This week’s PhDetails #85 is with Samantha Stead. Samantha did her undergraduate degree in Honours Biology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her undergraduate thesis was on landscape-scale bird diversity in South Africa. After her undergrad, she worked for two years as a field assistant to graduate students to gain experience and travel!. For graduate school, Samantha shifted into primatology and did her MSc at the University of Toronto, and studied male care of infants in a population of wild Angolan colobus in Central Uganda. Samantha is now in the second year of her PhD at the University of Toronto studying the intersection of social factors, maternal physiology, and infant development in the same primate species. She will be spending this year in Uganda collecting behavioural data and samples (poop and urine) from colobus mothers with a team of local field technicians. You can also find Samantha on Twitter @sammstead
Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
Hmm I don’t listen to much pre-1980s music, but I like a lot of Fleetwood Mac songs
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
The current top played songs on my iPod are by King Princess and A Tribe Called Red, but Radical Face and Mighty Oaks have been constants for me over the years
Favourite movie?
I don’t watch a ton of movies, but when I do, I tend to go for kids ones. I appreciate the length. How do people sit through 3-hour movies??? My favourite is Tarzan (Disney of course)
Do you listen to podcasts? What are some of your favourites?
I had to process (dry, grind, weigh, repeat) 300 fecal samples in the field last month and listened to over 100 hours of podcasts during that time. So YES. My go-to was True Canadian Secrets. It’s hosted by Falen Johnson, who is Mohawk and Tuscarora from Six Nations, and Leah-Simone Bowen, who is a first generation Canadian with family from Barbados. They basically tell the Canadian history that was not covered in our public education system. I highly recommend!
Where do you study and who are your supervisors?
I study at the University of Toronto and am supervised by Drs. Julie Teichroeb and Rudy Boonstra
What year of your PhD are you in?
2nd year
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
The Faculty of Arts and Science at my University – for four years, so until April 2022
Do you have any publications?
I’ve published one paper in PLoS One about the social organization of Angolan colobus. This came from my MSc research, although it wasn’t the focus of my thesis. There aren’t many publications on this subspecies and only the second for this population. Our team found that these colobines are living in a complex multi-tiered social organization. They basically live in stable groups (core units) that associate and disassociate non-randomly. This type of social organization has been reported in African papionins and Asian colobines, but Rwenzori Angolan colobus are the first African colobine. This subspecies is also unique because it’s the only nonhuman primate known to live in a multi-level society with multi-male core units.
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
My Masters focused on male care of infants in Rwenzori Angolan colobus. We found that adult males in this subspecies carry/hold infants a lot more often than you would expect for a primate. So the males are really good babysitters. I’m working on a manuscript that compares male care between the Rwenzori Angolan colobus and two other species of black-and-white colobus (ursine colobus and mantled guereza). There’s also a Masters student in our lab who is going to investigate the hormonal underliers (testosterone) of this behaviour next summer and test the ‘challenge hypothesis’. We’re all excited to see what she finds!
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
I’ve been really fortunate with the fieldwork experiences I’ve had over the years. I spent two years after undergrad working as a field assistant for graduate students studying in environmental sciences, ecology, and wildlife biology. I also collected data for my MSc (and will for my PhD) in Uganda on a population of wild Rwenzori Angolan colobus. I have great memories from each of these positions, but working in the Yukon was definitely special. I spent just over 7 months working on the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations territory at a long-term research site called ‘Squirrel Camp’. Squirrels were the original focus but they study a lot more than squirrels now. I helped to collect data on Canadian lynx and snowshoe hares. We spent the nights trapping hares to monitor their weights and collar them with an accelerometer and GPS for activity and range data. Walking through the boreal forest at -25C underneath the northern lights was amazing – except when your headlamp batteries ran out unexpectedly! I worked and lived with some amazing people who are not only devoted to science and understanding wild animals, but opened my eyes to social issues within academia. This experience really shaped who I became as a graduate student and some of the initiatives I’ve taken on since.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I applied for three PhDs and proposed a similar project for each one. The advisors I applied to work with focus on different primate species (chimpanzees, ursine colobus, Angolan colobus), but the major decision came down to the funding and the city. U of T offered a generous funding package and my extended family lives in Toronto, so I opted to stay at the same University for my PhD as my Masters. I had been warned not to do a PhD at the same University or with the same supervisor as your Masters because it limits your ability to learn and make connections. I’m really happy with my decision and feel like I have been able to extend my network and knowledge in other ways (taking classes in different departments, collaborating on projects, attending conferences etc.) while maintaining family time and financial security.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
Oh man, so many! I’ll give you one that sort of qualifies as equipment… Before beginning graduate school, I worked for 4 months as an assistant to a Masters student at the University of Minnesota. She was assessing the effect of land management strategies on secretive marshbird communities in the prairie pothole region of Minnesota. We assessed the wetland structure and plant species composition with transects, but she also wanted to take aerial photos of the sites. We weren’t able to use a drone on public lands at this time, so she decided to buy a large balloon, a canister of helium, and a cheap camera. We would drive to the sites, fill the balloon with helium and let it fly over the wetland to try and get photos. Not only was the wind an issue, but the balloon popped after a few days when we were moving it between sites. Being in a small town with limited resources, we went to a nearby Walmart to look for other options. We ended up buying a Mylar sleeping bag and trying to use this as a balloon.. It was worth a shot, but needless to say, she did not get the photos she had hoped for!
