Navigating power hierarchies and nurturing partnerships

© CERes

Target group: doctoral and postdoctoral researchers

This workshop aims to uncover both unconsciously nontransparent and deliberately hidden information about pursuing a career in academia, providing participants with valuable insights into the scientific system. It is designed to encourage and empower researchers aspiring to academia to navigate the hierarchical and competition-driven scientific community effectively and proactively, using personalised strategies. Combining trainer input with interactive, hands-on activities, the workshop will enable participants to reflect on their experiences with hierarchies and competition. The goals are to help them identify available resources and opportunities to overcome personal challenges and boundaries.

This workshop will cover:

1. The different career pathways towards Academic Independence: A systemic overview of the German academic system and its typical challenges and opportunities
2.  Confusing entanglements and contradictions: Traditional power principles with both corresponding privileges and related cultural and structural hurdles
3. The relevance of visibility, networks and micropolitics in terms of individual career success

Objectives:

  •  Have more transparency about the possible trajectories towards academic independence or a permanent position in the science sector in Germany

  • Learn how formal structures and implicit rules and biases of the German academic system influences individual researchers (i.e., privileges and marginalization, transparent and nontransparent rules, experienced injustice, bias, discrimination, competition, lone wolf mentality, exclusion)

  • Learn how to integrate the knowledge of diverse aspects (e.g., gender, culture) into personal way of behaviour and communication

  • Be better able to implement self-presentation and networking tips, supporting personal career success

Requirement: B2 level of proficiency in English. Participants will be forwarded a questionnaire related to the topics of the workshop two weeks before the workshop. After the reflection and a week prior to the workshop, they send their responses back to the trainer.

Facilitator: Dr. Silke Oehrlein-Karpi (KTE Coaching)

Diese Veranstaltung findet in englischer Sprache statt. // This event will be held in English.

Registration