Mental Health: Resilience in International Transitions for Academics Abroad - online

The Berlin University Alliance (BUA) is an alliance of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Together, they are pursuing the goal of creating and shaping an integrated research space in Berlin. This alliance aims to establish Berlin as a leading international science location. All workshops and events offered by the Graduate Studies Support Program are funded by the BUA and therefore free of charge.

Participation

Doctoral researchers and postdocs (all disciplines) of the Berlin University Alliance.

Before booking a workshop, please make sure that you can attend for the entire duration. Please check our terms and conditions.

Objectives

Developing an understanding of typical transition stressors and building a toolkit of sustainable strategies to manage stress in transition can help you build resilience and cultivate work habits that support mental health. 

In this workshop, we’ll explore common transition stressors and their impact on researchers in their work and daily lives. We’ll share our experiences, develop strategies to reduce and manage stress, and explore work habits that can make the difference between surviving and thriving in the increasingly global academic job market.

Content

Whether it’s navigating daily life in a new country, balancing your own cultural expectations against those of  your new environment, or experiencing a shift in or loss of support structures - there’s a lot to manage in cross-cultural transitions. Researchers and doctoral students who have relocated from abroad to work in a new environment arrive with high expectations for their own productivity, and along with their colleagues and employers, they often expect themselves to hit the ground running once they’ve found an apartment and unpacked their belongings. 

The stressors inherent in international transitions can make it feel harder to manage your research project successfully. You might feel like you’ve hit an invisible wall, or find yourself questioning your work patterns or project structure. When challenges arise – issues communicating with your supervisor, a snag in collaborating with a colleague, or a global pandemic – it’s easy to feel even more overwhelmed then you might have felt back home.