Visiting another Research Group…but how?

I come from what one could define a working-class family and academia has been an environment I had to learn. What are the topics talked about in the lunchroom? Howe to behave, what to do…I’ve been thinking a lot about Bourdieu’s habitus and capital theories here 😉

Anyway, what I wanted to write about today is visiting or planning to visit another scholar. During your PhD it’s good to build a network and reach out to people that are influential and/ or do amazing research. Usually, if you bring the money/ funding for the visit no one will say no 😉

I wanted to visit a professor in another country in Europe and this is how I did it, I hope it helps the ones out there who don’t know how or are insecure, just like I was.

Initiating contact

First, I took up contact with on of his PhD students. I attended a conference and his presentation (online) and after that I introduced myself via mail and we had a meeting online where we talked about our research interests. I asked about the possibility to visit the department and this is how it got going! Then I wrote a mail to his supervisor, the prof I wanted to visit, and cc’d him.

Here is the mail I wrote, but changed a bit so that you could use it as a template:

Dear Prof. X

My name is xx and I am PhD candidate at xx University, supervised by xx and xx. I am contacting you about the possibility to visit your research group and environment this April.

My dissertation project is exploring xx and xx, focusing specifically on xx, xx and xx in the xx context. With this focus in my project, I have read your articles around xx and specifically xx with great interest.

In addition to this, XX’s presentation on xx in the xx sector caught my attention at the xx conference 2021, where I presented my research on xx as a centralizing aspect in the xx discourse. Following that, (name of PhD student I had contact with) and I had a great (digital) meet-up and discussed some potential overlap within research interests and collaborations- which sparked the idea of a potential visit.

For me, a visit to your research environment would provide new impulses, inspirations, and discussions. Especially given the circumstances of the ongoing pandemic, this would be a fantastic opportunity to network and to establish potential collaborations, which have been quite limited without physical conferences. 

I would be delighted to hear back from you.

Kind regards

/(Your name)

Once I heard back from him I started to explore possibilities to fund the visit- here in EU that is quite easy, there are Erasmus+ grants for staff mobility. Here in Sweden, I count both as student and as an employee, so I could apply for that and got enough money to fund my visit for a month without me paying anything myself.

Bring some treats…and do it the Swedish way with Fika

So that was done, but what about actually BEING there?

I am always, well not terrified, but quite nervous when I am in a new group or surroundings, and it is quite uncomfortable for me at least.

To counter that, I brought a post card from the town I came and bought some local cookies. I put out the cookies in the lunch room and wrote a short message on the back of the post card, introducing myself, where I was from, my research interest and the room I was sitting in- plus an offer to grab a coffee if someone was interested. That way, I did not have to introduce myself to everyone in a big meeting, but people knew who I was and usually said “Ah you are the one with the cookies!” which was a nice, positive and easy start for some small talk and exchange of research foci.

The place I visited did not have a “coffee culture”, which was quite interesting. Here in Sweden, we have something called FIKA, so I always try to introduce it in other contexts as well. Fika is basically grabbing a coffee and something small and sweet, but it is so much more, it is a moment to pause, to connect and most importantly from my perspective, everyone participates. I can ask whomever, my supervisor, my boss etc…in a way Fika is also meant to keep the hierarchy flat, which I really like