Raluca A. Stana, PhD
I’ve been recently nominated as the “Rising star of the year” for the Nordic Women in Tech Awards – and I can’t be more excited and humbled at the same time.
Especially as these awards, as far as I am aware, are usually for women in the industry, and less in research. I think it can be a difficult task sometimes to balance meeting the academe goals and pursue one’s own desire to make an impact in the world.
But as my first semester in my new position at Roskilde University ends, here is a summary of the #socialImpact activities I engaged in this semester that maybe put me on that map:
– One of the main speakers at #OffDig – the biggest conference about #PublicDigitalization in Denmark – which hosted around 1600 people this year. Thank you Hans Ravnkjær Larsen for inviting.
– #Hjernekasse episode on #Technostress on the National Danish Radio – reaching out to 1.6 million Danes (according to Wikipedia). Link to the episode in comments. Thank you to my mentor Michael Linden-Vørnle for the recommendation.
– Career Breakthrough Event – an event very dear to my heart which gathered over 100 women in Tech by Femme Lead Podcast and Alexandra Ciobotaru – where I had the pleasure to talk about #mentalHealth in the context of #technostress. Thank you very much for the invite.
– Workshop for the Alumni Masters in Project and Change Management at Roskilde University – here, we had a small workshop around discussing #shame#guilt in the context of Technostress.
– Alumni Guest Speaker at graduation ceremony at IT-Universitetet i København – thank you Trine Møller Nielsen for inviting me.
And then, perhaps the engagement on Linkedin and that one time where I was sick at home with influenza and started a #Youtube channel too. Numerous stories on my instagram and facebook too – where I share ideas, funny memes related to work, and try out what works.
It might seem overwhelming, but I find it easy when I get to research what I truly love and inspires me. And the reason why I love #technostress#research and #work and #organisation studies is that I feel it helps those around me.
Every single event gave me more research ideas, more energy, made me be a better teacher because I get to test out which messages get through and which ones don’t. Practitioners are honest – they will tell you immediately if they catch you with “spinach between your teeth”. At these events, we laughed, we cried, we shared vulnerable stories and statistics too. We have hopefully reached a more #balanced understanding of #digitalization as it impacts us in our everyday life.
Thank you again to everyone who has invited me to speak at their events, and for helping raise awareness of the dearest, least spoken about amongst practitioners, but really impactful phenomenon: #technostress. And for joining me on the mission towards a more loving way of #doing and #being at work in a #digitalized#society.
