(S2E5) Countering Isolation and loneliness in doctoral research through writing groups

Intro: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Research Culture Uncovered podcast, where in every episode we explore what is research culture and what should it be? You'll hear thoughts and opinions from a range of contributors to help you change research culture into what you want it to be.

Tony: 00:00:26

Hello, I'm Tony Bromley and welcome to Research Culture Uncovered podcast. This is season two. In Season two, we are talking to presenters from the Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference. The 2022 conference. The conference theme was 'How do we stop losing talent in research careers'. And we talked about a host of aspects of research culture, particularly today we are gonna talk about that very common aspect of the isolated doctoral researcher.

Uh, with me today, I have Paula and Laura and their presentation title is 'Getting Together to Overcome Research Loneliness in Two Argentinian Virtual Writing Groups'. So if I could ask you to introduce yourselves. Paula, if you could introduce yourself for us.

Paula: 00:01:14

Okay. Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm Paula Espeche. I'm a literature professor at, um, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo Mendoza, Argentina.

I am also a doctoral student. I study concurrent virtual writing groups.

Tony: 00:01:34

Now pass over to, uh, Laura. Did you mute there? Laura? Was there some dog barking in the background? ?

Laura: 00:01:41

Yeah, I

Tony: 00:01:42

muted that. That, that's good. If you could introduce yourself, Laura. Thank

Laura: 00:01:46

you. Hi, my name is Laura Colombo, but everybody calls me Violetta.

earching writing groups since: 2012

And, and we are conducting research on that topic. Yeah.

Tony: 00:02:29

That's great. Thank you. And you mentioned Violetta, that was the, uh, reference to your love of the colour purple. Yep. . ,

Laura: 00:02:37

which is nice. I have been wearing a stripe of hair, yeah. Almost two decades now. So,

Tony: 00:02:43

and, and why not ? Yep. Okay. If we could come to, come to the questions in relation to, to the work that you, you've done so, Paula, it does.

It seems really common in doctoral studies that there can be feelings of loneliness. So what do you see as the common reasons for why feelings of loneliness, if I could say the word loneliness correctly . So what you see as the common reasons for why feelings of loneliness can arise.

Paula: 00:03:11

Yeah. Um, unfortunately it is really common and I think first we need to link these feelings of loneliness with the experience of isolation and isolation can come in many forms. Could be physical isolation. For example, for international students, they have to move from, maybe from one city or one country. They need to adapt to a new academic context, sometimes adapting to a new language. They need a space to be alone to write, and this can be really disruptive.

Within their common daily routines and also can cause feelings of loneliness. Also, isolation can come from interpersonal, um, bonds. You know, there is a real strong need for good social networks when, um, students are doing their thesis dissertation, the main, uh, the most important bond, it's with the supervisors, but also with their friends and family.

When, well, as I said, this could be really disruptive within the daily routines, so it, it needs to be

important to have a, a strong support. And also with their peers, it's good to have someone that can empathize with what you're feeling, that they can give you recommendations, tools, maybe some readings. Um, Particularly for humanities and social science students, it's a group that are particularly prone to feelings of isolation rather than students that work on a lab or on a broader research group.

Also, there are aspects that are inherent to the doctoral journey, uh, because this is a highly demanding studies that. They, it, it could be a transition from course taker to knowledge producer. And this type of, uh, studies can cause us these feelings of isolation because they can make the work balance, uh, quite difficult.

And also the competitive research culture. It can generate stressful environments that can actually make us feel really lonely.

Tony: 00:05:36

It's interesting you mentioned the differences in disciplines as well. It can, uh, kind of discipline aspect, um, to it. Although you can, um, on the laboratory side, you can be lonely,

lonely in the crowd as well. It is, it is a possible thing, but yeah, I appreciate that. Um, so how have you found the writing groups support researchers in helping with, uh, loneliness? Paula?

Paula: 00:05:57

First of all, uh, there are many studies that [00:06:00] indicate the importance of these types of initiatives in order to cope with feelings of isolation and loneliness.

