The Resilient Researcher – Details, episodes & analysis

Join us for a brand new episode to bring in the new year!

This month, we sit down with Shivanka Gautam to discuss her research on ecological grief.  Shivanka recently completed her MSc in Global Mental Health and Society from the University of Edinburgh. Her research focused on experiences of ecological grief and the politics of mourning beyond the human.

She is interested and passionate about the climate change - mental health nexus as well biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and justice.

In this episode we cover the definitions of ecological grief; how ecological grief differs from regular grief; anticipatory grief in relation to climate change; mourning and how it manifests; ‘othering’ nature as non-mournable & colonialism and capitalism in regards to climate change and nature.

Resources:

Aldo Leopold Quote

Val Plumwood:-Feminism and the Mastery of Nature

Amitav Ghosh- The Nutmeg’s Curse

Sidney W. Mintz- Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

Shivanka's LinkedIn Profile

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This month, we delve into the unsettling evolution of 'incel' philosophy with Dr. Filipa Melo Lopes, a respected lecturer of Sociology and Political Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Filipa grew up in Portugal and received her B.A. from Simon Fraser University, in Canada.

She completed her PhD at the University of Michigan and joined the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer in 2019. Filipa’s areas of research include feminist philosophy, social theory, sexual ethics and the work of French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir. 

'Incel’, short for 'involuntary celibate', refers to an online subculture of predominantly men, who desire a romantic or sexual female partner but claim to be unable to find one. Their vitriolic language in online forums has fuelled a series of violent acts against women in recent years, including the 2014 shooting carried out by Elliott Rodger in Isla Vista, California.

In this episode, we chat with Filipa about how she came to study incel ideology and what fascinates her about its portrayal of modern masculinity. We explore Filipa’s in-depth analysis of Elliot Rodger’s misogynistic manifesto, Kristen Roupenian’s sensational piece Cat Person, modern misogyny and how lives in digital spaces, critical compassion for ‘difficult’ groups, processes of ‘othering’, victimisation and male fragility, and more!

References:
 My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger

'Half victim, half accomplice’ : Cat Person and Narcissism (2021)

Incel violence and Beauvoirian otherness (2023)

Cat Person -Kristen Roupenian (2017)

The Second Sex- Simone de Beauvoir

Filipa Melo Lopes' Website

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This month, we're joined by Lisa Abramson for an illuminating conversation around the pitfalls of perfectionism. Lisa is a speaker, coach, and leading authority on mindfulness, burnout prevention, and developing a resilient mindset. Her book Permission to Fail: The Overachiever’s Guide To Becoming Unstoppable breaks down the challenges facing overachievers and introduces five key strategies for developing a resilient mindset. We chat with Lisa about the pressure to succeed for academics and researchers; the downsides of perfectionism and how it inhibits action and blocks creativity; self-compassion and its role in developing resilience; the pain that comes from invalidating our own suffering and obstacles to compassion when working in environments where one is exposed to extreme forms of suffering. Listen all the way to the end where Lisa shares few easy exercises that you can try at home!


RESOURCES:

You can learn more about Lisa and her book on her website. Lisa's TEDx Talk on her experience with postpartum psychosis is available here, and her book Permission to Fail: The Overachiever’s Guide To Becoming Unstoppable is available on Amazon, in paperback or audiobook format.  Megan references F*ck Up Nights, venues where people can share their mistakes in a forgiving and supportive environment. Lisa mentions a similar exercise around 'Oops Moments', introduced by Sarah Blakely at her company Spanx.


If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review!

You can also subscribe to BeDo’s quarterly newsletter for exclusive updates about upcoming episodes and events.

Is there a topic you'd like to see covered? Know someone we should talk to? Get in touch at hello@gowithbedo.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Happy listening!

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Something special for the holidays! In this December's two bonus mini episodes, Daillen and Megan reflect on BeDo's recent workshops delivered in partnership with the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences (SGSSS).

Research shows that climate change poses a credible challenge to global mental health. 'Climate distress' encompasses a vast range of challenging feelings and psychological responses to our rapidly changing environment—from eco-anxiety, to climate doom, to solastalgia, and everything in between. In this episode, we review our recent workshop on the subject, including manifestations of climate distress and compassionate, mindfulness-based strategies for resilience.

