GATES CAMBRIDGE
Events & Informati on | Oct - Dec ' 20
MICHAELMAS '20 A Gates Cambri dge Ini ti ati ve
LEARNINGFORPURPOSE@GATESCOUNCIL.ORG
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C O N T E N T S
LETTER FROM THE CO-DIRECTORS
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THEMES EXPLAINED
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EVENT LISTING
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IMPOSTER SYNDROME & WELL-BEING
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TEACHING UNDERGRADS
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INTRO TO DATA ANALYSIS RISKY RESEARCH IN FRACTIOUS TIMES
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INTERNAL SYMPOSIUM
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TECH & ACCESSIBILITY
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STAYING UP TO DATE & REGISTERING
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RESOURCES -- CAMBRIDGE
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RESOURCES -- EXTERNAL
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LETTER FROM THE CO-DIRECTORS Dear Scholars, We hope you are all safe and coping during this highly unusual start to the new academic year. As your LfP co-directors, our main goal is to support you, as best we can, in the months to come. Learning for Purpose is a Gates Scholar-led programme with the goal of equipping all members of the community with skills to achieve their unique purpose. We want to help you access wider opportunities and create a fuller, more varied experience of Cambridge. This mission takes on added challenges in the current atmosphere and we are working to deliver a series of events that addresses some of these challenges. Our plan for this term is to provide a more targeted array of personal and professional development training options, including live remote workshops, scholar-led panels, and events arranged around core themes. Our themes for this year -‘Hidden Curriculum’, ‘Engaging Broader Audiences’, and ‘Personal Development, Social Transformation’ - attempt to recognise the moment in which we find ourselves while also imagining ways to move forward. Part of this is recognising that while the challenges of the pandemic will affect all scholars, they will also affect every scholar differently. Some may want to spend time remotely learning new skills, and may feel motivated to explore spaces outside their usual lab, archival, or field-based work. Others may be frustrated by the pressure to be as productive as usual -- or even more productive -- during an extended time of stress and uncertainty. LfP aims to validate all perspectives and experiences, and support scholars wherever and however we can. We truly hope that you enjoy the content we’ve prepared for this term, that LfP is a positive contribution to your Gates Cambridge journey, and that we are able to support you in your commitment to improving the lives of others and giving back to the societies in which we live, work, and learn. As council members, our efforts are directed by feedback gathered through yearly surveys, event feedback, and direct suggestions to the co-directors. If you have suggestions to improve our programming or ideas for what you’d like to see included, please feel free to get in touch! We hope to see you, and to welcome you back, before long. Warm wishes, Anna Guasco & Avani Tandon Vieira
events, themes, & trainer bios
T H E M E S This year, LfP is introducing thematic groupings of events. Each event will tie into one of three key themes: Hidden Curriculum Some have described academia as having a ‘hidden curriculum’ - things you’re supposed to know, or figure out, without anyone telling you. This ‘hidden curriculum’ can be very exclusive, limiting participation in academic communities to a select few. If you simply don’t know what the rules of the game are, it’s almost impossible to win. The hidden curriculum can include everything from discipline-specific topics to broader questions about timing and connections (being at the right place at the right time) in academic spaces. How can you learn about the right opportunities for you? What kind of work experience should you strive to have? Where and how often should you be publishing? LfP aims to unveil the ‘hidden curriculum’ through workshops, panels, and training opportunities that provide guidance to help shape your academic journey.
Engaging Broader Audiences Public engagement and research communication are important aspects of becoming an impactful researcher. In collaboration with Year of Engagement, LfP will provide training on how to engage broader audiences -- looking beyond the standard academic publication to wider modes of communication with various publics. Simultaneously, we will engage with what it means to be publicly-engaged as a researcher, and how to communicate with broader communities effectively and ethically. Events under this theme will help scholars imagine new platforms and audiences for their research while also highlighting the many innovative tools and mediums that can help them accomplish this.
Personal Development, Social Transformation Pursuing a graduate degree at Cambridge is challenging for many reasons, and LfP aims to support scholars in building supportive and resilient communities during their time here. We recognise that personal well-being and development are inextricable from social and community transformation - to fulfill the Gates Cambridge mission of ‘improving the lives of others’, we must also support our personal development and reflection. In recognition of this principle, this theme explicitly connects the personal and the collective. The workshops and training opportunities under this theme aim to support scholars in developing the skills they will need to build resilient, healthy, and just communities.
