Equalities @ EECS

Lianganzi Wang describes her experiences with HerART hosted by The EECS Women in Higher Education Network (WHEN)

Introduction to HerART 

In this session, I introduced HerART (www.art-woman.com), a nonprofit website established in 2012 as China’s first and only platform dedicated to documenting and studying women’s art. The website functions as a comprehensive database with three key components:

Historical Archives:

• Traces over 1,800 years of Chinese women’s artistic development.
• Features rare Tang Dynasty stone rubbings, Yuan Dynasty paintings, Ming-Qing era artworks, Republican-period pieces, and modern female art.

Academic Resources:

• Publishes research articles, exhibition records, and institutional collaborations.
• Includes a specialized course on History of Women’s Calligraphy and Painting developed by HerART’s founder at a Chinese university.

Modern Adaptation:

• Expands accessibility via the WeChat official account @女性艺术家 (Women Artists) for mobile users.
• Maintains the original website as a historical repository while updating new content on social media.

HerART aims to promote women artists and their works, helping the public understand the language, context, and societal significance of women’s art. It focuses on re-examining women’s roles through artistic discourse, supporting female artists’ growth, and exploring ways to elevate the value of women’s art. All content remains freely accessible to scholars and the general public.

My Volunteer Experience 

My name is Lianganzi Wang, and I’m an MSc student in Sound and Music Computing at Queen Mary University of London. My background merges music technology and computer science. Currently, my research focuses on adaptive, data-driven game audio, leveraging real-time in-game parameters to dynamically shape player immersion. Beyond academia, I have a passion for women’s growth. As a senior volunteer for HERArt, a nonprofit platform dedicated to female artists, I’ve devoted nearly 3,000 hours to maintenance, redesign, and exhibition planning.

As a HerART volunteer, I gained two key insights:

Art as a Lifelong Practice:
Many artists featured on the platform began their creative journeys at unexpected stages of life, challenging conventional notions of “success timelines.” This inspired me to integrate music into my technical career.

The Fragility of Preservation:
Digitizing artworks and interviews underscored how easily women’s artistic legacies can be lost. My tasks included organizing exhibitions and promoting international artists through WeChat.

While HerART primarily focuses on Chinese women artists, its recent inclusion of global creators reflects a growing effort to connect diverse perspectives.

About WHEN

The EECS Women in Higher Education Network (WHEN) fosters a supportive community for individuals identifying as women across academic levels—from PhD students to senior researchers. By promoting collaboration, mentorship, and policy advocacy, WHEN advances diversity, equity, and inclusion in fields like computer science and engineering. Learn more about our mission here.
For further exploration of HerART’s collections and research, visit www.art-woman.com. 

Daniel Gill, a PhD student answers some questions about MINDS and Neurodiversity.

What is MINDS?

MINDS stands for Mutual Inclusion through Neurodiversity in Science. It’s a network for researchers, neurodivergent people, and neurodivergent researchers. As a neurodivergent researcher, I am proud to be able to conduct research for and with members of my community. Through MINDS, we want to promote inclusive practices through encouraging and supporting researchers to work with neurodivergent individuals, highlighting good practices, and providing a platform to empower neurodivergent people to have an input on research that directly impacts them.

What does MINDS do?

We will be running workshops and have received funding from QMUL’s ERIC fund. The idea is to bring together researchers (both neurotypical and neurodivergent) and neurodivergent people from outside academia to promote the value of neurodivergent people in research and to foster understanding. Small group discussions will be led by expert speakers (both academic and non-academic backgrounds). Participants can form networks, create connections and learn about the research being done. Neurodivergent people can learn about research related to their conditions. Researchers can learn about working inclusively and reducing boundaries for neurodivergent individuals.

Who is behind MINDS?

Daniel Gill is a first year PhD student in EECS studying human computer interaction through the lens of neurodiversity. He wanted to use his privilege as being an autistic researcher to help foster connections between research and neurodivergent communities, and, in particular, he was concerned by language in neurodiverse research that are extremely offensive such as comparing neurodivergent people with “healthy controls” or fixing their “malfunctioning circuitry” to take examples from recent research papers. 

