Academic Resilience

Marian Mahat is a Senior Research Fellow in the Learning Environments Applied Research Network at the University of Melbourne. Marian is the recipient of a number of awards, including Early Career Research Excellence Award and Research Partnership Excellence Award. She is also recipient of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Women in Leadership Program.Joanne Blannin is Senior Lecturer in Digital Transformations at Monash University, Australia. Joanne is also Board Member and Conference Chair for Digital Learning & Teaching Victoria and the Victorian representative for the Australian Council for Computers in Education.Caroline Cohrssen is Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Learning Leadership at The University of Hong Kong. Caroline has been appointed Professor of Early Childhood at The University of New England in Armidale, NSW and will be returning home to Australia in mid-2022.Elizer Jay de los Reyes is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. Jay combines global ethnography and digital ethnography to examine transnational connections between migrant Filipina domestic workers in Singapore and their left behind families in rural Philippines.

• Setting the SceneChapter 1. Academic Resilience: An Uncharted Terrain; Caroline Cohrssen; Joanne Blannin; Elizer Jay de Los Reyes, and Marian Mahat Personal Experiences of Resilience Chapter 2. Impostor Syndrome Magnified: Experiences of an Early Career Academic; Matt Harrison Chapter 3. “We’re All in This Together”: International Academic Cooperation as an Indication of Resilience during the COVID-19 Crisis; Bárbara Fernández-MelledaChapter 4. Academia in the pandemic: The challenges and experiences in the work environment; Tabassum AminaChapter 5. The Resilience of South African Academic Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic; Raj Mestry Resilience Within and Beyond the Academy Chapter 6. Collective Resilience among Scholars and Businesses: A Brazilian University in the COVID-19 Crisis; Lisiane Closs, Daniela Brauner, Fernanda Reichert, Raquel Janissek-Muniz, and Sofia Gelain da Cunha Chapter 7. Civic Engagement during COVID-19: Conversation, Contribution and Collaboration as a mode of Resilience; Kathleen Riach Chapter 8. Building Academic Resilience: Lessons for Academics and Institutions; Elizer Jay de Los Reyes, Joanne Blannin, Marian Mahat Looking Forward Chapter 9. Academic Resilience Model: Thriving in Times of Adversity ; Marian Mahat; Joanne Blannin, Caroline Cohrssen, and Elizer Jay de Los Reyes

This book is an excellent reminder that despite the shockingly high rate of mental health issues among academics, pandemic or not, there are ways to overcome challenges and thrive in academia. These are the stories worth sharing, especially for early career academics, such as myself, who feel daunted by the prospect of starting a career in an already competitive field that has been further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you and congratulations to the team for providing that sliver of hope for many of us!