research-article

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Lab Counterculture

Authors:

Jessica Hammer,

Erica Principe CruzAuthors Info & Claims

CHI EA '20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1 - 14

https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.3381824

Published: 25 April 2020 Publication History

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Abstract

While academic research culture varies across schools, disciplines, and individual labs, the material and mental well-being of both graduate students and faculty are often negatively impacted by systemic factors in academia. Here we unpack these patterns in order to counter the narrative that individualistic solutions can bring about change. We illustrate how focus on quantitative outcomes, perfectionism, competition, time scarcity, power dynamics, bias towards maintaining the status quo, and financial stress contribute to negative lab culture. We describe specific, concrete, and actionable practices we institute in our lab to counter these systemic factors. We end by opening the conversation to other researchers to examine and counter toxic lab culture to promote supportive, inclusive, and ethical research.

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Cited By

Adamu M(2024)I Write What I Like and How I Like: Defiance Scholarship in HCIAdjunct Proceedings of the 2024 Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3677045.3685498(1-10)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677045.3685498
Nardo J(2024)Learning or legitimacy? An investigation of the graduate student milestones within a chemistry doctoral programChemistry Education Research and Practice10.1039/D4RP00067F25:4(1122-1142)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4RP00067F
Flanigan BJoshi AMcAllister SVajiac CDoyle MStephenson BDorn BSoh LBattestilli L(2023)CS-JEDIProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569733(87-93)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3545945.3569733
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Lab Counterculture
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI EA '20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2020

4474 pages

ISBN:9781450368193

DOI:10.1145/3334480

General Chairs:
Regina Bernhaupt
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
,
Florian 'Floyd' Mueller
Monash University, Australia
,
David Verweij
Newcastle University, UK
,
Josh Andres
RMIT, Australia
,
Program Chairs:
Joanna McGrenere
University of British Columbia, Canada
,
Andy Cockburn
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
,
Ignacio Avellino
University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
,
Alix Goguey
Grenoble Alpes University, France
,
Pernille Bjørn
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
,
Shengdong (Shen) Zhao
National University of Singapore, Singapore
,
Briane Paul Samson
Future University Hakodate, Japan & De La Salle University, Philippines
,
Rafal Kocielnik
University of Washington, USA

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 25 April 2020

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CHI '20: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 25 - 30, 2020

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Cited By

Adamu M(2024)I Write What I Like and How I Like: Defiance Scholarship in HCIAdjunct Proceedings of the 2024 Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3677045.3685498(1-10)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677045.3685498
Nardo J(2024)Learning or legitimacy? An investigation of the graduate student milestones within a chemistry doctoral programChemistry Education Research and Practice10.1039/D4RP00067F25:4(1122-1142)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4RP00067F
Flanigan BJoshi AMcAllister SVajiac CDoyle MStephenson BDorn BSoh LBattestilli L(2023)CS-JEDIProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569733(87-93)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3545945.3569733
Howell NDesjardins AFox S(2021)Cracks in the Success Narrative: Rethinking Failure in Design Research through a Retrospective TrioethnographyACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/346244728:6(1-31)Online publication date: 15-Nov-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3462447

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