204 Letter from Alexandra Witte
Dear future women tourism researchers,
Being an early-career academic myself still, writing this letter comes from a point of recent and ongoing lessons I am learning. Some of the advice I wish to give you is, therefore, somewhat aspirational on my part as well. I still hope you will find it useful in some fashion.
Do the work you love. Researching, publishing, and discussing your work should not be a chore. Find areas of research in tourism that matter to you, that you are genuinely curious about, and you will do your best work. Your best work may not always be done fast, it may not even always get the funding you were hoping for, and it may not always align with what your senior colleagues and supervisors suggest you do. Funding is great, publications are important, and we are subject to the rules and regulations of the institutions we work for. However, if we only did the research we receive some external grant for, or which responds 100% to internal departmental metrics of what is or is not worthwhile research, the wider research landscape would be much poorer for it.
Be kind to yourself. Personally, I have met many academics, especially early-career, who have incredibly high expectations of themselves. I count myself among them. Comparing myself to others at similar career stages can be helpful in determining what other opportunities I might want to look into, but it can also be highly misleading and an exercise in self-doubt. Life as an academic does not occur in a vacuum. We have family and friends, life events outside of work, worries, joys, and many other personal circumstances that frame where we can find ourselves as academics at any given time. So, I hope that you will find it possible to be kind to yourself and to know when you can push yourself further and when it might be time to slow down.
Pass on the support that you have had and the support you wish you had experienced. Modern academia can pressure people into only looking out for themselves. With constantly duelling obligations to publish, find grants, teach, grade, supervise and administer, it can be easy to slip into a ‘dog eats dog’ mentality. Even if you do not, it is always possible that someone in your surroundings does, and you end up on the receiving end of that mentality. These experiences can be frustrating, angering, and saddening. Don’t pass that on. Be part of the counter-movement and support others around you in the way you would like to be supported. More often than not, these people will themselves go on to support others. I have had the good fortune to meet and work with many people in academia who were willing to support, mentor and help me when needed, and I hope to do the same as I go on as an academic.
Love your work but don’t live to work. To me, life as an academic has been a case of never feeling like my work was done. I know this is a feeling shared by many of my colleagues. There is always that conference you could be go