Adam Levy 00:04
Hello, I’m Adam Levy, and this is Off Limits: Academia’s Taboos, a podcast from Nature Careers. In this episode: activism.
Much of our research relates to the real world, and to addressing real-world problems. And this ambition to make the world better is the motivation for many who enter academia.
For some, that doesn’t start and end with their research. It can extend to activism, often a thorny topic within academia.
Victoria Burns 00:40
I struggle almost with whether to call myself an activist or an advocate. There’s almost, I would say, a bit of a negative connotation with activism.
Adam Levy 00:51
That’s Victoria Burns, of the University of Calgary in Canada. We’ll meet her again later in this series, when we discuss substance dependence and recovery.
And this tension between academia and activism can be keenly felt across disciplines and causes. This is something that Theo Newbold has encountered. Theo was doing a PhD in plant pathology at Pennsylvania State University,
Theo Newbold 01:18
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