Are You Still a Postdoc? How My Scientific Identity Intersects with My Immigrant Status

• Main Author: Emma Hernandez-Sanabria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Microbiology 2020-05-01
• Series: mSphere
• Subjects: academia; diversity; immigrant; postdoctoral fellow
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00372-20

Academics in non-tenure-track positions encounter a unique set of challenges on the road toward tenure. Institutionalized policies and lack of mentors are additional burdens for foreign scientists, resulting in representation differences. Becoming a scientist has been a personal and moving journey in which my multiple selves intersect and clash every now and again. My identity as a scientist is a life project and has intersected with my other identities: a young Latina immigrant in Western Europe.Academics in non-tenure-track positions encounter a unique set of challenges on the road toward tenure. Institutionalized policies and lack of mentors are additional burdens for foreign scientists, resulting in representation differences. Becoming a scientist has been a personal and moving journey in which my multiple selves intersect and clash every now and again. My identity as a scientist is a life project and has intersected with my other identities: a young Latina immigrant in Western Europe. This crossroad has molded, and at times, challenged my participation in science.