New postdoc position for Katerina Günter
2021-11-11
Congratulations to Katerina Günter, PhD student in gender studies at the Centre for Gender Research, who has accepted a postdoctoral position at San Fransisco State University. Starting in the summer of 2022, shortly after her thesis defence, she will continue her work within natural science education research and issues related to equity and inclusion/exclusion.
Where is the postdoc position?
The postdoc position is in the Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory, short SEPAL, at San Francisco State University (SFSU). This group is particularly committed to both understanding, developing and actively promoting inclusive undergraduate biology and science education. I will work closely together with Kimberly Tanner, the director of SEPAL as well as with Jeff Schinske and a culturally and intellectually diverse community of collaborators, which I am very much looking forward to.
What will you be working on?
While we haven’t decided on the exact outline of my project, my work will most likely include investigations into the impact of integrating counter-stereotypical scientists’ stories into secondary school and college science courses, explorations of the impact of involving biology students as collaborators in undergraduate science education, as well as continuing to understand students’ science learning as a way of becoming intertwined with feelings of (un)belonging in science along intersecting power dimensions. Questions of equity and in- and exclusions will be at the centre of my postdoctoral work. Having immersed myself in science identity research, I am also aiming to continue to contribute to this branch of natural science education research.
When will you start?
In order to stay within the grant awards’ timeline, among others from the National Science Foundation (NSF), I am aiming to start as a postdoc at the end of June 2022, after defending my thesis in Uppsala in May.
How does it feel to already know what your next step post PhD will be?
Knowing about the next step feels both exhilarating and intimidating. It feels academically exhilarating, as I am looking forward to learn and be in dialogue with the SEPAL people, experience new academic environments and disciplinary landscapes, as well as take on a different role in the research community. It is also privately exhilarating as I had almost forgotten what it means to physically enter new historically, culturally and socially shaped worlds. At the same time it is slightly intimidating as it underscores the end of my PhD education. The end somehow becomes more tangible as the process of writing up the project is now intertwined with the process of reimagining life.
Read more about Katerina Günter's PhD project: Who becomes a biologist?