As you might have come to understand if you read our previous logbook entries, doing research is hardly ever what one imagines from the outside. The word researcher easily conjures images of days spent in chemistry labs, university classrooms, libraries or even dusty archives. That’s certainly part of the job, but time also goes elsewhere, for exemple into maintaining scientific communities and making them grow.
This is why researchers can be affiliated to a scientific society, and to sub-groups within the broader society, that brings together scholars who work in the same discipline and on similar topics. This type of societies exist both nationally and transnationally. The Società Italiana di Scienza Politica, for instance, has a standing group on gender and politics which many members of our project are associated to.
Massimo has recently decided to contribute more actively to the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), the biggest scholarly society for political science in Europe. That’s why in November he announced his candidacy to become a member of the steering committee of the Gender and Politics section of ECPR. His program revolved around making our work environments more diverse and promoting intersectional approaches in our research. It seems that the issues he raised felt relevant to his fellow society members because they decided to elect him to the steering committee in late December !
It is, no doubts, an extra responsibility under Massimo’s belt but also a great opportunity. We wish him the best of luck on this scholarly adventure !
