What motivated you to join the initiative?
Josiah: Initially, curiosity, followed by the wish to interact with like-minded people working in a similar field. Fortunately, in my case, this is exactly what LinkingMinds led to. Despite our different backgrounds, Anna and I easily managed to find common ground to discuss our ideas and our research.
Anna: I completely agree with Josiah. LinkingMinds was launched at just the right time. With Covid forcing us all back into our homes, life as we had known it had come to a complete standstill which means there were hardly any opportunities to make professional contacts, let alone network. The last workshop I attended was in February 2020, shortly before the first lockdown. That was the last time I had the chance to interact with likeminded people in an academic context. Despite the fact that workshops and conferences are now frequently held online, they cannot and do not offer the same opportunities to network. In this respect, LinkingMinds has succeeded in, at least partially, filling a gap. This is one of the reasons I’m grateful that the Tübingen Research Alums Center initiated this event and put me in touch with Josiah.
I would really like to encourage the research alums relation team to repeat this initiative and take it a step further. For example, there could be research alums chapters with people working on similar topics and issues. There are many opportunities to network online, for example on LinkedIn and other social media channels, however, approaching people randomly on these platform feels odd. LinkingMinds, by contrast, feels much more familiar because we all have connection with the University of Tübingen.