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VOICEOVER: This is Alumni Aloud, a podcast by Graduate Center students for Graduate Center students. In each episode, we talk with the GC graduate about their career path, the ins and outs of their current position, and the career advice they have for students. This series is sponsored by the Graduate Center’s Office of Career Planning & Professional Development.

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JACK DEVINE, HOST: Welcome to another of Alumni Aloud. We’re here with Liam Sweeney. Liam, thank you so much for joining us. 

LIAM SWEENEY, GUEST: Yeah, it’s my pleasure. 

DEVINE: So what questions drove your research at the CUNY Graduate Center? 

SWEENEY: So, yeah, I, you know, am actually in my second program at the CUNY Graduate Center right now. So, I finished up a Master’s of Arts in Liberal Studies with a focus in Data Visualization in 2018. And then last year I started a Master’s of Science in Data Science. I would say that I was really drawn to the MALS program at the Grad Center because of its interdisciplinary nature and, you know, I had an interest in exploring a lot of different topics. I got really interested in qualitative sociology as well as, kind of, visualizing data and things like that. So there just aren’t a lot of other types of programs where you can take a broad approach to different ways of analyzing evidence and gathering evidence and exploring mixed methods and approaches to research. 

When it comes to my specific research questions, you know, I find that the degree dovetailed really nicely with my career where I am working at a non-profit research firm, Ithaka S+R. It’s the sister company to JSTOR. And I do a lot of research around labor issues in the cultural sector. So I found that, you know, by being in this program I was able to improve my research skills and then also apply what I was learning in the program to research questions that were emerging at work for me. Specifically around issues of, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in the cultural sector. And even more specifically, you know, when it comes to representation in the workforce. 

DEVINE: So we have something in common. I’m also a MALS graduate. I was in the MALS program before my PhD in History at the Grad Center. So it seems like there’s this connection. You were drawn to MALS because it enabled you to continue to work on stuff that you were already doing at your job. So when did you first make the decision to pursue a career at an institution that helps academic and cultural communities? What steps did you take along your path to end up as a Senior Analyst at Ithaka S+R?

SWEENEY: Yeah, maybe you’ll identify with this. But when I was in undergrad I was really interested in pursuing a graduate degree in the humanities and as I set down that course I found all kinds of barriers around, you know, compensation, around job placement. I had friends who were in grad programs who were struggling a lot at that time. I graduated college in, undergrad, in 2011. So, yeah, so I found that I really wanted to work in a sector that was, you know, trying to study the barriers and challenges that higher education and the humanities and the cultural sector were facing. And that’s what drew me to work at Ithaka S+R and get involved in doing research about these institutions, you know, rather than within the discipline of an academic field. And, yeah, and then once I got in there I guess found my way to different projects that interested me and it really becomes a, you know, a portfolio grows based on ideas you have for projects and then whether you can find funders to engage with, to fund those projects and partners, institutional partners to work with on them.

DEVINE: So you had this passionate passion for the humanities and kind of fighting against the barriers that are faced by humanities graduates and the sort of career paths that they can take and this is rooted back to your experience in undergrad. But were there any other career paths that you considered before ending up at Ithaka? 

SWEENEY: Yeah certainly. I mean I also, you know, have a real interest in technology and learning, you know, programming languages and learning where the intersections of emerging opportunities in the economy and technology, you know, where they intersect. So, I, yeah, I do have that interest as well and could have ended up going in that direction and I just kind of broke in a way where I ended up doing more sociology based institutional research.  

DEVINE: So you have this interest in technology and how technology is shaping the world we live in, but you made this decision to choose this path where you’re kind of helping humanities, people with humanities degrees, and the institutions that are giving out degrees with their research and kind of these labor issues that are associated with what’s going on in the cultural sphere. So what role did the Graduate Center have in your intellectual development? And how did your experiences at the GC transform you into the Senior Analyst that you are today? 

SWEENEY: Yeah I think that the Graduate Center just has a really amazing faculty. I had great experiences with some folks in, you know, the Sociology department, Political Science, you know, and the Digital Humanities and all of that. I found that, you know, this isn’t for everybody but my approach to getting degrees from the Grad Center has been to do it very slowly. So I take like one class a semester, you know, while I’m working full time and sort of like an extracurricular thing for me and that way I don’t, you know, burn out ideally. But it’s nice because, you know, the research questions and competencies evolve differently when you’re kind of like in a prolonged engagement with an academic institution. 