E V E N T S
12 OCT, 5 PM
IMPOSTER SYNDROME & WELL-BEING IN ACADEMIA Trainer: Dr Caitlin Hitchcock
27 OCT, 10 AM & 5 PM
TEACHING UNDERGRADUATES AT CAMBRIDGE Scholar-led panels
2 NOV, 5 PM
INTRO TO DATA ANALYSIS: R, MATLAB, & PYTHON TASTER SESSIONS Scholar-led panel & demonstrations
13-14 NOV
LFP @ INTERNAL SYMPOSIUM Speaker training workshop, scholar panels, & keynote
30 NOV, 5 PM
RISKY RESEARCH IN FRACTIOUS TIMES: RESEARCH ETHICS & COMMUNICATIONS Trainer: Dr Jonathan Corpus Ong
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IMPOSTER SYNDROME & WELL-BEING IN ACADEMIA Imposter syndrome refers to an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. In other words, that you do not belong because your achievements are inauthentic or accidental. As scholars entering a community where your peers are highly qualified, you may find yourself second guessing your worth. This is far from an uncommon experience. Neither is it the only mental health challenge that university students face. Rates of depression and anxiety reported by postgraduate students are six times higher than in the general population. But while these challenges are real, they are a number of approaches that can help you tackle them. In this workshop, Dr Hitchcock will discuss imposter syndrome and other thinking traps which academics can often fall into, and provide guidance on how you can cope with these factors in your own life. She will also cover the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in postgraduate students, and provide concrete strategies for managing your own mental health as you start your studies in this unusual time. This workshop will also acknowledge the ways in which experiences of imposter syndrome are shaped by broader institutional structures, and strategies for addressing these systemic challenges.
Trainer Bio Dr. Caitlin Hitchcock is a clinical psychologist and senior scientist at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Her research investigates the cognitive processes that contribute to the development and maintenance of emotional disorders. Through her work, she seeks to advance understandings of the cognitive mechanisms that drive emotional disturbance, and draw from experimental cognitive science to develop novel therapeutic interventions.
TEACHING UNDERGRADUATES AT CAMBRIDGE What is the difference between supervising, lecturing, and demonstrating? What is a DOS? What does it mean to supervise undergraduates? What is a tripos? What is the role of the college in undergraduate education at Cambridge? How do you find out about supervising opportunities? Where do you get training? If you find the landscape of undergraduate teaching at Cambridge confusing, you are not alone! Pursuing teaching opportunities is an important part of planning for a career within or outside of academia, but it can be very difficult to navigate the Cambridge undergraduate teaching system -- especially if you did not complete your own undergraduate studies at Oxbridge. In these panel-based sessions, Gates Cambridge PhD Scholars will discuss the complexities, intricacies, and challenges of teaching undergraduate students as graduate students. From strategies for running a great supervision, to questions about training, logistical challenges, and equity concerns, these scholars will begin to illuminate the often-confusing world of graduate student involvement in Cambridge undergraduate education. These sessions will focus primarily on ‘supervising’ (the most common form of graduate teaching), but will also address other forms of teaching. Although our focus is on supervising at Cambridge, we invite all scholars who are interested in learning about teaching and higher education! We have planned two sessions: one in the morning, and one in the evening, to accommodate live participation for scholars in different time zones. You are absolutely welcome to attend both sessions, as the different sets of panelists will have different experiences.
Panel 1 (10 am) Avani Tandon Vieira (moderator) Lily Bentley Davide Martino Harum Mukhayer Greg Serapio-García
Panel 2 (5 pm) Emma Soneson (moderator) Lena Dorfschmidt Jessica A. Fernández de Lara Harada Anna Guasco Malavika Nair
Panelist Bios Lily (2017) is a 4th year PhD student in Zoology, and currently teaches first and third year Cambridge students in evolution, ecology and animal behaviour. She has also taught on field ecology study programs in Australia and the UK, and developed workshops on R coding for undergraduates and postgraduates. Lena (2018) is a 3rd year PhD student in Psychiatry. Her supervision/teaching experience includes supervising for Intro to Computer Science at a prior university, supervising on the Cambridge Psychology tripos (Neurobiology/Statistics, and a Cognitive Psychology course), teaching on summer courses in Cambridge, and teaching with the Brilliant Club. Jessica (2016) is a final year PhD Candidate in Latin American Studies. Her research examines the history and legacies of trans-Pacific migrations, national discourses on racial mixing, and the experiences of Mexicans of Japanese descent particularly from 1897 to the present. Jessica teaches on the MPhil module Race, Racism and Anti-Racism, in the Centre of Latin American Studies, and supervises for POL2 International Conflict, Order and Justice. Previously, Jessica has also supervised for Soc3 Modern Societies II: Global Social Problems and Dynamics of Resistance and Soc11 Racism, Race and Ethnicity, in the Department of Sociology. Anna (2019) is a 2nd year PhD student in Geography and co-director of LfP. She supervises on a 1st-year undergraduate human geography paper, and will be a supervisor for a 3rd-year paper (Political Appetites: Geographies of Food and Power), as well as a contributing lecturer on a 3rd-year paper (Political Appetites) and an MPhil course (Anthropocene Studies: Extinction Narratives). Additionally, she is coordinating new training on supervising for PhD students in the Geography