Open Minds

a set of video interview panels about
›› chronic and mental illnesses &
›› academic professional development

In 2022, as part of the Professors For The Future (PFTF) program at UC Davis, I set out to demystify the overlap between academic professional development and coping with mental or chronic illness—in particular during early career stages such as applications and job interviews.

Of course, there are no easy answers or solutions, but to explore this theme, I hosted a variety of video interviews with people who have firsthand experience with illness and disability in the context of academic advancement, and made these conversations centralized and accessible via YouTube. This project was targeted towards academics with chronic mental illnesses, but people with other disabilities, particularly invisible ones, may also find these resources relevant and helpful.

Highlights

As expected, personal experiences among disabled academics vary greatly. Nonetheless, a few main suggestions arose:

  • Don’t disclose your condition until tenured.
  • If possible, it’s better to “come out” on your own terms than to be outed by a concerning or embarrassing flare-up.
  • If you are considering taking leave, make sure you won’t lose your insurance benefits.
  • Build a “safety net” of a few close colleagues to prepare for the unexpected.

Rationale

1) Professional development resources
are limited in scope.

Many graduate students and postdoctoral scholars are pursuing a career in academia, but the process of writing applications and interviewing for these positions is drastically different than that of the typical job market. For this reason, universities have developed professional development resources—workshops, seminars, etc.—that familiarize graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with the “academic pipeline.”

While it’s true that pursuing an academic career requires tremendous focus, it is too often forgotten that early-career academics are also multidimensional human beings. We must take other facets of life into account when planning our careers, such as our health, immigration status, financial situation, and/or parenthood. There are resources for life matters, and there are resources for professional development, but what is severely lacking is intersectionality:

There is hardly any documented information or advice that discusses chronic illnesses with regards to the logistics of the academic ladder. (Applications? Zoom interviews? In-person interviews? Negotiations? HR? And why on earth is health insurance tied to employment?)

Encyclopedia Britannica

How can an aspiring academic comply with expectations like short-term appointments, limited finances, and intense in-person interviews while also managing an unpredictable chronic illness?


2) How can we acknowledge mental illness in an industry that employs people based on their mental capabilities?

iStock

Mental illnesses, chronic illnesses, and disabilities are common among graduate students and postdoctoral researchers—in 2021, an enormous 38% of graduate students across the University of California system met criteria for clinical depression.

Legally, this shouldn’t have an impact on career success: academic job postings by law are open to all, regardless of age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability status—to name but a few factors. But it goes without saying that…

a) the academic job market is intensely competitive, and
b) hiring committees are prejudiced, especially unconsciously.

Yes, we need to strive for a more diverse academia—including diversity in [dis]ability—and any university faculty worth their salt will agree. However, reading about a documented disability on an application certainly shapes how that application is received by members of faculty hiring committees.

Is it counterproductive for early career academics to disclose their mental illness as part of a diversity statement? Reactions among the committee may include…

“This doesn’t count as ‘real’ diversity. Other groups have it worse.”
“If they have X disorder, they could be unstable or even dangerous.”
“We can’t count on this person to think straight about their job.”
“This person just seems less capable than our other candidates.”

These reactions are not mutually exclusive. Applicants with invisible disabilities may somehow be “claiming false diversity” and simultaneously “disabled to the point of incapable.”


3) Perspectives on invisible disabilities

To start to address the above uncertainties, I have hosted a series of interviews with people who have firsthand experience with, and/or knowledge about, achieving a successful academic career with a disability. In the spirit of disability access, I hope this project will help many people within and beyond the UC Davis bubble: These interviews are publicly available in video, audio, and written transcript formats.

Sam Kalda – Chronicle of Higher Ed

Some are university professors with mental illnesses themselves. Personal experiences about pursuing a career are valuable, and in addition, their experiences with hiring committees and department dynamics can shed light on hidden conversations. (How have applicants approached this? What has been beneficial or detrimental to their success as a candidate?) Of course, there are countless others out there who may have sought a faculty position, but after years of struggling with their disability or meeting expectations, decided the effort to stay in academia just wasn’t worth the trouble—this last perspective is rarely, if ever, acknowledged, and greatly needs a platform for increased exposure and frank discussion.

Other interviewees are UC Davis students and alumni. I was most interested in learning about the university’s logistical “support system” or lack thereof: How do disability leave and academic pauses play out in reality for graduate students?

I had also planned on interviewing university administrators, disability office staff, and other people who could provide an insider perspective on different types of disability accommodations and typical courses of action. However, my interviewees requested to remain anonymous, so instead I compiled the information from that interview and presented it in the form of an artificial conversation—again in video, audio, and transcript format.

Pat Kinsella – Chronicle of Higher Ed

Please let me know [contact] if any links are broken. Additionally, if this project has been useful to you in some way, I would love to hear about it. 🙂

Episodes

Episode 2. University logistics:
Disability accommodations, tenure clocks, etc.

recorded April 5, 2023

Featured topics:
– How does one sign up for accommodations as a student vs. employee?
– What does taking leave look like?

Interview video (subtitled) – YouTube

Interview transcript (.txt) – download or below

Audio file (.m4a, ~17MB) – download

Transcript (click to expand):

Episode 1. Faculty discussion:
Personal experiences and words of advice

recorded March 3, 2023

Featured topics:
– When/how did you tell your colleagues and departments about your condition?
– What advice or strategies do you have for early career academics?

Interview video (subtitled) – YouTube

Interview transcript (.txt) – download or below

Audio file (.m4a, ~38MB) – download

Article 1: Lambe 2022Seeing Madness in the Archives (PDF) – download

Article 2: Whitten 2020Stigma Matters: An African American psychology
professor comes out of the mental illness closet (PDF) – download

Transcript (click to expand)

Episode 3. Student discussion:
Experiences, perspectives, and pondering

recorded May 12, 2023

Featured topics:
– How do you build a good professional support network?
– How do you advocate for yourself?
– At UC Davis, how effective is the student health center and student insurance?

Interview video (subtitled)YouTube

Interview transcript (.txt) – download or below

Audio file (.m4a, ~37MB) – download

Transcript (click to expand):