RESOURCES:

We mention The Lancet's recently published study on climate anxiety among youth from around the world, as well as the Climate Psychology Alliance and their treasure trove of helpful resources. Plus, they offer three free counselling sessions to anyone struggling with climate-related mental health challenges.

Megan references Wilcox's (2012) paper on Inuit practices of grief and mourning for environmental loss. You can get a daily dose of positive climate news delivered to your inbox via Harvard's newsletter The Climate Optimist. And last but not least, check out the work of Joanna Macy, particularly her book Active Hope, for a powerful reflection on the necessity of hope and intention as it relates to the climate crisis.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review!

You can also subscribe to BeDo’s quarterly newsletter for exclusive updates about upcoming episodes and events.

Is there a topic you'd like to see covered? Know someone we should talk to? Get in touch at hello@gowithbedo.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Happy listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Something special for the holidays! In this December's two bonus mini episodes, Daillen and Megan reflect on BeDo's recent workshops delivered in partnership with the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences (SGSSS).

What does it mean to build rapport with research participants? In this episode, we explore academic and practical understandings of the rapport-building process, and the ethical dilemmas embedded therein. Our original workshop curriculum on Building Rapport proposes a compassionate, trauma-informed approach to data collection, and addresses researchers working in the field as well as those conducting remote research. We look at power asymmetries and the inevitable hierarchy of 'doing' rapport; verbal and non-verbal forms of communication; how our nervous systems influence one another through processes of co-regulation; and applied techniques to establish trust and make participants feel seen and heard, including reflective listening and more.

RESOURCES:

We draw upon King & Horrocks' (2010) defintion of rapport, as well as the power assymetries inherent in the rapport-building process discussed in Heintzman et al (1993). Oakley (1981) addresses the problematic, history of rapport building and its reputation for being hierarchical and non-reciprocal. You can learn more about mirror neurons via this podcast episode from Stuff You Should Know by iHeart Radio.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review!

You can also subscribe to BeDo’s quarterly newsletter for exclusive updates about upcoming episodes and events.

Is there a topic you'd like to see covered? Know someone we should talk to? Get in touch at hello@gowithbedo.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Happy listening!

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This month, we chat with Dr. Alex Gapud, a cultural and organisational anthropologist, who received his doctorate in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, where he was also a Teaching Fellow. Alex is a two-time, University-wide, award-winning tutor, and his mission statement is 'to make work not suck for people.'

In our conversation with Alex, we use the emergent term 'quiet quitting' as a jumping off point for broader discussion around work-life balance within academia. We touch on Alex's doctoral research on legacies of colonialism in the United Kingdom; the challenges of maintaining a healthy relationship to work as a social science researcher; the unhealthy normalisation of unpaid labor in today's economy; the need to redefine productivity; the role of supervisors in encouraging healthy work-life balance amongst their supervisees; and the politics of postdocs and alternative employment opportunities post-PhD.

RESOURCES:

You can read more about Alex's work on his forthcoming website Anthropology at Work (launching late November 2022), or on his LinkedIn where he regularly publishes articles and opinion pieces. He has also published a piece on imperial trade legacies in Bristol, available here.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review!

You can also subscribe to BeDo’s quarterly newsletter for exclusive updates about upcoming episodes and events.

Is there a topic you'd like to see covered? Know someone we should talk to? Get in touch at hello@gowithbedo.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Happy listening!

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This month, our guest is Purbita Sengupta, an analyst at  Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). She works with the international team at the artificial intelligence (AI) hub that supports Canada's global engagement, both bilateral and multilateral, on AI governance. She is also completing a PhD at the University of Toronto, studying the political economy of policymaking in liberalized India by examining three national urban renewal missions. Purbita and Megan met as research fellows at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

We chat with Purbita about fieldwork safety and gender dynamics while conducting fieldwork; field research during COVID; her research on urban renewal in India and the public sector push to develop ‘smart cities’; tech policy and responsible use of AI; inclusion, equity, and representation in tech across the Global North and the Global South; evolving definitions of decolonization in qualitative research; structural challenges to decolonizing knowledge production; positionality as a woman of color in academia; ethics in processes of consent; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the public sector or lack thereof.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review!

RESOURCES:

Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s (1999) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples is available here.

Purbita is a member of the Racial Equality Network.

Is there a topic you'd like to see covered? Do you know someone we should talk to? Get in touch at hello@gowithbedo.com. We'd love to hear from you. Happy listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.