Morteza Mahmoudi witnessed bullying behaviours during a series of lab visits following his PhD in 2009, and now studies the topic alongside his role as a nanoscience and regenerative medicine researcher at Michigan State University in East Lansing. In 2019 he co-founded the Academic Parity Movement, a non-profit which aims to end academic discrimination, violence and bullying across the sector.
In the seventh episode of this podcast series about freedom and safety in science, Mahmoudi tells Adam Levy that bullying is triggered by workplace power imbalances and is particularly prevalent in academia with its hierarchical structure, often causing targets to stay silent.
Bullying can cause a range of physical and mental health problems, he says. Perpetrators damage individuals, institutions’ reputations and wider society. He outlines steps to take if you find yourself bullied, and how academic institutions can tackle the problem.
Mahmoudi is joined by geoscientist Chris Jackson, who left academia in 2022 for a role at engineering consultancy Jacobs, based in Manchester, UK. Jackson welcomes the fact that bullying harassment and discrimination in academia is now more talked about, but says its root cause is an individual’s inability to put themselves in someone else’s position and identify with their personality and experience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Science and government, Canadian style
Love science, loathe coding? Research software engineers to the rescue
Learn to code to boost your research career
Why universities are failing to embrace AI
Challenges and opportunities for materials researchers in China
The grant funding lottery and how to fix it
How to beat research funding's boom and bust cycle
How to navigate the UK's new research funding landscape
Grant application essentials
How to plan a successful grant application
Inside the NIH grant review process
Salary and job satisfaction in science: voices from the front line
Women in physics, women in Africa
A winning team of innovators who promote women in science
Lean PhD programmes, and a conversation with Lego Grad Student
With a PhD you can do anything
Another country, and how to fit in
How to track the "lost generation" of scientists
How to run a creative and diverse PhD programme
Curating the careers of India's women scientists
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Reaching your Goals
Insights@work
Redefiners
The Ken Coleman Show
The Cardone Zone