The purpose of this piece is to critically reflect on the author’s experiences as an international female postdoctoral scholar navigating higher education in the United States, as well as to highlight important institutional and systemic issues affecting the work and well-being of international postdoctoral scholars in the United States. In particular, the article highlights issues of “disembodied practices,” whereby institutions separate international scholars’ professional lives from their embodied lived experiences; specifically, privileging the former and neglecting the latter. By adopting a gendered and cultural perspective, the author raises awareness about important issues and needs faced by international women in the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS), and more generally, in higher education. Finally, while academia tends to favor empirical data and discount personal histories, this article aims to show that bodies and stories matter. Therefore, in part, the goal of this piece is to highlight and revalidate embodied knowledge in institutional spaces.

Disembodiment of Education:

From this author’s experience, the Cartesian mind and body^[1] split is very present in academia and results in a ‘disembodied’ educational experience. The competitive nature of academia leads to a focus on results and performance, while relegating everything else, such as bodies and feelings, less important. Furthermore, academia usually values STEM and empirical data over narrative-style, artistic, autoethnographic, self-reflective approaches which are more prevalent in HASS fields. Non-traditional kinds of knowledge such as kinesthetic knowledge are often not considered legitimate in academic spaces. This results in a disconnect between who we are (our identities, positionalities, emotions, and bodies) and what we do. Such a clean break is incidentally paradoxical because our research, writing, and teaching cannot be disconnected from ourselves. As a result, neglecting embodied experiences can have serious consequences for wellness; when our needs are discounted, stress, anxiety, or other health issues happen, and, in turn, affect work. Higher education tends to see us not as people but as knowledge-generating robots able to completely detach our personal, emotional, and embodied aspects. We will see below how the disembodied culture of education considerably impacted the author’s academic career journey.

From Home to California and (Not) Back: Crossing or Creating Borders?

The author started graduate school in the United States with visions of the ultimate American dream. However, reality quickly set in when she experienced multiple barriers to success as a doctoral student. The biggest barrier was universities’ lack of awareness about international scholars’ needs, particularly those of an intersectional nature that comprised cultural, gender, and scholarly identities.

For some reason, many have the wrong impression that international scholars come from privileged backgrounds and can comfortably afford to study in the United States. In the author’s case, the administration and faculty often didn’t consider her funding needs and her adjustments to U.S. costs of living. This experience is not exceptional, as international scholars are frequently misinformed about fellowship opportunities, work authorizations, or loans. Nationality and visa status considerably restrict options, especially in non-STEM fields. Moreover, HASS scholars tend to be underfunded and are compelled to work twice as hard to get through their studies with the limited available funding.

“Non-traditional kinds of knowledge such as kinesthetic knowledge are often not considered legitimate in academic spaces. This results in a disconnect between who we are (our identities, positionalities, emotions, and bodies) and what we do.”

Universities' lack of awareness of international scholars’ socio-cultural challenges also has an impact. For example, universities tend to hire them to help with diversity quotas, but they don’t really appreciate their different cultural, social, linguistic backgrounds that define them. Many don’t realize that, on top of conducting research and teaching in a new language, international scholars also have to adapt to new socio-cultural norms, having had to overcome a great deal to be here. Thus, other needs, such as connecting with similar cultural groups, are often not met.

There is also considerable discrimination towards international female scholars in HASS. For example, lack of American cultural references can lead to derision; in leadership and STEM settings, input is not taken seriously because of differing disciplinary backgrounds. As a result, female scholars in the field can be treated as personal assistants and undervalued as scholars. Gender and accents are also contributors to the problem. Moreover, new international scholars lack the confidence and tools needed to speak up against these injustices and voice their concerns. Furthermore, some are subject to cultural norms which encourage them to suppress their feelings, resulting in yet another example of the disconnect between embodied and professional experiences.