And also, um, within the different interviews that we made to our writing groups and also some memoirs that our participants have made said by the participants that they can cultivate horizontal relationships with people from different disciplines. So, um, they create new relationships with their peers.

They engage in relevant discussions about science and about the way of being in the academia. They also can share texts, resources, tools that can be helpful within their journey. And so in one of the writing groups, we call the space, you know, to Las Vegas in the way of saying what happens here stays here, you know?

Tony: 00:06:52

Yes. , I like that terminology. That's a nice term. I was gonna move over to Laura now I think. Um, Can you tell us more about your study and what you actually did?

Laura: 00:07:04

During the first groups that I was a coordinator or a facilitator, I like it better. Um, I was part of the groups, so I would present my texts and I would also be a participant.

I was , kind of like the organizer facilitator, and I was also participating. Then I started only facilitating these groups. And then I facilitated the facilitators. So , right? So, um, there were different ways of implementing these groups. I, so my role changed over the years. [Yes]. Uh, and it's very interesting because the way that we implemented these groups kind of like changed with every um, every time that we, uh, in integrated new groups.

So this is actually, I think, good for research because it's giving us some longitudinal point of view which is not so common, um, for these kind of initiatives. Um, even though the participants changed, um, and, and we have been, we and, and we talk, we because we belong to a research team. So, and [yes], we actually don't always do not only preach about it, but we actually do it.

We try not to work alone because we always think that, uh, working with peers, it's, I mean outreaching and better. Um, so we are trying different ways of implementing this group. So when you ask how do you Yes. What do you do? It's like, we do a million things. We have been doing a million things.

Tony: 00:08:49

Yeah. Well, I was thinking of the, the scale of this as well.

From what you've said previously when we've talked previously, this is, you've had. There's quite a scale to this, isn't it? You've done, you've done more than one or two reading writing groups, haven't you? There's a lot of them.

Laura: 00:09:03

Yeah. To date, I think that we have over 25 writing groups. I started in Argentina coordinating a writing group inside the research team that I belong at that time in 2012.

Then in: 2015

[Right]. And in, in 2020 we started participating with Paula um, in a, in a Latin American group, uh, where we meet with other colleagues from Latin American countries and they started to implement, uh, writing groups in their own institutions. So it, it's a brand new field and, and, and we are very happy to have people with whom exchange data and, and discuss what we are finding.

I mean, we are still learning about all this.

Tony: 00:10:25

I was just wondering, obviously when you've got that many different, uh, writing groups and they've probably got nuances that are quite slightly different to each one. Um, I just thinking of people listening, is there perhaps the most recent one you could perhaps des There's people quite like the practicalities of things.

How it's, the detail of how it's actually done, perhaps. Could you describe the most recent one, perhaps? Is it, do you meet once a month? Once every six months. Does it last 10 years? Two years. Just to give us, just, just choose one of them and just give us an example of how, how one of them is, is working

Laura: 00:10:56

Well uh, the concurrent writing groups that Paula coordinates or facilitates, they meet once a week. And actually she has several, um, meeting times. Uh, they work similarly to 'Shut up and write!' you meet with other people, you gather, you work on your text. Um, and there are different sessions during the week so people can join and I mean, the session, they choose. The response writing groups or the review groups.

They are also called that I coordinated. The last run was with professors from a university, in Uruguay, Um, the other groups keep on working. There are like seven groups working here in Argentina that I facilitate the facilitators. Yeah. And in these type of groups, the meetings ideally are every two weeks because, um, they, they're, um, um, they have three members or four members, each group.

Uh, so this gives the possibility that each month and a half everybody's gonna present a new [yes]. Uh, draft. So, and it gives them time to review in depth because these type of groups demand for people to sit down, read, and, and, and give feedback to their group mates. [Yeah]. Um, So ideally they start every 15 days, but later we have been, uh, discovering that each group kind kinds of like, uh, they come up with their own rhythm.