Department. Davide (2019, PhD History), having studied at Cambridge as an undergraduate, has extensive experience being supervised by Fellows, Post-docs, and graduate students alike. This year he has found himself on the other side of the (metaphorical) lectern for the first time, supervising 2nd History undergraduates for ‘Historical Argument and Practice (HAP)’, the general theory and methodology of history paper. He is also a qualified primary school teacher with two years’ experience teaching little ones, and he has a great interest in educational theory, practice, and policy. Harum is a Gates Scholar (2016) at the final stages of a PhD in Law. Her areas of specialisation include public international law, environmental law, and natural resources law. Her teaching experience ranges from introduction to law courses, undergraduate supervisions and LLM workshops. In her teaching she adopts a ‘decolonial’ approach to things, albeit in the narrow ways the legal profession allows. Malavika (2016; PhD Materials Science) is accredited as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has been involved in the various forms of undergraduate teaching at the University of Cambridge. Malavika has supervised 1st year Materials Scientist students, and as well as a range of 3rd year modules. As a demonstrator for the Materials Science department, Malavika has delivered examples classes on biomedical materials and run 2nd year microscopy and Python/Raspberry Pi practicals. Malavika also designed and supervised two undergraduate masters projects, and organised a talks series aimed at improving presentation skills for 2nd year natural scientists at Churchill. Most recently, Malavika has been involved in end of year assessments and course design, and is expected to lecture and supervise fourth year undergraduates on Advanced Polymers in Lent 2021. Greg (2019 ) is a 2nd year PhD in Psychology. He is interested in the psychometric properties of Internet big data, mental health assessment, and the psychology of personality. Last year he had the unusual teaching experience of supervising 4th-year undergraduates taking a psychology paper in the Judge Business School. He hopes to share advice on balancing discussion and information retrieval when supervising in the social sciences. Emma (2018) is a 3rd year PhD student in Psychiatry. At Cambridge, she has lectured for Systems Biology (Part III) and Public Health and Epidemiology (MPhil), supervised on two Psychology & Behavioural Sciences papers (Part I/Part II), and served as a teaching assistant for Public Health and Epidemiology. She has also completed the Teaching Associates Programme (TAP) at the University and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Avani (2019) is a 2nd Year PhD at the faculty of English and co-director of LfP. She studies little magazines and independent publishing in the late 20th century.
INTRO TO DATA ANALYSIS: R, MATLAB & PYTHON TASTER SESSIONS
Interested in learning about a data analysis skill-set, but not ready to commit to long-term training? Looking to collaborate with someone who conducts quantitative data analysis, and want to understand their work? In these 'taster sessions', current scholars will share a brief overview of how they use a particular mode of data analysis, with the goal of helping other scholars learn about software programmes and/or programming languages they might want to use for their own research. Intended to be very introductory, these sessions will cover a range of topics related to a specific set of data analysis programmes, including what scholars use these programmes for, why they’ve selected those particular programmes, and what challenges they face. The programmes featured are: R MATLAB Python Descriptions for each can be found on the following page. All are welcome to attend -- from those with no training in this area at all, to those who are looking to refine their skills or think about learning new skills. We’ll point you in the direction of where to go for further training, should this spark your interest! Feel free to join to share your expertise and experiences, as well. Scholar Tutorial Leaders: Jascha Achterberg (‘19 Cognitive Science) Gabby Mills (‘19 Chemical Engineering) Anne Thomas (‘18 Plant Sciences)
INTRO TO DATA ANALYSIS: R, MATLAB & PYTHON TASTER SESSIONS
Featured Programmes: R is a commonly used open-source (i.e. free) data analysis programming platform. It's flexible and mutli-layered with lots of packages for most kinds of analysis or data-processing tasks a scientist might need. You can also easily build your own scripts for your particular workflow, making your work reproducible. R has its own language and syntax which has its quirks but also provides useful and unique ways of conceptualizing data. As a widely shared data processing toolbox, R is worth becoming familiar with. MATLAB is a flexible computing language that bridges the gap between scripting and programming languages. Capable of connecting with various external circuitry, it is a coding language often utilized by engineers, but not exclusively, as it’s strength in matrix mathematics also makes it important in bioinformatics and linear algebra. With a great user interface and guidance documents, MATLAB is a great language for those just learning to code. Python is a general-purpose open-source coding language which allows you to code anything from a simple web-page to a complex video game. It is often cited as the most popular coding language, as its versatility and readability make it a highly usable tool for beginners and professionals alike. With the rise of Data Science / big data analysis, Python was used by many to implement all kinds of algorithms. Nowadays, the majority of modern machine learning and neural network development tools (commonly referred to as “Artificial Intelligence”) are either implemented in or can be interfaced through Python, which makes it one of the most prominent tools in modern data analysis.
