Notices of the American Mathematical Society
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Finding and Creating Community in Your Department
Having a network of people in your circle can benefit your career and well-being. A sense of community can make people happier and therefore more productive. Academically, community can impact the quality of one’s research, for example, through gaining exposure to different fields and creating collaborations between people working in different areas, as well as merging perspectives of different individuals. Mathematicians at every stage of their career can contribute to the community and atmosphere in their department. While it takes some effort and initiative to build relationships, the rewards are well worth the effort. In this article, we share our experience and advice on finding and creating community.
Tea time, common room, lunches. There are various ways to create opportunities for people in the department to interact and get to know each other. For instance, if your department already has a weekly or daily tea time, go to those! You might be surprised by how meaningful attending them can be. Often we get to meet new people during tea time and get exposed to other areas of research while talking with them. The atmosphere at tea is usually very friendly and welcoming and gives one a sense of belonging. If your department does not have a regular tea time, you can ask about organizing one. There is a good chance that your colleagues will be willing to help set one up.
In addition to tea time, one can use lunchtime to interact with colleagues. How about inviting a colleague to have lunch together in the common room? Once, when I was assigned to teach a class I hadn’t taught before, I found who taught it the previous term and asked if they wanted to have lunch together sometime. They happily agreed, and this ended up being a very fun and productive lunch. My colleague shared several useful tips regarding the class I was going to teach and we talked about other things as well. We had many more lunches together afterwards! Asking for teaching advice is just one of many excuses to invite a colleague for lunch.
There are many more ways one can take advantage of the common room in the department to interact with others. In some places, such as Princeton University, professors and TAs even hold their office hours at the common room, and often people feel comfortable participating in the discussions that emerge although they are not necessarily taking or teaching the class.
In general, don’t be afraid to speak up, introduce yourself, and play an active role in initiating social events. You never know when something you have to say might positively influence or inspire another person.
Research seminars and colloquia and their dinners. Another way to meet people in the department is to attend seminars. I recommend regularly attending at least the research seminar closest to your field, even if some of the topics seem far from your research. In addition to being exposed to research, this gives you the chance to see your colleagues regularly, and can help you feel like part of a research group.
At many places, there will be a seminar lunch or dinner before/after the talk. These are great opportunities to get to know people in the department. If you regularly attend the seminar dinner for your research area, then you’ll get to know people by seeing them often. At my department, everyone is welcome to attend the dinner. Sometimes younger members of the department are shy and need some encouragement—I do my best to encourage people to attend.
Many departments have colloquiums, which are intended for a broader audience. In contrast to seminar dinners, colloquium dinners are a great way to meet people working in other fields. As a postdoc, I made the mistake of not attending colloquium dinners until my very last semester. Once I started attending, I had meaningful conversations with department members, and I made some good friends whom I only wished that I had more time to get to know.
Working seminars / “What is…?” seminars. While research seminars often have outside speakers, it is also good to have a way for people in the department to give presentations to each other. Such seminars with internal speakers are an excellent way to encourage the creation of a community. There are many ways these kinds of seminars can be structured, and we give some examples below.
Last semester at WashU, the analysis group had a weekly working seminar with no particular topic—each week, someone gave a presentation on a paper they were reading. At the end of each meeting, we had everyone in the room go around and share what they’ve been working on. This created accountability and opened up a way for us to learn about what others are doing. This semester, based on the suggestion of graduate students, we are trying a different format: we chose a textbook to work through, and people are taking turns giving presentations every week.
Another type of seminar that encourages the creation of a community is a “What is…?” seminar. At IAS, we have such a weekly seminar. The idea of the seminar is for a speaker to explain a basic concept in their field to a general audience. One of the main goals of the seminar is for the people of the department—graduate students, postdocs and faculty—to get to know each other through their mathematics. Such a seminar has the potential to take one’s research in new directions by making new techniques and concepts available. You might end up collaborating with a colleague who works in a different field and build new bridges in mathematics!
Math chats (Q&A) with faculty members. The WashU math department runs an in-person “math chats” series, which was started by graduate students. The series allows students to get to know the professors on an academic and personal level, and also to learn from faculty members’ experiences and perspectives. Each meeting features one professor, who gives a short introduction, and then spends the rest of the time answering graduate students’ questions. When I participated as a professor, the students asked me questions about many things—about my research, my grad school experiences, my hobbies, my favorite Pokémon, advice about collaboration, etc. In turn, I asked the students many questions as well, so we all got to know each other better.
Group chats. A way to easily reach your peers is to create a group chat (WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, etc.). For example, if you are a grad student, you could create one for all grad students, or just your year. I have used these groups to organize social events or just to share memes.
Side note: I’ve found group chats to also work very well in small conferences, e.g., AMS sectional meetings. Messages sent in these groups have ranged from “Any plans for dinner tonight?” and “[X] and I are hanging out in the hotel lounge. Come join us!” to “Does anyone know how to use an iron? I need to iron my shirt.”
Conclusion. To conclude, there are many ways to find a community in your department and initiate activities that would encourage social interactions among people in your department. Some departments already have various interactive events set up; if yours does not, whether you are a student, postdoc, or faculty, don’t be afraid to take the initiative and organize one of the activities mentioned above, or anything else you have in mind. It only takes one person to make a meaningful change in the department.
Alan Chang is an assistant professor of mathematics at the Washington University in St. Louis. His email address is alanchang@wustl.edu.
Rachel Greenfeld is an assistant professor of mathematics at Northwestern University. Her email address is greenfeld.math@gmail.com.
Article DOI: 10.1090/noti3009
Credits
Photo of Alan Chang is courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis/Sean Garcia.
Photo of Rachel Greenfeld is courtesy of Dan Kamoda, Institute of Advanced Studies.