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Don’t undervalue the importance of life outside of your research career. You should obviously like your research topic and mesh well with your supervisor, but also make sure that you have the support system that you need to be mentally healthy and happy. I think students are often pressured to sacrifice too much for school/research and that surrounding yourself with people that make you happy and confident should also be a top priority. My department is really social and inclusive, which has helped me so much throughout grad school. You can get a pretty good idea of the social life of a department before applying by asking current graduate students. It’s also a really good idea to get involved with communities outside of the University so find out what’s out there. For instance, in Toronto, we have nature/hiking groups, sports teams, an active queer community, climbing gyms, and so much more. Whatever it is, just make sure that you are able to build a life outside of research; it’s so important for sustainability in grad school and will, in the end, help you with your degree.
How often do you meet with your supervisors?
Not often, but we keep in touch over email at least once a week
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I need a supervisor that can give good feedback. To me, this means feedback that is both critical, but also delivered in a way that is encouraging and helpful. It’s a tricky balance but I think that it’s such an important trait for a supervisor. Overly negative feedback can be debilitating while no feedback leaves you wondering about the next steps.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Absence is one of the worst traits in my mind. I’ve been really lucky to have a supportive supervisor that always responds to emails within a day or two, but I know a lot of my colleagues have had supervisors that they don’t hear from for months at times.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
How do social factors affect maternal physiology and how does this, in turn, affect infant development?
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
One of my academic highlights was getting to work at an Operation Wallacea field school in Madagascar this summer. The field school focused on biogeography and conservation research and was open to University and high school students. A friend of mine is doing his PhD on mouse lemurs and has been working with Operation Wallacea for a couple of years now. He connected me with the managers, and they asked if I could deliver the lecture series throughout the summer. It was an amazing opportunity to see Madagascar, which is such a unique place with incredible biodiversity. I also loved meeting all the students and seeing how excited they were to collect data and learn about biology – it’s good reminder of how fun my job is!
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
It’s not necessarily a specific point in time, but I’ve been especially frustrated with bureaucracy this year. I needed to secure permit to export my samples and had to go through several government agencies in Uganda with language and cultural barriers. After dozens of phone calls and emails, I was feeling like I may have to leave my samples in Uganda. I think I’ve been given all the necessary approvals now and am feeling more positive, but the past few months have been very draining.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
I met Dr. Robin Nelson last January when she gave a talk at my Department’s colloquium. She spoke about her research on child growth and development in Jamaica, which is really interesting. Dr. Nelson has also been very outspoken about sexual violence during fieldwork, which I admire. She’s published two peer-reviewed papers on this topic and has been pivotal in the push to establish codes of conduct at field sites. It was really incredible to meet her and to hear her thoughts on this.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Definitely Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. She’s a primatologist and anthropologist from the US that did her PhD on langur monkeys in India. I did my first presentation in graduate school on her work and was immediately blown away. In the 1970s, she was the first to propose infanticide as an adaptive strategy for males and was lambasted for this idea. This hypothesis has now received widespread support along with many other hypotheses that she proposed. She is known for taking a feminist approach to science and overturning the belief that females are naturally passive and unambitious beings. She discusses these ideas in her books, The Woman that Never Evolved and Mother Nature. I actually did see her at a conference, but was too intimidated to introduce myself. Maybe one day I’ll have another chance!
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
Before starting graduate school, I helped a PhD student named Ally Menzies to collect data in the Yukon. She taught me so much about the realities of research and grad school and how to succeed. She was also just such a fun, warm, and supportive person to be around. When I left the field, I was about to start grad school and she wrote me a letter of advice that I still have today and re-read.
Do you have a favourite paper?
