Hi and welcome to our blog, I am so happy you clicked! My name is Aistė and I am one of the postdoctoral fellows in the growing SEAS programme team. Here is my short introduction for this blog that we, the fellows, plan to use as a space for inspiring and sustaining discussions about our research and academic experiences.
I would like to start from the idea of privilege. In my maternal line, my grandmother finished two grades of elementary school. The teacher lauded her dedication and motivation to learn and asked the parents to let my grandma continue her education. But their consensus was that she, as a girl, needed to stay in the family-owned farm and the eldest brother should study instead. Fast forward years later, my mother had more opportunities; she finished high school and achieved her professional education as a seamstress. Today, I have a privilege that was not available to my mother or to my grandmother – I am doing a postdoc at the University of Bergen (UiB) – one of the leading universities in marine sciences.
Why is it a privilege? First, privilege is a conscious ability to choose a path. In this case, I see my ability to choose as a mixture of nature and nurture that create space for that choice. I think this is especially important as many of the women who have raised me, including nursery teachers and neighbors, perhaps, never had that space created for them. Yet, they were able to create that space for me. (1) Second, I see privilege as an opportunity to go as far as you would want on a chosen path. In very broad terms, living in a globalized society and being an EU citizen, has given me opportunities that were not available to my mother and my grandmother. To go beyond my own space, I still have more opportunities than some of my peers who, for example, have different passports. (2) Third, it is a privilege to be in a nurturing academic environment and to have the opportunity to learn from a diverse group of colleagues. The SEAS programme expands this opportunity by bringing seven UiB faculties together, which allows our programme team to have space for cross-disciplinary discussions, cooperation, and creation.
Next, comes responsibility, which I see as an extension of privilege. I feel responsibility to my colleagues and to the inspiring minds behind the SEAS programme idea. It is a responsibility to give back for the opportunity and to create together, to give concrete and material building blocks to grow from an idea to a strong and dedicated team, fostering useful and powerful research and pushing for real world impacts, from policy to innovation.
So, dear reader, sit back and relax! Follow this space for more and enjoy observing how the above paragraphs take shape and become reality.
(1) More about it here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373065/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate
(2) More about passport privilege: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2021/09/23/passport-privilege-in-academia/
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