International scholars’ American dream is not always fulfilled in the way they had imagined. Many enter thinking they will get a better life by the completion of their doctorate, which sadly isn’t always the case and is often misleadingly propagated by host academic institutions. Being a foreigner and in HASS significantly impacts the job search process. In the industry sector, many employers avoid sponsoring work visas, especially for non-STEM researchers. Since it is easier for academic institutions to sponsor visas, the academic world often seems like the only option left to such scholars. The federal policy of giving HASS graduates only one-year optional professional training^[2] instead of three years for STEM graduates further dissuades employers from hiring. As a result, after only a couple of months into the author’s postdoctoral position, she was already back on the job market. Being a consistent player on the job market can be both demotivating and exhausting; simply “going back home” is often not an option because professional lives and networks are often tied to the United States.

International postdoctoral scholars comprise more than 50 percent of the U.S. research enterprise. It is imperative that academia attempts to better understand international scholars and recognize them as people with cultural, embodied, and financial needs and to alleviate the systemic challenges they face. Higher education institutions need to lobby for better policies and advocate for more embodied and cultural practices to help international scholars conduct research in America.

^[1] Also referred to as Cartesian Dualism, a theory by French philosopher, Rene Descarte: “dualism is the theory that the mental and the physical – or mind and body or mind and brain – are radically different kinds of thing. Because common sense tells us that there are physical bodies, and because there is intellectual pressure towards producing a unified view of the world, one could say that materialist monism is the ‘default option’. Discussion about dualism, therefore, tends to start from the assumption of the reality of the physical world, and then to consider arguments for why the mind cannot be treated as simply part of that world.” (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism/)

^[2] Optional Practical Training (OPT) is temporary employment that is directly related to an F-1 student’s major area of study (www.uscis.gov/)

Maïko Le Lay, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral scholar in the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine and volunteers with the NPA’s International Officers task force.

Figure 1: Demographic characteristics of full-time basic science faculty at U.S.-based medical institutions between 1998 and 2018 (Source: Meyers et al., 2018). Right click and click "Open Image in New Tab" to see a larger image.

In 2018, Meyers et al. reported that while recipients of biomedical doctorates from URM and non-URM groups were equally likely to secure a postdoctoral position, the number of tenure-track URM faculty members, especially full professors, remained disproportionately low (Figure 1.) A later study by Bennett et al. showed that from 1998 to 2018, the percentage of Black/African-American basic science faculty members at U.S.-based medical institutions increased from 1.57 to 1.99 percent and the percentage of Hispanic/Latinx faculty members of any race increased from 3.03 to 4.44 percent. By contrast, the percentage of white faculty members fluctuated between 80 and 60 percent in this same time frame. Furthermore, Gibbs et al. reported that with the current rate of transition to tenure track roles, the proportion of URM faculty members would not be significantly higher in 2080 despite the increasing number of URM candidates being awarded doctorates.

“It is crucial for the NIH and other federal agencies to ensure the retention of talented URM scientists and maximize the quality of biomedical research.”

Institute Directors Speak Out

Although these issues have been ongoing, the disproportionate effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black patients and the killing of unarmed Black citizens such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have brought the discussion of systemic racism in the biomedical enterprise to the forefront of conversation at various NIH institutes. In June 2020, for example, Jon Lorsch, Ph.D., the director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), co-authored a blog post containing recommendations on combating anti-Black racism in biomedical research. At the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), director Walter Koroshetz, spoke about eliminating racial bias in his Director’s Message.

Richard Hodes, M.D., and Marie Bernard, M.D., the director and deputy director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), respectively, published a blog post on the importance of addressing racial inequality in aging-focused research. Additionally, the NIH chief officer of scientific workforce diversity (COSWD), Hannah Valentine, M.D., provided an overview of how the NIH planned to address structural racism at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA on July 3, 2020. However, it was approximately eight months after Valentine’s lecture that the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) met to discuss the launch of a new initiative to aggressively combat structural racism within the NIH and the biomedical research enterprise.

