York University philosophy Professor Kristin Andrews is creating the kind of graduate student experience she would have liked in her grad school days.
It was a different time back in 1992 when Andrews started her master’s of arts in philosophy. Professors tended not to have close contact with their students. There were none of the things she does now to create a supportive environment for her grad students. No one-on-one meetings to discuss progress. No group meetings that see senior students help junior ones. No collaborating on research papers. No taking students to conferences. No online platform to share funny stories or pictures of pets or offer tips for international students moving to Toronto.
Andrews, who also holds the York Research Chair in Animal Minds, drew inspiration from a post-doctoral researcher who took her under his wing during her PhD studies and gave her a glimpse of how beneficial graduate school could be in creating the kind of career she wanted.
“We met, we read papers and discussed things. That was the model for me, and I really appreciated it. I took that with me when I went to work with grad students,” Andrews says. “That's the thing that’s really helpful. Sit down with the students, read papers together, discuss them together, and then do work together – collaborative work.”
She supervises six grad students in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at a time. Her aim is to build a team, even though the students’ time with her is staggered, with a couple just starting as others are finishing up. She meets with them regularly, both one-on-one and in a group, as well as includes them in her research and writes with them.
“Students don’t feel so alone when they feel like they are part of a team,” she says. “Students learn well by doing. It can be hard to know how to write the first journal article or grant application without co-authoring it with an expert.”
One of those students is Elizabeth Waldberg. She is a second-year PhD student focusing on the philosophy of animal cognition, Andrews’ area of expertise.
Waldberg is currently working on a paper on the theory of the mind in non-human animals. Later this year, she will travel to India with Andrews to conduct an experiment on interspecies’ social norms with urban free-ranging dogs. The work will focus on the dogs’ interactions with humans.
Waldberg says having an advisor as attentive as Andrews has made an enormous difference to her studies.
“It's been excellent, just having an advisor who really cares about our success,” she says. “She offers us a lot of opportunities and resources. And it's also plain that she is invested in our career success. She promotes us to her colleagues and helps us develop our ideas. She just seems enthusiastic, which can go a long way when you are not sure about your own ideas.”
Waldberg advises students aiming for graduate studies to seek out a good mentor and potential committee members early on their academic journey. “If you get into a PhD program, you're good at what you do. That's a given … but it's surprising how much of academia, as an institution, is very confusing.”
It's Andrews’ goal to ease those concerns and help grad students shine.
“When I supervise graduate students, I meet with them and talk to them about their interests and goals,” Andrews says. “I find out what their research interests are and if their research interests are a good match, I take them on. We talk about how to create a dissertation that will allow them to achieve whatever their goals are.”
With files from Julie Carl