So if they find it 15 days, like two weeks is too long, they, they meet earlier or because the idea is for the group to work in an autonomous. [Right]. That's what you wanna achieve as a facilitator for the group, not to need you. I mean, because basically what we want is to create a safe space where people can get and receive feedback and not any kind of feedback.

That's the other characteristic of the review groups is that you have to learn how to give and receive comments. [Yes],

Tony: 00:13:07

That can be a difficult one. Yes. I'm just looking at trying to bring things together a bit. Actually, I'm looking at the questions I was gonna ask you. Um, what would you say are the main findings then?

So, um, it's not like a sales pitch, is it, but after the, the word that you've done for so many years particularly, what would you say are the main findings?

Laura: 00:13:27

Absolutely. These type of groups offer visibility to the writing, uh, which it sounds kind of obvious, but it's not. Uh, we are expected to produce and write a lot in academia, but we are barely given spaces and time to do that and, um, we tend to conceptualize writing as a solitary activity.

And actually it shouldn't be that way because there is a lot of dialogue going on, especially in academic writing. I mean, you are constantly inviting other people to your text. Uh, and, and we think, I mean, what we have been finding is that these writing groups offer an opportunity to actually, uh, open up new spaces where people do

academia in a very different way, and which is a collaborative way, um, that we have been noticing in the review groups and in the concurrent writing groups. So even people who just gather to write, sit down and write, 'Shut up and write!' that, that even happens because, uh, in the opening and closing moments, uh, people figure out that other, other academics go through very similar processes that they do.

s questioning these ways of, [: 00:15:00

And you learn that science is not done everywhere in the same way. Um, which is also, um, very, very enriching. [Yes], there is not so much competitivity, so that helps as well. And it gives participants a sense of empowering because they're not just going out there for their papers to be, uh, shredded or destroyed by reviewers.

Yeah, they had, uh, a friendly, a friendly way. And related to that, um, I have, uh, at least in the review group groups, I have also found that, uh, people find this type of space, uh, very, um, very useful to learn how to give feedback not only to colleagues, but also to, uh, when they act as supervisor or when they are grading students papers. Um, even though they are different types of feedback, of course when you're grading, uh, an undergrad paper or when you are like giving feedback to, um, a PhD student, but they found that these ways of commenting, not correcting the texts tend to be very useful.

Tony: 00:16:51

No, it's interesting that you've, um, the, in the title, your presentation, you, you talked about loneliness and it's, it's, it's interesting to see how, uh, the writing group, um, supports people from sort of moving away from being lonely. But you've mentioned so many other aspects of research culture, uh, within what you've just said.

It's interesting, right. Um, I just wanted to pull things together actually. Um, The, to, to summarize, I wondered if, I feel like I might be putting Paula under pressure here because, because you are the one doing the doctorate currently. I'm gonna ask if there's gonna be any publications that Paula, you, I've not been fair asking you this question in front of your supervisor, but you know,

Paula: 00:17:35

Okay.

Um, so the question is if there's going to be any other

Tony: 00:17:39

publications, will there be publications or there may ones perhaps Violleta. Laura, she could mention, but yes. ,

Paula: 00:17:46

there will

Tony: 00:17:47

be , yes, there will be publications, yes. Good, good

Laura: 00:17:51

People who are listening can't see me, but I'm moving my head up and down things.

Yeah.

Paula: 00:17:58

I was checking if I was understanding the question.

Tony: 00:18:00

Yes. Yes. There will, there will be publications. Great. Be, um, people who listen to podcasts we, we will put, uh, links into the show notes for the podcast, uh, for any, if, if you have a link for publications so people can get to those publications. Um, I think that was all I was gonna ask you, so, um, thank you for joining us.

Um, and. Thank you. Well, thank you for joining us. I'll leave it like that. So thank you to Paula and Laura. Say goodbye. Thank

Laura: 00:18:29

you. Thank you so much for the invitation.

Intro: 00:18:34

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