Welcome to the graduate seminar on "Reflections on Research."

Why did you choose to attend graduate school?

What motivates you to do research?

Can you balance the highs and lows of research?

What do you envision yourself doing in the future?

You might have all the answers figured out, be completely lost, or most likely, be somewhere in the middle (and it's all okay!).

In this seminar course, we will reflect on various facets of a research career through a combination of readings and discussions. Before each seminar, students are required to complete the assigned reading (less than one hour of reading per week). During the seminar, the instructor will present a high-level overview of the topic for ~15 min. The remaining 45 minutes will be for open discussions. From first-year graduate students who are only getting their feet wet with research to senior students who are approaching graduation and contemplating a career in research, this seminar can be helpful for all!

Instructor: Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi

Class Hours: Friday 1 - 2 pm PT (online seminar on Zoom)

Zoom: https://uci.zoom.us/j/96043615069?pwd=STRSYjBHNEs4R0VjdFRtRnR6MFc5UT09

Prerequisites: An interest in research and a willingness to introspect

Schedule: (this is an approximate schedule)

Date	Topic	Required Reading	Optional
1/7/2021	Overview
1/14/2021	What is Research? (Most research is not earth-shattering and does not lead to what Kuhn calls a "paradigm shift." Most of the time, that's the kind of research we do -- and it's still very useful.)	Chapter 3 of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn (starting page 23)	How to pick a research topic, Irene Zhang, Microsoft Research
1/21/2021	The Myth of the Lone Scientist (Most of us will work in labs or research groups, but television portrays us as lone academics having genius breakthroughs in isolation.)	The Matthew Effect , Robert Merton	In science today, a genius never works alone , Athene Donald Building the perfect team , Charles Duhigg
1/28/2021	Academic Culture Shock (Most of us have no experience dealing with the hidden curriculum in academia)	Breaking the Class Ceiling, Elisabeth Pain	The Achievement of Desire , Richard Rodriguez
2/4/2021	Imposter Syndrome (Being treated as an expert often depends on how well an individual matches expected perceptions of what an expert looks like, and how well the individual "plays the part.")	How I overcame impostor syndrome after leaving academia	Talk: Fake it Until You Make it
2/11/2021	You are not your Research (We associate ourselves with our research so much that we forget it is a job and not our lives. It makes rejections harder to deal with, and it leads to poor work-life balance.)	The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure-Track Faculty Life , Radhika Nagpal	If you want to work hard, live well
2/18/2021	Rejection, Expectations, and Comparisons (Formal rejection is common in academia. How do we deal with rejection, with how expectations vary across subfields, with the urge to compare to our peers?)	Dealing with rejection: a three-pronged approach	Why are scientists fascinated with rejection Grow your own rejection garden Do you measure up? Confronting perfectionism in Academia The NeurIPS experiment A letter to my younger self
2/25/2021	Mental Health (There is an often undiscussed mental health epidemic among graduate students and researchers. Does academia make us this way, or are people with mental health troubles more prone to becoming academics?)	Mental Health of Graduate Students Sorely Overlooked Staying in and Staying Healthy: Insights for Positive Mental Health in Graduate School
3/4/2021	Research as a Political Act (Research cannot be extricated from ethics, politics, and social norms.)	The Ethical Dilemma at the Heart of Big Tech Companies, HBR
3/11/2021	Academia's Drop-Outs (It's easy to get so focused on the degree, the diploma, that we forget the original goals that pushed us to pursue an intellectual life.)	Why I'm Leaving Harvard, Matt Welsh Bailing on my 10 year plan, again and again, Allie Janoch

This seminar is inspired by Research Practices and Community Norms (UC Berkeley) and Readings on Research (CMU).