T158 Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
208A

A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON WHAT MAKES A (GEOSCIENCE) RESEARCHER

Paper number: T158-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:35 AM – 8:55 AM

Authors

Abstract

Although no career path is exempt from uncertainty, the traditional academic career path requires accepting a particularly large amount of uncertainty, particularly with regard to financial security and location. On the other hand, an academic career offers a large amount of autonomy in terms of research topics. Towards the end of my PhD, I decided to pursue a career in a location I wanted to live long-term, which has led me to my current role as a research administrator in a university-affiliated research institute that studies energy issues in Alaska. My PhD work looked at how ancient microbes moved electrons around in their environment; my current work is to help the humans who are researching the best ways to move electrons around the built environment. While I am interested in pursuing the threads of research that I started in graduate school; finding time, energy, and funding to publish this research has remained a challenge for me. I am sharing my experience to demonstrate how there is one way to have a career as a researcher. Particularly, my lived experience as a queer, mixed race person of color has meant that there has never been a defined career path for someone who “looks like me.” I will share my experience with belonging in the geoscience community and how that has interacted with different axes of power along the academic career hierarchy. I will also discuss some of the contradictions inherent in the professionalization of research, where formal structures allow people to be compensated fairly for their labor. Finally, I will share some reflections on how expanding my notion of what research looks like has influenced how I approach community-based research.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 56, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2024AM-405411

© Copyright 2024 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.