Happy new year! This is a very special moment for me because I am shifting from a 3 year position as Juan de la Cierva to a 5 year position as Ramón y Cajal Junior Fellow…
It might not seem such a bit leap, but it means a world to me. First, it means leaving precarity behind in terms of salary, it brings relief due to more stability and motivation because I can now lead my own projects. Overall, it means autonomy as a researcher and the outlook of having a future in this profession. Since I will remain at BC3, it also means a stronger sense of belonging to this community and a feeling of responsibility towards its vision and organisation.
It also means renouncing to other possible pathways, at least for the moment, like facilitation outside academia or returning to my beloved rural life. This is something I hesitate about every time I visit my family in Cuevas del Becerro. I spent new years eve seeding old wheat varieties that my brother is trying to rescue for a food sovereingty project. I hope the seeds I plant as a researcher will also grow and feed other transformations.
I need to design my research plan for this new period. I am still finishing the knowledge coproduction process in the Mar Menor and have plenty of material to publish. My idea is to continue exploring how to bring about transformations in situations of conflict and societal polarisation associated to ecological transition policies. But I let the new emerge from the learnings in the Mar Menor, which are inmense.
My best wishes for 2023.
Violeta Cabello 