A UNITED Effort

On February 26, 2021 during the ACD meeting, Bernard, who also serves as acting chief officer for scientific workforce diversity in addition to her role as NIA deputy director, presented a summary of the UNITE Initiative to Francis Collins, M.D, Ph.D., director of the NIH. This initiative, which originated from a partnership between the NIH Anti-Harassment Steering Committee, Eight Changes for Racial Equality (8CRE), and the African-American/Black Scientists Affinity Group, aims to address structural racism within the biomedical research community through the formation of five trans-NIH committees. These committees are each represented by a different letter in the word “UNITE” and will focus on the following issues:

• Understanding stakeholder experiences through listening and learning
• New research on health disparities/minority health/health inequity
• Improving the NIH culture and structure for equity, inclusion, and excellence
• Transparency, communication, and accountability with NIH’s internal and external stakeholders
• Extramural research ecosystem and changing policy, culture, and structure to promote workforce diversity

To ensure that the work performed by these committees aligns with the priorities of the biomedical research community and to gather suggestions on how to better address systemic equality within the biomedical workforce and health-related research, the UNITE leadership published a request for information (RFI) on March 1st, 2021. Furthermore, the NIH has also launched the Ending Structural Racism website to provide transparency for these efforts (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Logo for the NIH UNITE Initiative (Source: NIH Ending Structural Racism website)

Breaking Down Barriers

Considering the extent to which systemic inequity has permeated the biomedical enterprise, it is no surprise that URM postdocs face additional barriers to success that their non-URM colleagues do not face. A study by Yadav et al. highlighted several of these barriers, which include, but are not limited to microaggressions, feelings of isolation, and the self-imposed need to “prove oneself” by working harder than non-URM colleagues. It is crucial for the NIH and other federal agencies to ensure the retention of talented URM scientists and maximize the quality of biomedical research.

For more information about the NPA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, please visit https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/page/Diversity.

Stephanie M. Davis, Ph.D., is a program officer at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute who has served as an associate editor for The POSTDOCket since 2019. She is an alumna of the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellows Program (2019-2020) and currently serves as the chair of the Women in Bio-Capital Region Chapter and a member of the Future of Research Board of Directors.

Disclaimer: This article was written in Davis’s personal capacity and does not represent the views of the National Institutes of Health or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This article was written to appreciate the efforts of all the members involved in securing funds for the NPA, especially those participating in the fundraising subcommittee and our loyal sponsors. Ever since the establishment of the NPA in 2003, the NPA staff and fundraising subcommittee have been successful in securing revenue needed for the annual conferences. The 2020 – 2021 subcommittee’s co-chair and 2018 NPA Distinguished Service Awardee, Sam Castaneda, says “it’s absolutely essential to be armed with the perseverance of passionate team, technology and the right tools.”

On top of existing logistical issues, the global pandemic made fundraising more challenging in light of the revenue reductions experienced by many potential sponsors. Daniel Radecki, Ph.D., fundraising subcommittee co-chair, said “I know it gets challenging securing the funds during the COVID and needs strong leadership to help tackle it.” In joining the subcommittee last year, Radecki sought to bring his skills – obtained through working with a consulting group at his university – to the NPA fundraising team. With the help of team members, Roozbeh Yousefzadeh, Ph.D., and Preeti Kanikarla, Ph.D., the subcommittee researched and identified a new software tool to assist the NPA in streamlining its donor outreach and management. This efficient tool facilitates centralizing the donation and contributing agencies/organization details, including those from past years. The committee’s efforts assist the NPA team to analyze donation data and refine strategies for a sustainable future beyond the pandemic.

The NPA is not just for postdoc improvement in the United States as evidenced by the significant contributions of the subcommittee member, Hala Helal, Ph.D., a faculty member at a pharmacy in Egypt. Having experienced financial issues during her postdoc study, she wanted to volunteer to help other postdocs boost their career outcomes. She hopes to translate the skills she has learned from the fundraising team to build a similar postdoc organization in Egypt one day! All the members of the subcommittee added “ we work with a common goal and achieve our aspiration to help our fellow postdocs. We are new to fundraising, but wanted to take the challenge especially during the pandemic. Sam – with his exemplary training and professional experience – played a huge role in fundraising for the Annual Conference. Sam equipped us with the knowledge and right mindset to accept multiple rejections from potential sponsors due to the pandemic and persevere.”

