In 2021, women held only 28% of professorships in higher education and research institutions, even though they comprised 48% of PhD students, according to data gathered from a sample of 900 EU and non-EU institutions.
Academia can be incredibly, overwhelmingly, demanding. Many feel that they have to dedicate all their time and energy to establishing and sustaining a successful career. But many don't want an all-encompassing career. And there are profound parts of life that can get pushed to the sidelines by these demands. And of course, for many, this includes parenthood. Today, we're going to speak with several researchers about the strain academia places on parents and those hoping to become parents.
The two young men were peers, brilliant aspiring scientists working toward a degree at Portugal's most prestigious engineering school, a white building at the top of a grassy plaza in Lisbon. A quarter-century later, both were in the United States, but their paths had diverged radically. Nuno Loureiro was a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a beloved mentor who researched the behavior of plasmas.
It starts with a tingle, a tremor, a sense that something is off. Dr. Sue Goldie doesn't recognize the symptoms at first. Maybe she ignores them, wishes them away. It is 2021. She is 59, in the prime of a long teaching career at Harvard. She has just immersed herself in the sport of triathlon. One coach notes something off with her running cadence. Another wonders why her left arm isn't fully lifting out of the water.
The latest picture from beloved director Luca Guadagnino follows a Yale professor, Alma (Roberts), as she gets caught in the middle of a sexual assault allegation that her favorite student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), launches against her closest male colleague, Hank (Andrew Garfield). After the Hunt is intended to be a thought-provoking film that debates the existence of cancel culture and the way today's thick political climate affects how we view identity and claims of misconduct.
Randa Abdel-Fattah is an anti-racism scholar and author who lost an $870,000 research grant over criticisms of her stance on Israel. The Palestinian Australian writer also recently withdrew from a writers festival after organisers demanded she and other speakers avoid divisive topics and abide by an anti-Semitism code. In this Unmute, she talks about censorship in academia and a broader effort to silence pro-Palestinian voices in Australia.
The point of doctorates is about how you make a contribution to learning. That's the point of it. And if you're doing a doctorate, that's saying the same thing or using the same data sets or the same research part ... that's a problem.
At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 6, 2025, the following tribute to the life and service of the late Gloria Ferrari Pinney was spread upon the permanent records of the Faculty.
Before you go, could you use your tenured position to advocate for others at the institution who have less power? Graduate students organizing a union could always use more support from faculty.
The resolution comes as a result of recent and escalating politically motivated actions by governmental bodies which pose a significant threat to the foundational principles of American higher education.