Dr Ekaterina Ivanova is a lecturer in Human-Machine Interaction (since January 2023) and researcher in multimodal human-robot interaction and user-centred design of medical technology. Her long-term research goal is to develop truly useful robotics systems for medical applications with a focus on human users by considering and integrating factors from robotics, clinical rehabilitation, and neuroscience. She also a founder and co-organiser of Women in Higher Education Network (WHEN) at EECS.

Why start MINDS?

Neurodivergent individuals are often experts in their own condition – in much the same way a builder would be intimately familiar with their trade if they’d have lived with it since birth. Yet, some research fails to thoughtfully include neurodivergent individuals – missing out on the valuable insights that come from lived experience: the minutiae of daily life, a differing perspective on the world, and a challenge to deficit-based perceptions.

Events coming up

2nd April talk for world autism awareness day by Daniel Tammet at Queen Mary: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/daniel-tammet-nine-minds-narrating-neurodivergent-experience-tickets-1144259734669?aff=oddtdtcreator

The first MINDS workshop is now open for sign-ups – it will take place on Thu 3rd April, from 4-7pm. More details on the Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/minds-neurodivergence-in-research-workshop-tickets-1253071102399?aff=oddtdtcreator

The full list of speakers will include Prof. Nelya Koteyko for the keynote talk, plus Emma Hayashibara, a neurodivergent PhD student.

June: second MINDS workshop. 

How do I find out more?

MINDS website https://mindsintech.org.uk/ Contact Dan directly d.a.gill@qmul.ac.uk

Claire moved from professional services to part of lecturing staff recently.

Could you tell me about your academic position and the history behind it?

I am not a computer scientist or electronic engineer, but I am now a lecturer and took up this post in January. I am the Project Coordinator for our final year and MSc project modules and this semester I have also been teaching a second-year degree apprenticeship module called Reflective Practice for Technology Professionals. I’ve been working in EECS for nearly sixteen years and prior to becoming a lecturer spent 14 years as the EECS industrial placement manager and just over a year as a teaching fellow as part of the faculty degree apprenticeships team. I managed all the programs with industrial experience and was also module organiser for these, so I had existing experience of learning and teaching. I was given the autonomy to develop learning materials related to employability and skills development and from this I also got involved in the development of other modules including the precursor to what has now become Professional Research Practice.

How does your background in professional services help with your teaching?

I have a broad understanding of what happens on the professional services side of things so I know who to go to and what to ask. With the project coordinator role this kind of detail can be very important. I think my PS background helps me to be organised too, and I feel I can’t teach a module well without a well-organised structure behind it. It is important to know that everything is in place to enable my teaching.

It feels like it was almost a gradual move from professional services to a lectureship?

Yes, over the years of being a module organiser I got increasingly involved with embedding things I cared about into the curriculum. For example, I started working with Usman Naeem on his “Web Technology” module and helped develop a piece of coursework that was related to skill development. The students were encouraged to create a portfolio that in addition to meeting the technical requirements of the module also showcased their skills. From this work Usman and I founded the mySkills initiative which is a framework that embeds employability tasks into the curriculum and encourages students to reflect on the skills they gain from modules and other activities. It is about their personal brand. In the first year they create a LinkedIn profile and a github page and we encourage them to attend a networking event. They are also asked to reflect on a set of questions about the technical and non-technical skills they learned from each module. Students can find themselves bouncing from one deadline to another without making connections between modules. mySkills provides the opportunity for them to step back and consider how modules connect and how the things they are learning feed into their personal and professional development more broadly.

What are the most important skills you feel you bring to the teaching environment?

I am an accredited coach and have undertaken training and qualifications with Queen Mary and independently. Since qualifying I have become part of the QMUL coaching network where I volunteer to coach colleagues across the university. I have learned a lot about one-to-one coaching and how beneficial it is to provide someone with the time and space to reflect on what’s going on in their lives and what they want to change or build upon. This feeds into my teaching as there are a lot of similarities between good coaching and good teaching especially in terms of empowering people to take responsibility for their own learning and development and the importance of reflection. These skills have also made it easier for me to build rapport with students whether on a one-to-one basis or in a group setting.

You mentioned “reflective practice for technology professionals”, I don’t really know what that is.

