Wearing Different Hats: How to Live Your Roles in Academia

Target group: PhD researchers and postdoctoral researchers 

Language: English

Registration: Training und Weiterbildung - Research Careers Campus Graz

Description: Navigating academic life means navigating multiple roles within and outside of academia. This workshop makes the invisible expectations behind these roles visible – and helps PhDs act with more clarity, confidence, and agency.

An early-career researcher you navigate a complex set of roles: you are a learner (sometimes addressed as a student), a researcher, sometimes a lecturer, and frequently also an administrator. Most often, you hold other roles outside your academic life as well.  Each role comes with its own responsibilities, expectations, and challenges. For PhD researchers, one and the same person can be both your supervisor and your boss. These overlaps create tension, ambiguity, and uncertainty – but also valuable opportunities for growth.

In this interactive workshop  we explore these multiple roles using different frameworks and role maps. Together, we reflect on external demands and internal expectations, identify potential role conflicts, and develop constructive strategies to navigate them. The workshop creates space for peer exchange, reflection, and practical takeaways – helping participants navigate their diverse roles more consciously and strengthen their capacity to balance the demands of academic life.

Goals

• Understand the range of roles early-career researchers inhabit and their implicit expectations
• Identify role conflicts, overlaps, and sources of tension
• Increase awareness of internal vs. external demands
• Strengthen role clarity and personal agency in academic settings
• Develop practical strategies for navigating complex role constellations
• Build confidence in managing relationships with supervisors, colleagues, and institutions

How We Work
The workshop follows a social-anthropological approach: we make visible what usually remains implicit in everyday academic practice. Through guided reflection, role mapping, peer dialogue, and practical exercises, participants use conceptual frameworks to understand their lived experiences better. The atmosphere is interactive, reflective, and collaborative – designed to support both insight and actionable growth.

Facilitator: Dr. Deniz Seebacher. She holds a PhD in anthropology and is an organizational consultant who has been working internationally with managers from various organizations for over 15 years