A recent one hour long episode of GradLounge, a Chinese-language podcast on professional development in academia, featured the experiences of two DEALL alums and their contributions to the digital resource center Chinese Theater Collaborative (CTC, 華語戲聚). CTC was founded by DEALL faculty Patricia Sieber and collaboratively developed with undergraduate and graduate students and with other faculty over the last several years. It is currently co-edited by Sieber and Dr. Julia Keblinska (University of Cambridge) and advised by Dr. Leigh Bonds (OSU University Libraries). 

In the featured GradLounge episode released on March 26, the hosts, Zeyuan Wu (PhD, DEALL) and Gillian Yanzhuang Zhang, PhD History of Art, OSU), herself an early contributor to CTC, spoke with DEALL alumnae and CTC participants, Erxin Wang (PhD, DEALL, National University of Singapore) and Yao Hui (PhD, DEALL, Duke Kunshan University) on how participation in the CTC project had enhanced their career prospects.  

Key highlights from the episode include:

• From Research Tool to Career Catalyst: How doctoral students can leverage participation in faculty-led digital projects like CTC to build a professional identity and avoid being seen as mere “assistants.”
   
• The “Teaching Range” Advantage: Strategies for using digital resources to demonstrate a cross-disciplinary persona on the job market, displaying an ability to mobilize diverse resources in the classroom.
   
• Invisible Networking: Utilizing the academic communities built around digital platforms as a “door-opener” for long-term mentorship and collaboration.
   
• Pedagogical Innovation: Creative ways to solve practical classroom challenges by sourcing diverse materials from the CTC ecosystem.
   
• Entrepreneurial Scholarship: Advice for scholars looking to launch their own digital initiatives, focusing on risk assessment and securing funding through a “start small” approach.

As Zeyuan observed in the episode, “These kinds of academic platforms are more than just tools for information retrieval; they have evolved into a comprehensive academic ecosystem that seamlessly integrates our research, teaching, academic networking, and professional development.” (原文：这样的学术平台，其实并不只是一个资源……它可以成为一个学术生态系统，把科研教学、学术社交、职业发展等各环节都串联在一起的一个生态系统。)