Writing this book has been an enriching experience, and I am grateful to many people who influenced it in different ways.
Juggling Rhythms is based on data from the Hard Working Student (HWS) research project, which involved parallel studies with students at two Canadian universities. Funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada allowed us to undertake this study. I was Principal Investigator and the HWS project was co-designed with a number of colleagues. Kiran Mirchandani led the research at the University of Toronto and Wolfgang Lehmann (Western University) was a co-investigator. I led the study at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Hongxia Shan was a co-investigator. The two surveys that preceded the longitudinal data collection at UBC involved close collaboration with Milosh Raykov (University of Malta) and Robert Sweet (Lakehead University). I greatly appreciated the conversations with colleagues about the research, particularly in the early stages of this project. Surveys occurred in collaboration with staff at the Centre for Student Involvement and Careers and the Student Experience Evaluation and Research unit. Graduate research assistants Ashley Pullman and Sirui Wu provided assistance during this phase. Although this book focuses primarily on qualitative data from UBC, I cite selected survey findings and acknowledge the importance of that phase for the qualitative data collection which followed.
Research assistants provided valuable help during the qualitative phase of the HWS study in collecting, preparing and analyzing data, and disseminating findings. It was a pleasure to work with the following undergraduate research assistants (in chronological order): Sara Sanabria, Lauryn Rohde, Maryam Momen, Joseph Stieb, Ellysa Paskalitsa, Kalli McIver, and Jacob Sablan. Graduate research assistants Catalina Bobadilla Sandoval and Sameena Karim Jamal were actively involved throughout the study and also co-authored reports and papers. Working with research assistants has been stimulating and highly rewarding—thank you!
The plan for this book came about as the pandemic began. While the juggler metaphor was adopted early, I began to think more carefully about how changes in the rhythms and temporalities brought on by the pandemic were affecting working students. My children, who were graduate students at the time of writing, influenced my process. My daughter, Robyn, always had interesting suggestions for new areas of reading, while my son Kieran reminded me (often!) to think more about my own work-life balance. I greatly appreciate Robyn Taylor-Neu’s editing help and Harvey Krahn’s proofreading as I was
I approached the Series editors, D.W. Livingstone and David Guile over two years ago with the proposal for this book and am grateful for the guidance and latitude they have provided. David Guile met with me early on to discuss my proposal and writing plans. David Livingstone, who has been a valuable mentor throughout my career, provided thoughtful and constructive comments and encouragement throughout the process. They are wonderful colleagues and I value their support. In addition, I gratefully acknowledge support from the UBC Scholarly Publications Fund.
I dedicate this book to my children since they inspire much of what I do. I continue to feel my parents’ supportive presence. Finally, a big thank you to my friends: Harvey, Yasmin, and William, who listened to me talk incessantly about writing this manuscript, and Jo and Anita, who reminded me to get outside once in a while.