The NPA’s goal to enhance the postdoc experience can only be achieved through collaboration. In light of the current year’s achievement, the volunteers offer special appreciation to the NPA’s dedicated staff, Amy Wilson and Kryste Ferguson for their continued hard work in outreaching, sustaining and securing donations.

Under the leadership of Thomas P. Kimbis, J.D., the organization’s new executive director and chief executive officer, the NPA’s fundraising future looks bright. Kimbis, who is always up for challenges, took the position amidst the pandemic in August 2020. He has been playing a major role by actively involving and reaching out to various organizations and institutions by spreading the awareness of the NPA’s mission, emphasizing expanded outreach to NPA partners, new and existing. In addition to his amazing fundraising ideas, he and the NPA treasurer, Caleb McKinney, Ph.D., took on new creative challenges, such as the innovative 2021 NPA Pandemic Warrior Awards. It will take a combination of creativity and hard work to continue to develop sponsorship relationships for the NPA going forward.

Established in 2003 as a small group, with the generous donations from our sponsors the NPA has been able to enhance the postdoctoral experience throughout the United States through training and professional development for future employment, and much more. To continue with this stellar mission, the NPA is seeking to expand its fundraising into longer-standing, mutually-beneficial relationships with sponsors to allow the NPA to have the resources necessary to advocate and develop programming for postdocs for years to come.

If you have any innovative and tangible ideas for fundraising or potential sponsors for NPA activities and/or want to learn more about the impact of donations/gifts you make, reach us at development@nationalpostdoc.org.

The NPA offers “special thanks” to all our sponsors for their contributions representing that we are all connected and together during these times of uncertainty and restlessness.

“The experience to work with an organization like the NPA, and to interact with people gives the postdoctoral scholars the opportunity to develop new skills as a non-scientist.” Sam Castaneda

The NPA is an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that solely depends on contributions, grants, bequest and service fees. Your tax-deductible gift will help the NPA’s mission and pioneer new initiatives. To make a donation today, visit our DONATE page to learn more about the ways to support our researchers.

JOIN NPA and spread the word about our mission. For thousands of postdocs across the country, Affiliate membership in the NPA is free - all you need to do is REGISTER to receive your substantial benefits. The more who join, the stronger we can work together and benefit by supporting the next generation of postdoctoral scholars.

Interested in serving as a volunteer? Please email the Meetings Committee at meetings@nationalpostdoc.org.

Lalitha Kurada, Ph.D., is a co-chair of the communications subcommittee and postdoctoral researcher at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (USUHS/DoD/HJF), Bethesda, MD.

The keynote, concurrent, fireside chat and speed talk sessions were all led by strong speakers presenting interesting topics. Stimulating conversation occurred via the general chats and questions were asked through the Q&A tab. These functions likely allowed for even more conversation and interaction between participants than would have occurred in an in-person setting. The networking sessions were a great success – attendees were positively commenting on how fun the BINGO and trivia sessions were. It really brought people together even though attendees were physically far apart.

The Meetings Committee did a fabulous job this year in planning for this virtual conference. Its successful outcome would not have been possible without a strong, motivated team. For the remainder of the article, I would like to highlight the individuals from the various subcommittees who contributed a great deal to making this conference a success! I would also like to emphasize that I am grateful for all who contributed to aiding the Meetings Committee during conference planning.

The Awards Subcommittee: aids in the announcement and reviewing of applications for travel/child-care awards. For this virtual event, registration awards were distributed. We would like to thank both Andrekia Branch and Sumod Sebastian for co-chairing the awards subcommittee this year. We also appreciate the help of Kathy Peng, Chantal Saberian, Aileen Fernandez, Remya Ammassam Veettil, Mary Huff and Krystal Herline for serving as members of the subcommittee.

