Mental health in academia
Academia worldwide is facing a mental health crisis, especially among the young researchers. As a response, together with a group of amazing PhD students from both the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and other graduate programs in Berlin we created an initiative for mental health of young academics: Scholar Minds. Our main goals are: psychoeducation, raising awareness of the problem through organising events, talks and discussions, creating an information hub with resources and links, and describing the status quo of the mental health of PhD students in Berlin.
To learn more, click here to visit our website. You will also find there resources if you are looking for help or information.
Academic planning
As an international doctoral student in Germany and a DAAD scholarship holder, I had a chance to share some experiences and advice about pursuing a PhD in Germany at the “Doctoral opportunities in Germany” event organised by the Research in Germany and the Ministry of Education and Research on 8/02/21. See the recording of the meeting above!
I was invited to discuss digital credentials in academia organised during the Long Night of Ideas by my scholarship provider, DAAD. There were plenty of interesting short talks and discussions about many aspects of the academic life. Check their website and learn more!
Science communication
I believe science is a collaborative effort, which should benefit everyone, within or outside of academia. I try to make my research open and reproducible, I have been involved in many events bringing science closer to the general public, and I had a chance to write about my research in popular science means. Find out more below!
Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften
“Long Night of Science” is a an annual popular science event in Berlin, during which interested visitors can approach scientists, learn about what they do, and participate in short experiments.
For the 2019 edition, we prepared a short experiment, in which participants played a repeat-a-pattern game on a gamepad and we monitored their pupillary responses to received social feedback.
Popular science articles
”Autistic traits can influence social motivation” for the Polish Press Agency (2017) – available here (in Polish)
”How to read others” for the Copernicus Festival 2017: Emotions (2017) – available here (in Polish)
Festival of Science, Krakow
During my student years I volunteered at the annual “Festiwal Nauki” (Festival of Science), which brings together Krakow’s universities to present their research and teaching focus to the general public. We offered engaging ways to learn about Cognitive Science at Jagiellonian University in Krakow – quizzes, tests, playing with pre-programmed robots, etc.
Online shared artistic experiences during COVID
How does a short artistic experience online, like drawing a collaborative painting with other people, influence their mood and creativity? With artist and scientist Albert Barque Duran we created two fun studies, in which we asked a group of art students to engage in an online collaborative drawing task. Before and after they answered a number of questions about their emotional state, their creativity, importance of similar experiences, and others. We also assessed their mental health with standard screening tools. Learn more from our Twitter-reports:
MagdaLena Matyjek, Ph.D. 