Please see more information below about an upcoming USC Libraries workshop focused on supporting USC graduate students with strategies to overcome research anxiety. This workshop will be hosted via Zoom on March 21st from 11-12pm:
Description: Many students report feeling intense anxiety around research, especially as students conducting independent research for graduate theses and dissertations for the first time. This anxiety is isolating and frequently associated with ‘imposter syndrome,’ where our self-talk can convince us that everyone else knows what they are ‘supposed’ to do – except me!
This ‘research anxiety’ is perfectly normal and is a common experience for most students. Yet, it is rarely ever directly addressed as part of the academic research process, which can exacerbate the cycle of anxiety, shame, and even depression new researchers can and often do experience. These imposter feelings can have the additional impact of making researchers think that is not okay to ask for help, since they ‘should already know’ what they’re supposed to be doing. These feelings of perceived failure intensify the hiddenness and isolation of imposter syndrome, making it difficult to escape the research anxiety cycle of shame and procrastination.
The goal of this workshop is to face research anxiety head on by openly talking about it and examining meta-cognitive and research strategies we can use to meet it with vulnerability and self-acceptance – backed by practical action. What is research anxiety? Why do we experience it? How does it manifest? Where, exactly, does it come up in the research process so we can identify it in real time? What research strategies might be effective when it does arise? And who can we ask for help when it inevitably does? These are some of the main questions we will explore in the workshop.
Specifically, this workshop is aimed at graduate students writing dissertations and theses; as such, we will focus primarily on research anxiety related to conducting research for literature reviews for such projects. The workshop outlines four key areas in the process of research where research anxiety often arises and offers concrete research strategies applicable in each of these areas. Additionally, the workshop will introduce Zen ‘mindfulness’ – the process of practicing nonjudgmental present moment awareness – as central to facing research anxiety and imposter syndrome in the academic research context.
Zoom link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91336548474?pwd=YTg5TURra3B6VHIxbU51azExcjgwZz09