Pausing again: Reflecting on humility and possibility in pandemic times

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Academic Research

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted academic timelines and personal lives.
• Graduate student experiences of the pandemic were shaped by privilege and unequal societal failures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential space for possibility and change.
• To explore how pandemic experiences can foster an ethic of humbleness in academic work.
• To examine the impact of the pandemic on academic ambitions, timelines, and expectations.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative reflection on personal, institutional, and research contexts.
• Engagement with scholarship on failure in academia.
• Focus on "messy" and "mundane" aspects of research.

Main Results:

• The pandemic experience has humbled graduate students' ambitions and expectations.
• A recognition of the need for more humble and gentle approaches in academic research.
• Identification of opportunities for positive change within academic practices.

Conclusions:

• The pandemic offers a unique opportunity to re-evaluate and reshape academic research practices.
• Embracing "messy" and "mundane" aspects of research can lead to more authentic and humble scholarship.
• Moving forward requires intentionality about what aspects of academic culture to retain and what to discard.