On Tuesday, May 12, UiAdoc will hold its annual general assembly, during which a new board will be elected to serve during the academic year 2020-21. Several of our colleagues have submitted their candidacy for board positions. Below, you will find information about each of the candidates.
Candidates
Barbara Carvalho
PhD Candidate
Department of Psychosocial Health
Running for President
Text from the candidate:
Hello! My name is Barbara Carvalho and I was asked to write a short motivation letter, explaining why I am applying for this position and what added value I can bring. Wondering about which characteristics and values a UiAdoc board president should have? Well, if so, you are not alone! Unfortunately, I do not have a definite answer for that. Instead I will write briefly about myself and what I can hopefully bring to it.
I am a psychologist and have a master’s degree from 2010 in Work and Organizational Psychology from the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Currently, I have been working at the University of Agder as a PhD Research Fellow at the Department of Psychosocial Health. The aim of my research project is to understand the underlying relation of parental alcohol drinking and parenting on child and adolescent mental health.
During my previous path, leading to this point, I had experiences that I consider to be useful for the role I chose. I have worked in distinct organizations where I had the opportunity to meet people with different backgrounds, characterized by international environments, multidisciplinary cooperation and unique cultural perspectives. My master thesis focused on learning culture in organizations, particularly those from the public sector, which is also quite a valuable topic in the academic world.
On a more personal level, and in my opinion the most important level for this role, I love working with people and to socialize with others from different generations and backgrounds. As a PhD or a Postdoc, we are in an exceptional position to build a strong network and to grow as a person with this experience. However, I also know it can be a challenging and tough position. And knowing that UiAdoc is an organization that can help smooth this path and give us a voice, is probably my biggest motivation to join this project.
Saga Pardede
PhD Candidate
Department of Psychosocial Health
Running for Events and Activities Coordinator
Text from the candidate:
This position would be perfect for me since I posses the experience of coordinating events and activities. My experiences extends from working with both adults and young people in various settings, making me versatile. I have experience in providing proper supervision for activities, and the ability to plan the events along with gathering and distributing all information concerning the events to the target group. The last experience of a university event that I took part with in developing was for an International Master's Association in Finland. I took part in creating an event called "Living Library", which was based on the notion of showing another side of a person and stepping away from cultural norms and stereotypes.
As international PhD's it is not only important for us to be active but at the same time to connect with one another. And, having someone who can offer such events and activities would benefit the PhD to thrive as a community.
Sinziana Rasca
PhD Candidate
Department of Engineering Sciences
Running for Ex-Oficio (support in UiA board election), President, Communications and Marketing
Text from the candidate:
Hi! I'm Sinziana! Or Suz, as most of my friends call me.
For the past year I have been serving as elected president for UiAdoc. I have worked on building up UiAdoc, with the help of a very dedicated team of PhDs and postdocs at UiA, since October 2018. I am so happy to see that we are now at our second GA and that we have managed to achieve many targets of the ones we first set in those first few months of dreaming to have such an organization.
After one year as president of UiAdoc, I decided to run for the UiA board and become an ex-officio member of UiAdoc. In this way, I could lobby more directly for changes that would positively affect all temporary employees, especially the PhD and postdocs group which is the most international group at UiA. Some of the things I would like to positively influence as a member of the UiA board would be:
better mental health support for all temporary employees, especially PhDs and postdocs
better communication for this group, with a special focus on bilingual communication
more structure and transparency for cross-disciplinary research projects
better quality of courses offered to PhDs and postdocs at UiA
better communication and reporting structures for exchange research and guest researchers grants.
I would also like to be there for all of you if there would be things you would like to lobby for or clarify. For this purpose, I would set up regular monthly meetings in Kristiansand and Grimstad where we can all discuss live what are the most important things needed. Of course, I would always be available by mail.
In case I will not be elected for the UiA board, I would like to run for the position of President of UiAdoc or Communication officer. My experience in the last year gave me a lot of insight into these two key positions, and I would love to continue my work in any of them.
That being said, I am looking forward to meeting you all on the 12th of May at our online GA!
Hossein Baharmand
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Information and Communication Technology
Running for Academic and Skills Development Coordinator
Text from the Candidate:
Having the experience of representing temporary research and teaching staff on the University Board in 2017-2018, I would like to apply for the position "Academic and skills development coordinator" at the UiAdoc Board. I joined UiA in January 2015 to conduct my PhD on humanitarian operations and I won the prestigious Best PhD Dissertation Award from the Hanken School of Economics. I also represented PhDs on the Research and Education Committee at the Department of ICT for almost two years (2016-2018). Currently, I am working as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of ICT. In my academic career, I have published several conference and journal papers, and (co-)chaired tracks in multiple international conferences. That said, I look forward to contributing with my experience and expertise to further improve the skills of UiAdoc's members in academic writing and presentation, conducting qualitative and quantitative research, and attending relevant courses for future career development.
Mareike Brehmer
PhD Candidate
Department of Education
Running for Secretary
Text from the Candidate:
My name is Mareike Brehmer and I would be very interested in volunteering as Secretary of the Board at UiAdoc. Starting my PhD in December 2019, I was very lucky to become quickly involved with other national and international fellow researchers through the UiAdoc’s ‘Christmas Mixer’. Working at the Department of Education, which is strongly dominated by locals, I highly appreciated to be offered an informal opportunity to get in touch with more international employees sharing the same experiences and challenges. My wish is still to expand my professional and social network at the academy further, but as part of the UiAdoc board, I would also love to provide others with the same experience, to have a good start here and enjoy their period as a PhD candidate. After graduating from the University of Kiel with an M. A. in Education and International Comparative Sociology, different jobs as a teacher for adult immigrants, social and asylum process counselor and pedagogue prepared me well for the international working environment. Being a process-oriented person who values reliable planning and efficient administration, I would feel in the perfect spot as Secretary of the board at UiAdoc.
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