10:10 - 10:35 | Aula Magna
Chair: Prof. Nicholas C. Vella
Mental Health in Academia: Toward a More Sustainable Future
Prof. Stefan Mol
Assistant Professor in Organizational Behaviour and Research Methods at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam
With what has been dubbed ‘the mental health crisis in academia’, and mounting evidence that mental health issues such as depression and burnout are more prevalent amongst academics than in the general population (with PhD candidates and postdocs most affected), it is time for the research community to introspect and to break the silence around researcher psychological well-being and ill-being. In his keynote address, Stefan Mol will talk about the state of mental health in academia, introduce a number of manifestos he collaborated on, and present the initial outcomes of the Sustainable Working Conditions in Academia Survey (STAIRCASE). This was the result of the Researcher Mental Health Observatory (ReMO) Cost Action project, focused on creating the largest ever European Benchmark of the contextual antecedents of Mental Health across more than 30 countries. In addition, some training opportunities that early career researchers may benefit from in nourishing and sustaining their own mental health, will be introduced.
Bionote
Stefan T. Mol is an Assistant Professor in Organizational Behaviour and Research Methods at the Amsterdam Business School of the University of Amsterdam and co-founder and chair of the Scilink foundation, a non-profit organization focused on researcher transversal skills training. He received his Master's degree in Psychology from the University of Amsterdam in 2000, and was awarded a PhD in Psychology in 2007 from the Institute of Psychology of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stefan has (co-)authored over 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics such as career shocks, refugee integration, learning analytics, text mining, recommendation of open educational resources, person-environment fit, and researcher mental health. In addition, Stefan is involved in a number of EU-funded projects focused on researcher mental health and on optimizing the match between individual, education, and the labour market.
