Omerta (78): Lost a competitive contract due to university inbreeding
M applied for a very competitive postdoctoral contract in the academic system. She also deposited her doctoral thesis, with the corresponding number of bound copies, so the thesis could spend the determined time in the department in case someone wanted to review it and also the doctoral committee could do so.
The call for the postdoctoral contract was resolved and M was chosen to have one of those prestigious postdoctoral research contracts that many dream of when they finish their thesis and very few people manage to have. However, the department told M that the thesis was not approved and asked for changes.
According to the regulations of the postdoctoral contract, if the thesis was not accepted, the contract could not be granted. The department told her that she had to make the changes and wait for the new period to deposit the thesis and to go through the review period again. M had to make the changes, pay for the bindings again and lost the prestigious contract she had been awarded.
Her stance against gender violence in academia prevented her from pursuing her career at that time. Her intelligence, perseverance and the support she received did not stop her from becoming a renowned researcher afterwards.