Degree apprentices are already employed and in addition to gaining the academic knowledge needed to be successful on their degrees they are also required to demonstrate competency across a range of professional skills and behaviours. The apprentices I teach are on the software engineer and data analyst pathways. Through the module they are encouraged to reflect on what being a ‘technology professional’ means to them both from an individual perspective but also as part of an organisation and as a community beyond the workplace. This includes the application of theory to practice and vice versa, so they are asked to consider for example, how software engineering methodologies they are introduced to in their modules apply to their actual experiences at work. We also look at things like leadership, innovation, ethics and sustainability.

Tell me about the ethics and sustainability teaching?

I do not teach the basic principles of ethics as this is covered more fully in other modules. Instead, we focus on what being an ethical professional means to them in practice. The students on degree apprenticeships face real ethical issues in their day-to-day jobs so they have meaningful experiences to draw from and mull over. Similarly, with sustainability the students are asked to reflect on and share how sustainable development goals are demonstrated by their organisations and what part they as individuals currently play or might play in the future in influencing these.

Your class size is around sixty. How do you assess reflection with such a large class size?

Reflection is quite a tricky thing to assess! I am looking for evidence they have thought deeply and critically about the topics they choose to write about. For example, if they choose the assignment about ethical practice, they will need to focus on very specific situations that they were exposed to at work and explain what they learnt from these and how this has shaped them as a professional. I would also be looking for evidence of them learning from mistakes and thinking about what they could do differently if they were in a similar situation again.

How do you fit in with our teaching team?

I left school at 16 and didn’t go to university until I was 32 so sometimes, I find it hard to believe I am now a university lecturer! I am grateful for the support and encouragement I have received from my colleagues and know that my contribution is valued even though I am not a typical EECS academic. I think that the 16 years I have spent working in the school have served me well as I have gained a good understanding of our students and what their needs are especially in relation to their skills and employability. I really enjoy working with EECS students too and can’t imagine working with any other discipline now.

During a recent teaching trip to Beijing in October, Dr Yan Sun, Dr Jonathan Loo, and Dr Michaela MacDonald had the privilege of attending a groundbreaking contemporary ballet performance by Intradance, a pioneering dance company from the Netherlands. What made this performance especially significant was the inclusion of dancers with a wide range of disabilities, demonstrating not only their extraordinary talent but also how inclusivity can enrich art and human expression. This unique performance, taking place in the 798 Cube art gallery exhibiting Yunchul Kim’s Earthing project, bridged the worlds of art and science, providing a powerful reminder of the importance of diversity in all fields.

The performance resonated deeply with us as a powerful illustration of how EDI values can shape and enhance our lives, even in disciplines like dance that might seem far removed from an engineering background. The ability to overcome their physical limitations and create something truly beautiful underscored the critical role that diversity and inclusivity play in all environments, whether in the performing arts or in professional and academic spaces like ours. It highlighted the need to embrace diverse perspectives, fostering an environment where individuals of all abilities can thrive.

This is an interview with Giorgia Pigato from QM Academy.

Could you say a little bit about yourself and your job?

I have been at QMUL for over two years working in QM Academy as an education advisor and work on PGCAP to improve practice and help people to get qualifications in teaching. I support staff through advanced HE fellowships where I am a mentor. I am also a reviewer for the SEED award. QM academy delivers webinars and workshops on different teaching areas and I regularly run a webinar together with Disability and Dyslexia Service and the Neurodivergent Student Society: Developing Inclusive Education for neurodivergent learners. It can be booked on QM training platform https://cpd-training.qmul.ac.uk/totara/dashboard/index.php

What is this SEED award?

The SEED award is a recognition programme for students who do peer teaching or work with students to improve teaching practice.
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/students/seed-award/

What is the starting point for teaching ND students?

I have gone through a learning process in recent years. We need to focus on changing the context and the environment. We begin with understanding that there is huge learners’ variability in our programmes and we should have an idea of what challenges those individuals face. However, not every ND student will want to share their diagnosis and some may be undiagnosed. The range of learning differences is very wide and hence it is difficult to generalise. Traits that autistics students show might be the opposite of those for students with ADHD. We need to think of proactive inclusive design even before we step into the classroom and not only on individual adjustments.

If I am teaching a big class what are the most important things I can do as a lecturer?

Set expectations and be clear in your communications. Sometimes we take things for granted, for example that students know what is expected in terms of engagement, attendance, participation, behaviour and workload. A variety of formats to communicate can be useful: e.g. use QMPlus announcements but clearly repeat these in class. A video introducing ourself as a lecturer with a short intro to the module can help some students feel at ease. A statement about inclusivity can also students feel welcomed. [Note: example inclusivity statements are shared at the bottom of this interview.]

