Originally, I wanted to write a blogpost about feeling like a fraud. However, during the writing process, I noticed that that does not really capture the essence of the problem I wanted to reflect on. Feeling like a fraud was just one of the insecurities that the little voice in the back of my head…
Category: Mental Health & Academia
A Reflection on the Topsport Analogy
The last months were filled with a heated public debate on whether academia should be seen as ‘topsport’ (the Dutch term for professional sports). Funnily, right before these public discussions, we had our own local discussions with proponents of the topsport analogy. After thinking a lot about this complex topic, we will argue in this…
Mental Health & Academia – Following a Research Master
As I mentioned in an earlier post, completing a Research Master (ReMa)1 program prepared me quite well for starting a Ph.D., but also left me slightly burned out. Looking at it now, I might also strike the ‘slightly’ from this sentence. Even a year later I feel the consequences – my resilience to stress is…