The Communications Subcommittee: picks various NPA-related topics and writes monthly articles that are submitted to The POSTDOCket for publication. We would like to thank both Lalitha Kurada and Niyati Vachharajani for serving as the co-chairs of this subcommittee and producing articles every month this past year, all published in The POSTDOCket. Lalitha and Niyati, along with subcommittee members Daniel Radecki, Kwame Osei-Safo, Sandra Wittleder and Elena Cruz, wrote articles on a variety of topics ranging from highlighting the fundraising subcommittee to ways to make the most out of a virtual conference.

The Fundraising Subcommittee: secures sponsors who contribute to funds supporting the NPA. Both Daniel Radecki and Sam Castaneda served as the chairs of this subcommittee – they did an excellent job keeping track of potential sponsors and contacting them. We would also like to thank all members including, Hala Helal, Preeti Kanikarla, Amina Kurbidaeva and Roozbeh Yousefzadeh. This team also identified and utilized new software tools to assist the NPA in donor outreach and management. Thanks to the team, we were able to secure even more funds than our original goal this year!

“With over 900 individuals from all around the world registered, the NPA saw more than double the number of attendees observed at previous in-person events.”

The Keynote/Plenary Subcommittee: compiles a list of interesting speakers who can serve as keynote and plenary speaker presenters at upcoming conferences. We would like to thank both Chris Smith and Camila de Avila Dal’Bo for co-chairing this subcommittee. We would also like to acknowledge the help of Jingjie Hu, Shatovisha Dey and Bidisha Mitra for serving as subcommittee members.

The Networking Subcommittee: designs, implements and oversees networking activities held throughout the conference. This subcommittee faced the huge challenge of planning activities that would still promote connections and be fun, both of which are difficult in a virtual setting. With the guidance of the two co-chairs Priyanka Mishra and Vidyanand Sasidharan, the team successfully planned and implemented fun networking activities during the virtual conference, such as BINGO, trivia and a virtual pub crawl. We would also like to thank all members, including Donna Crawley, Cristina Florio, Niyati Vachharajani, Roozbeh Yousefzadeh and Kristin Noell for their input and help. This team met frequently over the last year to prepare using practice sessions to perfect the events for the day of the conference. They also stepped in to facilitate these networking events during the day of the conference to ensure the events were fun for attendees.

The Workshops/Poster Subcommittee: plays a crucial role in announcing, gathering and reviewing applications for concurrent sessions and poster presentations – both of which make up a large portion of our conference. We would like to thank Debra Fadool, Ruth Bahr and Russell Turknett for all their help in generating and maintaining a reviewer portal that was key to application submission and reviewing workshop and poster proposals. We would also like to thank both Debra and Ruth for their support in serving as co-chairs for the 2020-2021 workshops subcommittee, and Amin Firouzi and Md. Hafiz Uddin for serving as co-chairs of the posters subcommittee. Thank you to all members, including: Priyanka Mishra, Martha Jimenez-Castan, Sher Poudel, Anupama Yadav, Andrekia Branch, Shatovisha Dey and Sher Poudel who played important roles in reviewing proposals. Lastly, we would like to mention that these two subcommittees managed two different application calls open at different times throughout the year. In previous years, only one application call would occur – thank you for double the work this year!

Incoming Co-Chairs: A huge thank you to both Daniel Radecki and Priyanka Mishra, the two new incoming Meetings Committee co-chairs, for their help in planning some aspects of the 2021 virtual conference as well as ensuring everything went smoothly the day of the conference. The future of the NPA Meetings Committee is in great hands!

Thank you to Amy Wilson, Kryste Ferguson and Tom Kimbis for all their help in planning this conference. It would not have been possible without their long hours and help. Lastly, thank you to Claudia Spani for all her help throughout the year in conference planning and serving as a strong team member.

Onto planning the next conference, to be held in Chicago, IL in 2022.

JOIN NPA and spread the word about our mission. The more who join, the stronger we can work together and benefit by supporting next generation scientists.

Lisa Maria Mustachio, Ph.D., is the 2020-2021 Meetings Committee co-chair and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis at MD Anderson Cancer Center.