RISKY RESEARCH IN FRACTIOUS TIMES: RESEARCH ETHICS & COMMUNICATIONS How do we communicate research effectively in times of global crises? How can ethnography and principles of 'slow research' help make sense of fast-moving battles for truth, attention, and control in digital environments? What are emerging crises of representation that researchers face when retelling narratives of perpetrators, trolls, or other social media 'bad actors'? How can academic researchers help inform public response to disasters and crises? In this workshop, we will explore issues around research ethics, public communications, and team collaboration in the context of polarized political environments. The workshop will highlight practical advice for careful critique and urgent intervention. Scholars will be given opportunity to participate in interactive scenario discussions especially around themes of researching in times of the current global pandemic and other 'infodemics' of disinformation and politicized technology regulation debates. The workshop dives deep on topics of ‘patient attentiveness’ and positionality in research. This workshop is open to scholars of all disciplines. Scholars interested in thorny questions around team research projects, crisis communications, and highimpact policy research are invited to attend. * Some topics may not be suitable for children, if thinking of attending with families and/or partners.
Trainer Bio Dr Jonathan Corpus Ong is an Associate Professor of Global Digital Media at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He earned his PhD in Sociology as a Gates Scholar (‘12, Philippines). He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the 20 year old media studies journal Television & New Media. He has published 2 books and over 20 journal articles in his research areas of global media ethics, digital politics, and the anthropology of humanitarianism. He has consulted for humanitarian policymakers and led listening projects that advanced localized approaches to community engagement. Jonathan has written for or been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times, and Buzzfeed. He is currently Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center doing elections monitoring research on disinformation targeted at Asian-American voters in the 2020 US elections.
LFP @ INTERNAL SYMPOSIUM: THE POLITICS OF MEMORY
Learning for Purpose is participating in the first online Internal Symposium! Themed Panel Discussions & Keynote LfP is helping to organise themed panel discussions featuring scholar research in the broad area of ‘politics of memory’. The symposium will also host a keynote presentation from The Black Cantabs.
Training Opportunities Participants in the Internal Symposium are invited to attend free, professional speaker training in advance of the weekend. This public speaking and research presentation skills workshop is usually run one to two weeks in advance of the symposium by a professional trainer; details are to be confirmed.
Email the Internal Officer to nominate yourself or another scholar: internal@gatescouncil.org
TECHNICAL ADVICE & ACCESSIBILITY
All LfP workshops this term will take place via Zoom, in the virtual GSCR. You can join a Zoom workshop by clicking on the link and entering the password. Zoom does require an account; creating one is free. You can find the Zoom link and password in the Gates Scholars Facebook group, in our start-of-term email, and in the weekly e-bulletin email. We also will be operating a waiting room, so please ensure that your username is recognisable. Please feel free to include your pronouns next to your name, if you wish to do so. All workshop times are listed in UK time. If you are not able to attend a live workshop, we plan to record these workshops and provide a link to stream the recorded workshops after the workshop date (contingent upon consent to record). For privacy reasons, we will ask participants to confirm that they consent to recording. We also plan to produce a textual transcript and/or notes for the sessions. Please email us if you would like to watch the recorded workshops or would like copies of the transcripts, notes, and/or slides. All workshops will have live captioning provided through otter.ai (which opens in an additional window). Please email us for plain-text versions of any materials, and for dial-in telephone codes for Zoom. Please also get in touch if you have any access needs or concerns. All event information will be available in the weekly E-bulletin and the scholars FB group. Partners and families are welcome at all events, unless otherwise stated.
