Caregiving While Studying: Toward Just and Equitable Graduate Education

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Balancing the demands of caregiving with the rigorous expectations of graduate study is an often invisible challenge—yet it is one that shapes the academic journeys of many scholars. This session brings together experts on parenting during the PhD, drawing on both scholarly and lived experiences. Panelists will explore the specific needs of graduate student caregivers—childcare, scheduling, funding, mentoring—and examine how institutions might serve them differently but equitably. The conversation will invite candid dialogue, evidence-based recommendations, and cross-institutional strategies, with the goal of making graduate education more accessible, humane, and sustainable for scholars with caregiving responsibilities.

Sub Unit

• Graduate Student Council

Chair

• Edith P. Middleton, Teachers College, Columbia University

Panelists

• Cammie Justus-Smith, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Xi Hong, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Micaha Dean Hughes, North Carolina State University

• Abby C. Emerson, Touro University