Imagine our profession was built so that you could advance your career without moving all the time. Isn't this a huge piece of the equity and access problem? Yes, it is.
Science will be more inclusive and equitable when we stop expecting people to uproot their lives every few years
This is ultimately why I left. I didn't want to uproot my family multiple times for postdocs that might lead to a tenure track position at a third (?), fourth (?) location. As a first gen academic, this expectation always seemed bananas to me.
Wouldn't normalizing *not moving* be damaging for people who *don't live* near major academic centers? Surely the locals have an advantage, and if a large percentage of PD are local, how much of a chance would the outsiders have? I'm not saying things are ideal now, but every policy has costs.
I no longer have it in me to uproot my life and rebuild my support network every three years. It's exhausting and eats up so much time I could be spending on the things I'm actually payed to do.
I can imagine this vividly. I don’t know if there’s an answer - the more refined your expertise, the rarer the opportunities that quite suit it.
This was one of the biggest factors in why J and I both left academia - as bad as it is when just one partner is an academic, it’s somehow more than doubled if both are. Industry is, strangely, much more forgiving of “I have a life outside work”. Mostly that’s a condemnation of academia.
Forgot the 🧪 again. Science!
I would add that if you have any non-standard health needs, having to find & break in a new health team every few years is exhausting
One of the barriers we encountered with underrepresented folks pursuing PhDs was acceptance to a uni nearby. Often people had caregiving responsibilities or child care support that rooted them and/or moving costs were too high.
A complement to "recruit locally" is to find and support ways for people who need/want to work remotely to do so (obviously easier with some types of work).
Ive been thinking a lot about this in the lens of “needing to” change institutions for a postdoc. NSF is looking to increase pd diversity but also if you’re not able to pick up and move across the country then sorry, no pd $! God forbid I have a great PI & project & healthcare here so want to stay