Allison McDonald

Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University

Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

On tenure and encouraging those who identify as being “other” in academia

On July 1, I entered a new phase in my academic career - I officially became an Associate Professor with tenure. Tenure at my institution occurs at an accelerated pace; you can go up for tenure just 4 years in. Although it’s pretty stressful to prepare to go up for tenure so rapidly, the decision is made quickly at my university.

Blending a family with a tenure-track academic career

Often when I’m speaking to young women in STEM, the subject of having kids comes up in conversation. And I take every one of these conversations as an opportunity to dismantle the myth that a tenure-track academic career is incompatible with having a family. I know because I speak from experience.

Dismantling the stereotype of the “Crazy Scientist”

What comes to people’s minds when you say the word scientist? Chances are most people picture a middle-aged white man toiling away in a dark, mysterious laboratory. A socially awkward misfit who is rude and abrasive, often up to no good and has no moral compass. And this is precisely the stereotype that needs revoking!

Maintaining academic productivity while being a mother is not a zero-sum game

I recently read an article in which a new mother talks about her dismay when several of her colleagues judged her for “taking time off” for maternity leave. The article really resonated with me and so I decided to flesh out and challenge some of these erroneous assumptions that some people in academia still make about parents.