For example assessment criteria can be confusing for some students. I recorded a short video for assessment criteria using accessible language to explain more clearly with examples. Very long texts with information buried within this can really disadvantage some students.

We mentioned some specific issues like ADHD and autism how would you change your teaching if those students are present in your class?

We should consider making changes even if we do not know students with those conditions are present. Autistic students process senses in a different way and might really suffer if rooms are extremely crowded or poorly ventilated. Audio might be experienced in a different way. Use a microphone even if you are not asked because it may be hard for students to come forward and ask. Some behaviours may seem disruptive like wearing headphones, doodling, crochetting or not making eye contact. It is good to make students feel these behaviours are OK as for some students these activities can help alleviate stress. For students with ADHD you can insert short breaks into long sessions. If these be embedded and will help those students to understand and change the rhythm. For example a few minutes to talk to students next to them about the class could be a beneficial break. But it is important to announce these things in advance. Rather than saying “any questions” and getting no response asking students to write a concept they found hard and one they found easy. Letting students have material in advance can make some students with neurodiversity more comfortable. We offer lots of practical strategies in our webinars.

With classrooms sometimes we don’t have control of where we teach: for example ventilation or overcrowding?

In this case we just need to be aware that while we cannot control it we need to understand that some students might experience stress because of this. It is important to realise in some cases they are not over-reacting. I am working with the neurodivergent student society and their suggestions are reasonable and easy to implement: material given in advance, when there is a video then turn on text captions, make sure you are audible and use the microphone where possible. Group work can be very stressful for them (but a lot of students find this in general) so we need to be aware of this when we consider the option of group work and set the expectations here.

What about one-to-one settings when you are interacting with a PhD student or a project student who may have ND issues?

It could be that a student has not shared a diagnosis with you or even is undiagnosed. It is important to create the atmosphere where the student is comfortable to share either the diagnosis or the ways they prefer to interact which can help them. Ask the question “what can I do to help in this situation”? Dyslexia and Disability Support services at QMUL can provide advice to staff and students.

What do you say to people who worry about making things too easy?

My observation is that some colleagues worry we would lower academic standards if we are too inclusive. I can understand why people might say this but the really important point is that we do not have discriminatory barriers for certain groups while keeping learning challenging. Learning does require challenge and overcoming difficulties but these difficulties come from the concepts being taught they should not come from lack of knowledge or discrimination.

This is the inclusivity statement on my module:

“We are committed to creating a course that is inclusive and accessible. If you are encountering barriers, please let us know as soon as possible so we can determine if a design adjustment can be made. We are glad to consider creative solutions as long as they do not compromise the learning goals.

We are looking forward to working with you”.

This is inclusivity statement that I share in the Developing inclusive Education for neurodivergent learners:

“We care about your learning experience and success in this course. Everybody learns in a different way, at their own pace. Respect other people’s ways to do things. Together we’ll develop strategies to meet both your needs and the requirements of the course. If there are aspects of this course that prevent you from learning, let us know as soon as possible how we can help.”

This is an anonymous interview with a PhD student about mental health it talks frankly about depression and ADHD while studying.

Would you be comfortable sharing some background on mental health issues?

I was diagnosed with depression in my third year of undergraduate where I got to a crisis point. It got so severe that at one point I needed intervention at a train station from a passerby to stop me doing something stupid. Retrospectively this has been an issue with me since I was fifteen. I withdrew from my studies. At this time there were warning signs for ADHD (Attention Defecit Hyperactivity Disorder) but I thought that I was “too clever” to have that condition. As I passed through academia it became more clear that this was a problem and things started to fall apart.

How does ADHD feel from the inside when you are trying to study in depth?

It is incredibly hard to focus. I don’t know what schizophrenia is like but imagine your own voice talking over yourself. My version of ADHD is what would be called ADD in the past (attention deficit disorder). It makes my mind wander. A lot of people are surprised because when I feel triggered I talk a lot and it is very hard to shut me up. Some of the warning signs were there when I was a kid. I could not wait my turn to answer questions because I felt I was one of the smart kids and I wanted to answer.

Are there ways that people can interact that makes this easier?

