Academic Aunties

We talk about Turning Red, the newest Pixar film, directed by Toronto filmmaker Domee Shi, about a thirteen year old Chinese Canadian girl, Meilin Lee, who finds out that when she gets emotional, she turns into a big, red panda. Meilin also has to navigate life as a middle schooler and all that this entails, which includes learning how to manage her crushes, bullies and strict parents. Turning Red...

Conference season is almost upon us! And man oh man, do we have a lot to say about academic conferences. Conferences are a crucial part of academics’ professional trajectories. In theory, these are the spaces where we’re supposed to present our work, engage with scholars in our field to make potential contacts for collaborations, and to find out new ideas that can help inform our own work! And yet...

On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie, Dr. Alison Smith ( @AliSmith_UdeM ), Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga, tells us about some of her tips and hacks to stay afloat amidst our competing responsibilities. Have a question? Tweet us at @AcademicAuntie , or send us an e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com .

When we think about academic relationships, we often think of romantic partnerships between two academics. We might also think about the power relationships between, say, a supervisor and a student, or a dean and a professor. But we often don’t think about our research collaborations as an important kind of relationship. That’s surprising because research collaborations are, arguably, the mos...

We're talking about Encanto, the newest Disney animated film, featuring songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, about a magical family living in the mountains of Colombia. Why are we talking about a kids movie on a podcast about academia? Well, first, because we loved the film. Second, our aunties, Natasha Sofia Martinez ( @natysofia_ ) and Dr. Mariam Georgis ( @mariamgeorgis ) have plenty to say about inter...

On Part II of our pandemic parenting series, we talk to Dr. Yolande Bouka ( @YolandeBouka ), Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University. In this episode, we talk about how the pressures of being a parent in academia, and in a pandemic, are hitting us personally. Auntie Yolande talks about prioritizing our health and our needs. In doing so, we are modelling to...

We're talking about Pandemic Parenting. We will be talking about the compromises we’ve had to make, the hard decisions we’ve had to take, and also, more importantly, the reminder that we are enough and that blaming ourselves for not being able to be as ‘productive’ means that we let structures off the hook. In Part I of our 2 part pandemic parenting series, we're talking with Dr. Sheila Colla (@ S...

On this extended year-end episode, Dr. Rita Dhamoon, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, and Dr. Nisha Nath ( @nnath ), Assistant Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University grab a few drinks with Dr. Ethel Tungohan to talk about remembering who you are outside of the academy, rebuilding your strength, and how maybe it's the ins...

Oh advice. It seems like you can’t turn a corner without someone telling you how you’re professor-ing or grad schooling wrong. Sometimes it’s a colleague. Sometimes it’s a random person on social media. Sometimes it’s sought for, but usually it’s unsolicited.  On this episode, we’re breaking down academic advice. What makes for good advice? And why is bad advice...so bad? And why is it that s...

On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie, a listener asks "how do you maintain a sense of peace in the face of such enormous stress?" Joining us to answer this question is Jennifer Chouinard ( @JenniferChouina ), a PhD student in Public Policy at the University of Regina. Have a question? Send a voice message to #AskAnAcademicAuntie at academicaunties.com/ask , tweet us at @AcademicAuntie , or send us an e-ma...

We talk a lot about toxic work environments and strategies of survival. But there are moments when you just have to leave. And that is what today’s episode is about. It is sometimes hard to figure out when to stay or when to go. A lot of us are trapped. A lot of us are in situations where we know that we’re being bullied, that we’re being set up to fail, that we’re not valued. But even as we know...

This is #AskAnAcademicAuntie, our bonus mini-episodes where we take your questions and try to impart a little auntie wisdom. Have a question? Send a voice message to #AskAnAcademicAuntie at academicaunties.com/ask , tweet us at @AcademicAuntie , or send us an e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com . On this episode, an anonymous listener asks: “How do I pay my gratitude to my supervisor who has bee...

Season 2 premiere! We take a deep dive into The Chair, the new Netflix series starring Sandra Oh about the first woman of colour chair of the English department at the fictional Pembrooke University. Everyone (or at least all academics!) are talking about this new show, created by Amanda Peat and Annie Julia Wyman, and we have lots of thoughts, from the moments that resonated with us to why many a...

On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie bonus episode of Academic Aunties, Dr. Shaista Patel joins host Dr. Ethel Tungohan to talk about "playing the game" in academia in order to get out and find a place actually respects us. 

How do you maintain your 'voice' as a writer and instructor when academic institutions expect particular structures, tones, and writing styles? And how do you maintain space for creativity and joy when doing work that is draining? Dr. Tobin Haley Leblanc joins us for our first #AskAnAcademicAuntie mini-episode.  Mentioned in this Episode: Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education by J...

(Season finale) This was supposed to be a light episode. It's hot, it's been a long year of COVID and we all need a break. But it seems as though we're never given a chance to just be . From the fatal Islamaphobic attacks against a family in London, Ontario to the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at Canada's residential schools to the anti-Asian shootings in Atlanta...

This is probably my most personal podcast of this series. I'm chatting with my good friends, Dr. Jessica Soedirgo , Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam and Dr. Hae Yeon Choo , Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, about our assorted encounters with anti-Asian racism. From seemingly benign encounters that show how the academy doesn't...

For many women of colour, life in academia feels like a constant fight. As Dr. Rita Dhamoon writes, racism is a workload issue. So, when do we sit down and when do we fight back? And how do we keep fighting in the face of such intractible systemic hostility? In this episode of Academic Aunties, we talk to Dr. Debra Thompson (Associate Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Rac...

Why are there so many in academia? Does the institution attract them or does the institution make them? What is institutional gaslighting? And how do we care for each other in this often toxic space? In this episode, we chat with academic aunties, Dr. Nisha Nath , an Assistant Professor of Equity Studies at Athabasca University, and Dr. Mariam Georgis , a SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the...

Academia. A-CAAAHHH---DEEEMM--AIYA! ACA-DEEM-YAAHH. It is a site of exclusion. For those of us who are first-generation, who are racialized, who are women, and who inhabit social locations that are traditionally unrepresented in this space, academia is full of landmines. This is why we need academic aunties. This podcast will talk about how to navigate this treacherous world and maybe even plant s...