Resilience (1 of 5): does academia complement or conflict with who you are?
Emily Troscianko and Rachel Bray Everything in life has its stresses, and academia isn’t necessarily more stressful than any other professional sector. But academia does have particular contours of cost and benefit, some of which we readily talk about while others are easier to ignore. Opening a conversation is often the key to igniting personal reflection and action, and it’s in this spirit that we offer six posts over the coming months on the linked topics of resilience, self-awareness, and identity in academia. They address two simple questions: If staying in academia is so hard, why do so many people want it? If you do want it, how can you work towards it whilst preserving your sanity ? And they propose and elaborate on two simple answers: Because it still offers so much that is intellectually and personally appealing. By being honest with yourself about what it's really like and what it really takes. The series arises out of our personal