasons for this (such as the nature of funding grants, and changes in the tertiary sector), I’ve found that this uncertainty makes it difficult to manage commitments when doing collaborative research.
If I don’t know where I’m going to be next year, it can make it tricky to manage workload and future planning. I welcomed the recent Te Ara Paerangi – Future Pathways Green Paper on the future of the science system in Aotearoa New Zealand as it highlights barriers I and others have personally experienced. I feel very lucky to currently have a permanent research role at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. What has helped is support from friends and colleagues (such as with putting funding grants together and drawing on the research resources at our respective institutions), and also supportive managers who have enabled me to focus on research and recognised this as valuable.
What progress have you seen to promote diversity in research careers, including gender/ethnicity/ and career stage?
I’ve seen and heard a lot of talk about the need to increase diversity in the research sector over the last 10 years, but the trends and statistics don’t seem very positive. The helpful stuff I’m aware of, or have been involved in, includes Te Apārangi Royal Society’s Early Career Researcher Forum(external link). In recent years, Te Apārangi and the forum have made early career researchers a priority as part of a wider focus on supporting diversity. I’ve also participated in the Tertiary Education Union’s Rainbow/Te Kahukura(external link) network events which focus on helping make workplaces and communities celebrate diversity, especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual, takatāpui, fa’afafine, transgender and intersex people. As a queer person working in the research and the tertiary education sector, I’ve found these kinds of networks really helpful in reminding me that there are other gender and sexually diverse folks around, and that we often have to navigate issues that straight people wouldn’t necessarily think about (such as interactions with research participants, how much personal information we share and who it is safe to ‘come out’ to).
What would you like to see done to encourage and assist those currently studying, towards a research career?
While I’m heartened by the networks and work in which I’m involved, I would love to see more Pasifika and Māori people moving into research careers. I’m no expert on how we create more welcoming and diverse research cultures, but I think part of it involves re-thinking quite a bit of everyday relational dynamics. I’ve been in research meetings where some Pākehā (myself included) want to get ‘straight down to business’, and don’t allow enough time for genuine whanaungatanga. As a queer person I also know that feeling of being the ‘only one like you’ in a certain context which can feel quite isolating. One idea could be to have more focused cohort-based postgraduate study for those students that feel safer as part of a learning community that has lots of people like them.
Dr Victoria Metcalf, National Coordinator of the Participatory Science Platform
Dr Victoria Metcalf currently works in the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor as the National Coordinator of the Participatory Science Platform.
Listen to Victoria speak about her background, the barriers she faced when she was studying for her PhD and what she believes we need to do to improve diversity in the science system.
Video Transcript
My name is Victoria Metcalf and my current role has the longest job title in the world I think, it's National Coordinator of the Participatory Science Platform, in the Office of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor.
In terms of my background what I did was I loved science and the arts particularly English and Latin at school but when I went off to university I decided to focus on science and I absolutely fell in love with what was inside cells and biochemistry and genetics in my first year. So I specialized in biochemistry honours in my undergraduate degree and then I decided that I wanted to keep researching and studying and so I decided to do a PhD in biochemistry.
I was always really passionate about science but I'll be upfront that there have been a lot of challenges along the way in my career. Even back to my earliest sort of research experience and doing my honours year and biochemistry I wasn't given a choice of supervisors and projects to work on. I was a top equal student in the class and the other top equal student who was a man got his first pick to work with a rock star of the department. Instead I was told that I had to work with a new academic but the reason was that I was asked to nurture and support the other two students that academic was going to be having.
Things that helped me were firstly my tenacity and my stubbornness to keep going even if I didn’t see role models ahead of me that looked like me – I’m pretty tenacious so I kept pushing through. Secondly was having the support of people around me eventually and then people just advocating for me whether I knew about it or not so maybe putting me forward for opportunities.
I think the science system has changed but I also think that fundamentally we might not be making our students who are beginning that progression through the sciences aware that there is such a diversity of roles within the sciences.
So first and foremost I think we need to ensure that we’re communicating why diversity matters and how it’s going to lead to a better economy, greater innovation, great research ideas because you have that diversity of opinion and thinking. There’s a strong need for top-down approaches and systems in place to actually change the system, to make it supportive and inclusive for everyone that wants to get involved in science which should be touchpoints, people from every sector of society.