Darragh McCashin on interdisciplinarity, a new lecturership during COVID, and his imposter (Part 1)

Changing Academic Life

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1+ y ago 32:46

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Dr Darragh McCashin started as an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Dublin City University during COVID. In Part 1 of this conversation, he reflects on his experiences doing an interdisciplinary PhD in digital mental health, on the importance of interdisciplinary thinking, and on starting a lecturer position at a new university during COVID times. Darragh is also part of the Core Group for the EU COST Network on Researcher Mental Health Observatory, called ReMO. In sharing what he loves and what he finds challenging in his lecturing role, we start to touch on the theme of the imposter, a theme that we focus on in Part 2, coming soon.

“It's so hard methodologically logistically to manifest that interdisciplinarity.”

“Taking up that [lecturer] position early September 2020. So .. I'm excited for that. But like anything, it was all on Zoom. So it almost didn't feel real.”

“[Likes] the flexibility in being able to say, okay, I can set my research agenda”

“It's always the next thing … the cycle of imposterism, you'll achieve that thing that you thought you'd never achieve. … And then almost like lightning, it's the next thing that the anxious gaze shifts towards.”

“It's incredibly powerful when somebody beside you in a different career stage or in a different discipline, spews the same type of imposter stuff, … You're like, okay, so it's not it's not just me”

Overview (times approximate):

00:30 Preamble

02:07 Darragh introduces himself

08:07 How he manifests interdisciplinary thinking

09:35 His men in rural Ireland study for a Movember project

14:43 Experiences of taking on his first lecturer position in the middle of a pandemic

20:13 What he loves about his job

22:38 What he is afraid of – the imposter.

25:39 The recognition from audiences when he talks about the pressures of academia and the imposter

30:01 My reflections at the end

32:46 End

In more detail: PART 1

00:30 Preamble

02:07 Darragh introduces his background in sociology and psychology, getting to a PhD in digital mental health and now being an Ass Prof in Dublin City University

08:07 How he manifests interdisciplinary thinking but having to be located within a discipline and the shift to transversal skills (soft skills)

09:35 His men in rural Ireland study for a Movember project bringing together qualitative thinking/methods and psychology constructs

14:43 Experiences of taking on his first lecturer position in the middle of a pandemic, the zoom haze and the challenges getting to know processes, culture and colleagues

20:13 What he loves about his job - the flexibility and learning that he can facilitate and is good at it

22:38 What he is afraid of – the imposter.

25:39 The recognition from audiences when he talks about the pressures of academia and the imposter, and on hearing the research that says 1 in 3 PhD students experience mental health issues

30:01 My reflections at the end

32:46 End

Download a full transcript of the conversation here.