PIRL’s “Cultured” Values

  1. We take care of ourselves. Our health and wellbeing comes first. Amy has hobbies outside of work and expects everyone else to, as well. Amy rarely works weekends and definitely not during any of her vacations. Plural. As in: she takes a minimum of four week-long holidays a year. Everyone else should, too!
  2. We take care of each other. We look out for each other’s health and wellbeing and reach out if something seems not quite right. We share ideas. We share feedback. We pitch in when others need help. We have each other’s backs.
  3. We take care of our collaborators. The people we work with are often at the frontlines, tackling significant problems in the world; their work must come first. We do everything we can not to add to their workload and to give back to them in whatever way is most meaningful to them.
  4. We stay connected. Amy meets with all of her graduate students one-on-one once a week and with all of her advisees together once a week. We maintain a shared planning spreadsheet to coordinate schedules and distribute workload. Amy sends out (mostly) weekly emails so you always know what is on her plate…
  5. We work together. We never have to go it alone. Amy is always invested in all of the work that we do. We are always welcome to invite others to help with our research, as well. We recognize that all collaborative relationships are different and often require a bit of experimentation to get it right, so we strive to be transparent about what is and is not working in any collaboration, whether related to pacing, distribution of labor, communication, working styles, etc… so that we can most supportively and productively work together.
  6. We believe that the researcher is more important than the research. Amy advises people, not projects. This means that anything we need to talk about in meetings is fair game, whether about research happening within the lab, research collaborations with people outside the lab, the interpersonal contexts surrounding the research, our classes, our grading and/or teaching responsibilities, or other life things that come up. This also means that if we ever find ourselves involved in a research project that has become toxic or unhealthy, we help each other to extract themselves.
  7. We value diversity in all its forms—ethnicity, gender identity, lived experience, disciplinary background, epistemology, etc…—as this diversity makes our community and research all the more expansive, impactful, and vibrant.
  8. We value inclusivity. Anyone who is at all involved in any facet of the research will be included as an author on papers. [Note: Amy is typically the last, “anchor” author (or second-to-last, if there is a more active co-advisor) on all research that you work on during your time in the lab; all student or postdoctoral contributors are listed at the front, in order of contribution.]
  9. We follow our passions, research instincts and the needs of the world, not the whims of funders. Amy does not write grant proposals unless the work is something that someone wants to do and it has a reasonable chance of being funded. Grant funding can be a force multiplier for research and publications, but every grant written is also a publication (or two) that has to be pushed back…
  10. We plan ahead. No one does their best work at the last minute. Especially Amy.