STAYING UP TO DATE & REGISTERING Our event booking procedure will be different this term than it has been in past terms. Tickets will not be required in order to attend events (unless a particular event has limited capacity). We ask that you do please register via Eventbrite so that we can send event-specific material only to those who plan to attend. Announcements about events and registration will be shared via the E-bulletin and our Facebook page. As the events of LfP are specifically developed for Gates Scholars, you will need to provide a password to be able to register for the events. This password can be found in the Gates Scholars E-bulletin, our term email, and in the FB group. Lastly, as Learning for Purpose we believe in constant personal development and growth. That means we also believe in the growth and improvement of the Learning for Purpose programme. After most events, we therefore share feedback surveys to allow you to provide us with your insights and ideas on the events we provide. In addition, we welcome feedback at any time, and you can reach us by email.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LfPGates/
Website*: http://learningforpurpose.com/
Calendar: http://gatescouncil.org/calendar/
Email: learningforpurpose@gatescouncil.org
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/gates-cambridge-learning-forpurpose-18058289320
*Our website is currently under construction, and we hope to have it updated soon!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: CAMBRIDGE
The Learning for Purpose programme has been developed to complement the other resources that are readily available within the University. Below is a curated list of useful resources and places to find more information. University of Cambridge Training This website provides a central point for University training courses. These include among others the UIS, GSLS and PPD programs. To make a booking you use your Raven account. (e.g. analysis of DNA methylation, Data science in Python). Some courses are online. Researcher Development RD hosts a wide array of research training specifically for research students and/or live participation), RD On Demand sessions (watch on your own time), RD Audio (podcast series), Researcher CafÊs (for networking and informal socialising), access to LinkedIn Learning courses, and one-to-one coaching. Personal and Professional Development (PPD) PPD works to support students and in leadership and management development, professional and personal development and career development. PPD’s aim is to create a culture of ongoing learning and to enable people to achieve their potential, collectively and individually, in a respectful and inclusive environment. Some materials are online. Cambridge Digital Humanities The CDH Learning programme trains researchers to develop skills to critically investigate, develop, exploit and expand new ways of doing humanities and social science research using digital technologies. They have a few strands of training, the most relevant of which are likely to be the CDH Basics stream (e.g., digital humanities basics, research ethics in digital humanities, metadata) and CDH Methods stream (e.g., automated text recognition, Transkribus, social network analysis).
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge Language Centre The Centre provides courses in 15 languages (CULP). Their mission is to increase multilangualism; promoting, encouraging and supporting the learning of languages for personal, academic and professional purposes. The Language Centre is moving all Easter courses online; it will be offering online sessions with its Language Advisors. The Centre also has many remote-learning resources available on its website. Cambridge Public Engagement: Engaged Researcher Training The Public Engagement Team provides a portfolio of transferable skill trainings and support for PGR students, researchers and professional staff. The ‘Engaged Researcher’ training covers all areas of public engagement with research by combining expert-led practical workshops and taught sessions. Sessions range from research storytelling and podcast creation to engagement with children, policy makers, and more. Judge Business School The Entrepreneurship Centre at the Judge Business School encompasses the full entrepreneurial journey starting with the empowerment of aspiring entrepreneurs through the creation and development of early-stage ventures, all the way to small and medium size enterprise growth. Some events are postponed; some are occuring online/remotely. Social Sciences Research Methods Programme (SSRMP) An interdisciplinary programme providing research methods training to University of Cambridge staff and postgraduate students at MPhil and PhD level. Courses cover qualitative, and quantitative research methods, from basic training to advanced statistical analysis. University Information Services (UIS) The UIS provides university-wide information services for the University of Cambridge, including a wide variety of trainings and workshops (e.g. LaTeX, Unix, Amazon Web Services, Excel, Adobe). Currently, their only online offerings are for self-paced courses.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: OUTSIDE CAMBRIDGE
Alison: Free online courses in: Technology, Language, Science, Health, Humanities, Business, Math, Marketing, and Lifestyle. Code Academy: With a free basic membership, Code Academy provides online training in various types of coding. Coursera: Free online courses (as well as certificates, for a fee) in a wide range of topics. Dash: Free online courses in coding (HTML, CSS, Javascript Duolingo: Duolingo has recently updated much of its language learning materials, offering more immersive options, podcasts, and more. FutureLearn: Free online university-developed courses averaging 6-10 weeks, but shorter ones are available too (especially personal/professional development ones). There is an option to pay for upgrades. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from Edx: Free online training courses in a range of subjects; developed by leading universities. MIT OpenCourseware: Web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. Open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity The Programming Historian: Publishes novice-friendly, peer-reviewed tutorials that help humanists learn a wide range of digital tools, techniques, and workflows to facilitate research and teaching. The lessons are open access and the site uses open source programming Reproducibility Trainings Google Spreadsheet: This is a list of reproducibility trainings and resources (mostly STEM and quantitative skills) compiled by Reproducible Research Oxford. All are freely available online.