A paper that I read recently and liked was ‘An alternative hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals’. The authors discuss the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviours (SSB) and critique the assumption that the ancestral state of early animals was different-sex sexual behaviours (DSB). They argue that early animals likely had indiscriminate sex, as mate recognition systems can be costly and limit mating opportunities. They also discuss how SSB likely don’t limit reproduction and so they aren’t necessarily costly, which is often thought to be the case. So they are basically arguing that rather than trying to explain why SSB exist, it is likely that these behaviours have always been around and that DSB are actually unusual. This last sentence is my favourite:
‘The notion that SSB has arisen convergently in so many different lineages only makes intuitive sense from a heteronormative world view in which ‘heterosexual’ behaviour is framed as the ‘natural order’ for sexually reproducing species, and ‘homosexuality’ is viewed as a recent aberration whose existence must be explained and justified’
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
Probably last year’s conference for the International Society of Primatologists in Nairobi, Kenya. This was the first primatology conference that I attended and it was really a whirlwind of a week. I learned a lot about the field and made some really good friends that I’ve kept in touch with. I went straight there after a summer of fieldwork so the shift in atmosphere was extreme. The conference was held at the United Nations compound and I presented in one of the biggest conference rooms I’ve seen – an intimidating place to give my first international talk! Later in the week, there was a roundtable discussion on sexual violence during fieldwork that I attended. Ashley Judd was randomly at this roundtable to give some input and I met her at the end. There were a lot of other roundtables on diversity and inclusion and the importance of collaborating with local communities. These types of conversations are so important to me and being able to discuss them with other researchers in my field from across the world was truly the best part of the conference.
What hours do you typically work?
I take the work hard play hard approach. I prefer to work really long hours and then take more time off to relax. For example, the 1st year of my PhD was super hectic for me because I had a full course load, was on student government, and planned my pilot research season. But for the first term of my 2nd year, I’ve been visiting my partner in Zanzibar while working on my PhD proposal. On average though, I do probably work more than 8 hours per day, which is unfortunately true of most PhD students.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
I really enjoy all the elements of my PhD (reading/learning, writing, fieldwork) so just getting to do what I love is motivation enough.
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I don’t really have any issues procrastinating, but I do keep a lot of lists of what I need to do on my desktop.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
Recently I’ve been swimming a lot and going on weekend trips to the beach since I’m in Zanzibar. At home I try to exercise, read for fun, and spend time with my family/friends. My extended family is from Toronto and we are very close, so a lot of my time gets taken up with get-togethers - but no complaints!
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
I would wish for a perfect memory so that I wouldn’t have to re-read articles. Or something to increase my sample size would be nice… a lot of development studies are small, particularly with primates, so this is my constant concern.
What would be your dream job?
I would like to be a professor (either in biology or anthropology) with a strong research focus and a little bit of teaching.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully wrapping up a post-doc and applying to tenure-track positions!
One word to sum up your future in academia: Wild
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I think I would like to spend more time writing non-academic pieces. I’ve had a lot of thoughts while East Africa about equity in the scientific process and I would like to get these ideas on paper. As graduate students, we spend so much time honing our writing skills and so I would love to apply this to something more than grants and manuscripts. For something more removed from academia, I would love to rock climb more!
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
Dehydrator oven – This is one of the less glamorous aspects of my work. I dried over 300 samples last month and will have twice that amount by the end of my PhD. I’m measuring the glucocorticoid (stress hormone) metabolites in each fecal sample to quantify the stress of the monkeys who excreted the sample. To measure the concentration of metabolites, we need the dry weight, so I have to dry each of the samples. The salesperson who I discussed the oven with definitely did not foresee this use for the appliance...
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
The University of Toronto or McGill University. Both are close to my family and I would really like to be nearby if possible.
Do you have a favourite organism?
Definitely meerkats! These are social carnivores that live in Southern Africa and breed cooperatively, meaning that other group members help the mother to raise her offspring. I find cooperative breeding to be such an interesting system and would love to investigate how this affects the physiology of mothers and their infants.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
Definitely regular social outings with other graduate students. When I started graduate school, I became good friends with another grad student who is ‘aggressively social’ (his words) and would organize countless social outings. He has really made my graduate experience so memorable and helped me to get the most out of it.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
I would love for my Department (and University) to take student concerns more seriously. I was an executive on the Graduate Students’ Union last year and so I participated in a lot of face-to-face meetings with the administration where we brought forward concerns. These included a lack of mental health resources, a lack of information on accessibility services for grad students, and need for a sexual violence policy during fieldwork. Administrators were receptive to some of these concerns, but honestly not much was done in the end.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
I think that there needs to be more research on how mothers adjust their offspring investment in response to their social environment. As an example, how do mothers manage their energy in response help from other group members. There have been several advances in methodology that allow us to non-invasively measure energy balance in wild animals and I think this needs to be applied to understand offspring investment.
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