And the other thing I’ll say is that I think that Mina Rees is just a great library and I really love having access to an academic library and all those resources and the librarians who are able to, you know, direct you and guide your research questions by connecting you with resources. So those type of academic resources, I find myself very lost without them I guess. And now I have to say, I’m really pleased to have some of the resources that, you know, the Computer Science department has in terms of learning tools for developing, you know, further coding literacy and data literacy. So that includes like, you know, subscriptions to Data Camp and these kind of resources that are more independent learning platforms. So, yeah I guess I’d say the faculty, the academic resources are both really important to me. 

DEVINE: So you develop these connections with faculty. You learn from them. And I agree with you that both the faculty, the library, and the academic resources at the Grad Center are really great and they help along with your intellectual development and they allow you to pursue various routes, and where you wanna go, what you want to learn more about, how you wanna develop your skills and your talents. But what you were doing is you were working at the same time that you were pursuing your degree. You’re doing the same thing as you’re getting your second Master’s at the Grad Center. So what were some of the challenges you encountered as you entered Graduate School while you continued your career outside the academy? 

SWEENEY: Yeah, you know, I would say there have been challenges in the sense in some cases because, you know, in the academic context it’s really, a lot of times often times faculty are really just encouraging for you to pursue what you’re interested in and there isn’t really a need for that to be always be, you know, adopted in a sector or, you know, deeply engaged with, by other institutions and for me at work I have a lot of considerations around, you know, what to build institutional partnerships and how to, you know, produce work that will be valued in the field. And so, you have to kind of toggle between these imaginative processes of, you know, developing projects and interests like in little bit more of a secured environment that you get in the academy versus when you’re working in the field, having to be much more pragmatic about how things are going to be useful to your constituents. So I would say that’s a bit of an interesting and productive tension that exists between the two spaces. And I think it helps to have like a space that’s more imaginative and expansive in terms of like the projects you come up with in a seminar, in a class in grad school. And then that can find its way into having creative solutions that are relevant to industry. 

DEVINE: So at the Graduate Center you have more of an opportunity to explore your own interests, what you want to research, what you want to do, while at work you have to deliver result to your constituents and you can’t just veer off in a direction on your own so the type of research that you do is different so you have to balance that out between school and work. That makes a lot of sense. So what would you recommend to current graduate students interested in pursuing a career working at an institution that helps academic and cultural communities? 

SWEENEY: I think that writing on this subject is really valuable if you see an opportunity to make some kind of intervention, you know, finding places to write those ideas and get them out there can make you a, you know, an expert on a subject matter that, on a subject that matters a lot to people in the industry. So, you know, in order to do that I think you have to be really engaged in conversations that are happening in the sector and for that, you know, going to conferences and, you know, networking and connecting with thought leaders in the field you’re interested in is really valuable. And I’d say often these types of interventions happen like deep in the weeds so, you know, it could be if the interest is in technology, you know like, understanding the ins and outs of learning management systems for instance. It might be a really valuable thing for creating like an intervention that like online learning, the evolution of online learning or something like that. So I just think, yeah, getting in the weeds and finding something to write about and an audience for your writing is really valuable. 

DEVINE: So doing your own research both in kind of, not just research online but in-person, getting to know people who are working in the field, developing these sort of connections and then writing on this and expanding on what you learned is sort a key factor if you wanna make the transition to working in the field that you wanna work in. So I just want to thank you so much for joining us on Alumni Aloud. Do you have any final word for our listeners? 

SWEENEY: Yeah just since you were saying that I was thinking of something I heard recently from a journalist actually. It was a sports journalist who said something about like how to differentiate yourself from other folks trying to do the same thing who said that being there, like having a physical presence in a place where, you know, news is happening is really undervalued. Because you then your perspective becomes something that other people don’t have. It’s something that is special evidence and so I think that finding ways to, you know, find what’s available to you if it’s a particular museum you’re a member of, you wanna get deep, more involved in or an institution that you’re an alumni of or something like that, you know. There may be special opportunities for you to be the person who is well positioned to develop insights about, you know, the field that you’re interested in and so being physically there I think valuable too. 

DEVINE: So at the end of the day showing up places where things are happening, at institutions where new ideas are being put out there is key to kind of taking this next step in your career and standing out as an individual. That sounds like great advice to me. So I just want to thank you again for joining us on Alumni Aloud and we’ll hopefully we’ll see some of your research in the future. 

SWEENEY: Great, thanks so much Jack. Nice talking to you. 

DEVINE: Great talking to you as well. 

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