Things being written down makes things easier. My thought processes can be non-linear. Sometimes when I seem to be listening my eyes have glossed over and I’m not really listening and have to reconstruct a conversation to catch up.

Are there any advantages to ADHD in studying?

It is a double-edged sword. It can be a super power but it can be an Achilles heel. I can have great attention to detail but then sometimes I can miss things. It is easy for me to find a rabbit-hole to go down. From a young age I always considered myself a scientist and one of the things I held in high esteem was that scientists observe and that this was a skill I should hone.

What parts of the PhD process do you feel are most challenging as a result of mental health issues?

Depression can be incredibly lonely. I work remotely and am quite often home alone which can be quite isolating. Then sometimes I come into the office and don’t get work done because I am talking to colleagues. I live a long way away and travel is expensive so being on a stipend means I cannot be in the office too much. I get bored incredibly quickly which can make things difficult. My biggest concern is that time is running out for my PhD when I am not making best use of my time.

What about writing papers and reports? How do these issues affect you then?

I think writing is not really my strong point. I love doing the research and the reading. Sometimes I have a concept in my head but it is very difficult to communicate. I have time blindness and I will blow through deadlines multiple times because I get too far “in the weeds” with following up on ideas. It is good when supervisors learn your strengths and weaknesses and know when to send a message saying “stop doing what you are doing”. One thing that really works for me is to have really small things to achieve that I can tick off from a list.

Are you ever offended by interactions with your supervisors in relation to mental health?

Yes and no. I find it quite hard to regulate my emotions when work is criticised. Sometimes very blunt feedback can be hurtful. Because I often lose interest in things I can quit things easily. My supervisors have been very supportive and understanding and helped me when I felt like giving up. On the other hand I can worry it makes them dismissive of my ideas at times.

What about interactions with fellow PhD students?

There are no major problems. I am a “people pleaser” and sometimes when I first meet people I can talk a bit too much. I takes a while before I can sit in comfortable silence. Countless times I have cancelled plans with friends because I can’t manage my workload or time because I prioritised my work badly.

What is your experience with the disability and dyslexia service?

I did not have my ADHD diagnosis until my first year. Up until the point of diagnosis the DDS was really good but after that it was really bad. Everyone I tried to contact was too overwhelmed to make time for me. People saying “you need to tell us what you need” is not very helpful when you are newly diagnosed and don’t know what you need. I took a break from study for my mental health during the first year of my PhD and reached out to DDS over the summer period. It felt like there was no service there during the summer holidays as the undergraduate students were away.

This is an interview with Steph Fuller from Queen Mary Academy.

Tell me a little bit about yourself?

I work in the Queen Mary Academy which delivers university-wide support for the development of education and research. We work with staff and students to develop and enhance their practice in teaching, learning, scholarship, research, and academic leadership. I am in the Education and Recognition team that runs training courses and provides continuing professional development opportunities for educators, as well as support for staff seeking recognition for their teaching through Advance HE Fellowships. I lead the taught programmes in education development, CILT (Certificate in Learning and Teaching) and PGCAP (Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice ) and am also involved in curriculum enhancement work. I am particularly interested in areas including inclusivity, active learning, curriculum development, and graduate attributes.

“Curriculum enhancement”, what precisely does that mean?

This is working together with academics to develop course design. So exploring, at a design level, if we can enhance courses to better meet student needs, improve their learning and better align them with Queen Mary Strategy. For example, we might look at changing assessment design, revising learning outcomes, enhancing inclusivity in course materials or embedding employability.

What does inclusivity in teaching mean to you?

It means creating an environment that enables all students to participate and to achieve their best regardless of their background or any differences. Often people think about diversifying content, for example what authors are represented in a reading list or diversity in the range of speakers we invite to talk to students. Teaching practices can also be more or less inclusive, and we want staff to consider how they can be inclusive in the way that they teach too and how they can create an inclusive learning environment.

You have a particular interest in active learning, how does that relate to inclusivity?

I am interested in active learning – active techniques are a very broad spectrum. At one end you might take a traditional lecture but break it up with quizzes and questions that are easy to integrate. This goes all the way to a flipped classroom where the “lecture” is a recording and the students apply the knowledge in groups or individually with the teaching staff coordinating this during contact time. Traditional lectures require students to engage individually in a very specific way to learn, and not all students find this easy, depending on their educational background, preferences or learning differences. Active learning can be a way to encourage and enable all students to engage deeply with content and actively apply their knowledge, enhancing their learning. Research shows that active learning is effective in enhancing student learning, and that it can reduce attainment gaps between groups.

