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Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Sep 30 2024 at 11:33):The following was posted by Clara Michelle Barker on LinkedIn, and a friend suggested I post it to this Zulip, which seemed to me like a good idea. Note that it is specifically targeted at people living in the UK.
Hi everyone,
We are still recruiting for people living in the UK for our project. We are looking to hear from LGBTQI+ people who have felt they needed to change/pivot their careers in STEM due to a hostile environment - but how you define this is up to you.
Did you shift from academia to industry or vice versa, or maybe move into comms or teaching when you didn't want / plan to?
Was this because of a hostile environment/ bullying/ discrimination/ generally grim working environment?
We want to hear your story. (I would love to hear this from other countries also but the funding is for the UK study!)
This happened to me, so I care. Honestly, the reason I 'quit' STEM academic research was the fear of the reaction when I came out as trans. I've talked about this (notably my TEDxLondon talk). I did have some negative reaction but on the whole it was much better than I expected. But it still meant I stopped publishing results and invested to move to another field. A lot of this was due to the discrimination I did have but also the lack of role models feeding my assumptions. I know this has not gone away.
It was luck/fate that led me to apply for the lab manager post in my current group. But still, I moved from research into lab management because of the environment - I didn't want to become a lab manager. Nothing wrong with the position at all - we need more technicians! But wasn't the career route I wanted.
As it happens, it was an amazing move for me and thanks to the support of my supervisors, department and the Daphne Jackson Trust/Royal Society of Chemistry I was able to get back to my passion - academic research.
So yes, I never left STEM but I didn't take the easiest route and it is down to some amazing people and organisations that I am now back where I want to be.
If you have a story to share, we want to hear it. You will be totally anonymous, and there is a small compensation for your time. https://usd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9F7HmRIfTat9CtM