Communities for a more fun and kind academia

Content:

Postdocs change employers frequently, move internationally, handle a high workload, and have family and friendship commitments in various parts of the world. And yet they continue to create and maintain communities that allow for deep exchange of ideas, collaboration and mutual support across status groups.

In this interactive webinar, we will explore the benefits of community among postdoctoral researchers, and practical ways to achieve this - exploring how to create spaces for yourself in which your ideas resonate with others, and in which you give and receive support. 

We will give examples for community activities that have been beneficial to postdocs (from structured to informal), describe their impact, and give advice for people seeking to facilitate community, and welcome an exchange of every participant's practices and experiences around this part of a fun and kind academic life.

Registration: 

https://survey.uni-graz.at/index.php/977463?lang=en 

Speakers: 

Johanna Stadlbauer of the Research Careers Campus Graz & Valentina Riva of ISTA. 

• Johanna Stadlbauer is a researcher developer who built the first PostDoc Office established at an Austrian university. She is an anthropologist and has a background in diversity and gender equality promotion. She has worked in academia and in research outside the university, and has started many productive peer groups during that time. Since 2020, her main job is to facilitate the community building and workplace wellbeing of researchers at the University of Graz. 

• Valentina Riva is a molecular and cellular biologist by education with international experience in postdoctoral research. Always been enthusiastic about mentoring and coaching activities, she also engaged in studies related to Cultural Anthropology, Psychology of Learning and Education, and Pedagogy & Didactics. Since January 2025, she joined ISTA as Career Development Expert and is dedicated to supporting postdocs in their career growth, whether in academia or in other fields.

Questions: 

Uni Graz: rcc(at)uni-graz.at, ISTA: postdoctoral.office@ist.ac.at 

Context of this event: 

Organized as part of Postdoc Appreciation Week with partners across Austria: LBG Career Center, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, University of Vienna