In EECS we are often teaching large classes what techniques might work here?

If the students are used to traditional lectures then shifting immediately to flipped classroom for example can be a big step. Moving more gradually with small steps might be helpful, such as integrating Mentimeter quizzes into a lecture. Build in an active

element like this from the start and then you can add to it. You can include short exercises where students are paired or working in groups. A “minute paper” can also be useful, where students write for a minute what are the main concepts they learned, or what they found to be the “muddiest point,” (most unclear elements) of a lecture. This can then be collected by the lecturer perhaps on post it notes or online via Mentimeter / Padlet and used to guide future teaching or provide additional support materials if needed.

In large classes active participation can be stressful, particularly if students are not native English speakers. How can you make this easier?

Giving students warning that participation will be expected is important, so questions are not a surprise. Provide questions in advance of a session so students can prepare their response. Giving students time to work in small groups and present to each other and then having one student presenting for the group can work well. The inclusiveness of the whole setting is also important and setting ‘ground rules’ at the start of a module or semester can be useful. We can think about developing a “learning contract” together with students, setting out how they will engage with staff and with each other (e.g. respecting each other, listening to others, contributing to activities / discussions). This could be formally written down or demonstrated informally by encouraging behaviour that meets the learning contract.

What would you say is the key to inclusive learning?

There is no “one-size fits all”. You need to think about and understand who your students are. You need to be proactive about inclusive design and flexible in trying out approaches. Talk to your students – ask them how they want to engage and what would make them feel included. Taking a look at the Queen Mary Principles of Inclusive Curriculum is a great place to start!

Dr Ekaterina Ivanova is setting up an network for female academics within EECS. We conducted a short interview to find out more.

Tell me a little about yourself

I am a new member of staff having started in January 2023 as lecturer in HCI. I study multi-modal human-robot interactions in various situations. I look at the rehabilitation of people in various situations for example children with cerebral palsy and how this could be aided by interactions with robots. I look a different modes of interactions with robots, for example, haptic, auditory and aim for something that can be useful in clinical practice.

What is the core idea behind the Female Academic Network (FAN)

I want to create a community where female academic at different levels from PhD to Professor can mix within EECS. The idea is an informal network that can do a number of things: collaboration for research, organisation of events and invitation for speakers. It would be a bottom up approach to create a network within EECS. I did something smaller when I was doing a postdoc at Imperial College with the Female Robotics club.

Tell me a bit more about the female robotics club

This was born during Covid (initially online and later in person) as a very informal group of colleagues who communicated together, cooked together, writing retreats and social events. It was not financed but entirely community organised as a very small scale but with very positive mental health and professional impacts.

How do you imagine the meetings for the FAN?

We want to start with a participative workshop to set expectations and agree on what the meetings will be like. The initial idea is to have team building event, invite great female speakers and have learning workshops or discussion of relevant politics.

What are your big hopes for the FAN?

One hope is to help women stay in research after the PhD and postdoc phase and to make the transition smoother. The network can provide role models for younger female researchers when not so many are available. The meetings can show female PhD and post docs what a pathway to success looks like for women. It’s a great opportunity for women who are part of the faculty to get to know each other and exchange ideas.

We are also planning a workshop for women of pre-university age and even younger to show them that engineering and computer science can be a good career for women. At London School of Mathematics and programming for children found that simple examples with robotics was great fun for the children and teaming up with the schools provided equipment.

We are currently applying for a small grant from EECS that can help fund invited speakers and events.

Who else is involved and how can people get involved if they are interested?

A number of people are already part of FAN: Aisha Abuelmaatti, Maria Liakata, Julia Ive, Laurissa Tokarchuk, Michaela Macdonald, Mahesha Samaratunga.

If people want to find out more contact me (Ekaterina). It would be great to have more people involved in organisation and contributing ideas.

An interview with Sara Cardinale, a 3rd year PhD student at EECS QMUL on her PhD journey and mental health.

Interview conducted by Elona Shatri

Let's begin by asking you about your initial expectations when you started your PhD journey.

I had a decent idea of what a PhD entailed since I’d seen my partner go through two years of his own PhD. We often discussed what it was like, so I felt well-informed about my responsibilities and the process. However, once I started, it turned out to be as I expected, just more challenging in various ways. My partner’s PhD was in a different field, and we are different people, so our experiences differed, and the challenges I faced were different from his.

How have these initial expectations evolved over time?

Our journeys were distinct, and my insecurities were different from his. For instance, I lacked confidence in machine learning and had to learn it from scratch, while many around me were already proficient. Additionally, my first year was demanding due to the numerous modules I had to complete, whereas my partner’s PhD program had none, making my first year particularly challenging.

Have the issues you faced at the start of your PhD evolved? Have you worked on improving your confidence and addressing the areas where you felt you fell short of your expectations?

Yes, I’ve come to realise that most PhD students face uncertainty. On the surface, they may appear confident, but when you discuss their research, they often admit to not knowing what they’ll do next. Recognising that this is a common issue has been reassuring.

Imposter syndrome affects many of us to varying degrees. We all struggle with similar issues, but there's often a stigma attached to admitting a lack of self-confidence. Do you think being a woman in a male-dominated academic environment played a role in this?

Absolutely, especially considering my upbringing in Italy where there were stereotypes about math not being for women. Transitioning from that mindset to realising my passion for computer science was a significant journey.

When did you first become aware that you were struggling with your mental health?

The first year of my PhD was overwhelming due to the workload and external expectations. I also felt unsupported by certain staff members. It all came to a head around April, which coincided with exam season. My lectures were online, as were the exams. That’s when I realised I needed professional help.

Were there specific triggers or experiences that brought this to your attention?

It was a combination of external expectations and my own high standards. I was trying to excel in everything, and my supervisor wanted me to publish a paper, which added to the stress.

How have your advisors, peers, and the broader academic community supported you in dealing with your mental health challenges?

Most of the staff were helpful, especially during a difficult period in April 2022 when I needed accommodations for an exam. However, there’s room for improvement in educating staff about mental health. Some well-intentioned advice was either incorrect or unhelpful. Ideally, they should refer students to counselling.

What about your peers? Did you find individuals within your cohort who could relate to your experiences?

During tough times, I tended to isolate myself, especially when I started taking antidepressants. However, I reached out to a few people, including yourself and others, and realised that many were dealing with mental health issues, not just related to their PhDs. Talking to them was beneficial.

Moving on, what strategies or practices have been most helpful in managing your mental health throughout your PhD?

Therapy has been incredibly beneficial. Also, I am open with people, including my advisor, about my high expectations and the need for boundaries. Discussing my plans with my advisor helps in managing expectations and time effectively.

Has your mental health affected your research and academic output?

Yes, it has. While I’ve tried not to let it impact my work, there have been fluctuations in my productivity. For instance, I had a challenging period in July, but it wasn’t as severe as some earlier experiences. Despite the difficulties, I managed to publish a paper during my first year and complete my modules.

Did achieving these milestones boost your self-confidence?

Yes, it did to some extent, but it also felt forced. I was pressured into publishing a paper shortly after a stage-zero presentation, which wasn’t ideal. I should have taken more time for myself.

Are there specific resources or services at Queen Mary or within the academic community that you accessed or wished were available to support students facing similar challenges?

I personally haven’t needed these services, as I can afford therapy with my PhD stipend. However, I’m aware that master’s students and undergraduates without financial support might benefit from such services. I did use counseling services at my previous university, which was helpful.

What advice would you give to other PhD students dealing with similar challenges, or those who might not recognise the signs?

If you recognise the signs, reach out to people. You don’t have to go through this alone. There are others who have faced similar situations and can relate to your feelings. Opening up can lead to finding support and helpful techniques. If you notice someone else is struggling, encourage them to seek help and take breaks when needed. Therapy is also highly beneficial.

How do you envision your path forward, both in terms of research and your mental well-being? Are there changes or shifts you hope to see in the academic environment to better support this journey?

Moving forward, I plan to be more attuned to signs of burnout and declining mental health. It’s crucial to prioritise self-care and set realistic expectations. Imposter syndrome is prevalent in academia, and acknowledging this normalcy is essential. Academic environments should provide more education about mental health to better support students. Expectations in academia can be excessively high, and understanding this can be reassuring.