Graduate Researcher Series: An Interview with Alan Bechaz
Xiaoyi Zhang
Alan Bechaz is a second-year PhD candidate in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. His research explores mental health and wellbeing communication in multilingual contexts. For his PhD project, Alan is focusing on communication with and by members of Afghan and Hazara communities in Victoria. Alan is supervised by Dr Maria Karidakis and Prof Lesley Stirling.
Xiaoyi interviewed Alan Bechaz about his PhD research and journey.
Hi Alan, thanks for your time today. Would you like to introduce yourself to us?
Alan Bechaz: I’m Alan Bechaz, now in the second year of my PhD. I grew up in regional Victoria, in a town called Warragul in Gunaikurnai Country. My research focuses on mental health communication in multilingual contexts. I’m doing a case study with people from Hazara and Afghan communities in Victoria. I’m trying to learn about strategies and resources for talking about mental health and well-being with and by people who use languages other than English.
What motivated you to continue your studies at the University of Melbourne’s School of Languages and Linguistics after completing your Master of Applied Linguistics?
Alan Bechaz: I was interested in research and teaching for a few years. I did my Bachelor’s and Honours in Philosophy and English & Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne, and for a while, I wanted to do further research in one of these disciplines. After graduating, I spent a year in Japan working as an assistant English teacher. During that time, I started to think about doing something else that might lead to applied social research or similar work, so I came back to Australia and started the Master of Applied Linguistics. I did a minor thesis, supervised by Maria Karidakis and Adrienne Sexton, which was a discourse analysis of accounts of genetic testing and genetic counselling. I really enjoyed that project and decided to carry on in Applied Linguistics, focusing on discourse research and health communication.
Would you like to tell us more about your current research focus and what inspired you to pursue this topic?
Alan Bechaz: I started with a general idea that it would be interesting to explore the strengths or opportunities of multilingual repertoires for navigating mental health care. I also wanted to try to do something community-focused and learn about collaborative ways of doing research. My initial reading, advice from supervisors, and early conversations with different stakeholders helped me to narrow this to my current focus. My research is a case study involving members of Hazara and Afghan communities in Victoria. To begin with, I’m interviewing people who are leaders, representatives, or active members of their communities as part of a consultation phase. This is important for me to try to learn how I can make my work more relevant and to get advice on how to do the research well and respectfully. I’m also starting to interview mental health professionals to learn about their views and experiences working with multilingual clients. Later, I hope to run workshops with community members to learn about their ways of communicating and possible strategies and resources for talking about mental health.
How is your experience of data collection? Any unexpected challenges or interesting findings?
Alan Bechaz: It’s early in my data collection, so there’s much more to come. I’m collecting my data in Shepparton, on Yorta Yorta lands, and in Melbourne, on Bunurong and Wurundjeri lands. I am trying to work collaboratively with people to contextualise my research and learn about different views and experiences. That’s why I chose to start with some key informant interviews to ask for input and advice which can help shape the rest of my research. I can be quite nervous, so trying to introduce myself to lots of people and ask for their advice or involvement is difficult. There are many other challenges, including balancing teaching commitments and all the planning and logistics involved in collecting data. However, for me, I think the biggest hurdles are around clarity and confidence in what I’m doing. My data collection is going slowly as a result, but hopefully, I’m getting there. In some ways, a slower pace is good because, hopefully, it means I get to know people a little more. One of the things that has interested me about my data so far is people’s ways of describing how they relate to English-language mental health discourse when they use multiple languages which might have different resources for talking about emotional experience or wellbeing.
When you do the data collection, are you part of your focus community or an outsider?
Alan Bechaz: I’m certainly an outsider in significant ways. Based on some early reading and conversations, I thought that working with people of migrant or refugee backgrounds could be a relevant context in which to learn about navigating mental health with multilingual repertoires and, hopefully, to do research that contributes to improving people’s access to care or support. I’m not a member of the Hazara and Afghan communities I’m connecting with, and I don’t share histories or languages other than English with many of the people I meet. This brings with it a mixture of challenges and opportunities and calls for a lot of reflection throughout the project. I also don’t have a background in mental health practice, so I’m an outsider in relation to the mental health profession, too. I’m learning a lot through this work and trying to understand different perspectives towards talking about mental health or well-being in multilingual contexts.
I know you work for the SOLL Postgraduate Club. How has being part of the SOLL Postgraduate Club contributed to your academic journey?
Alan Bechaz: I joined the SoLL Postgraduate Club in response to an email inviting people to help reform the club after disruptions caused by the pandemic and lockdowns. I had done my previous degree online, so I was keen to connect with other people, especially because the PhD can be quite isolating. It’s been helpful in this respect for me personally, and I hope that it’s a good resource for others as well. I think it takes work to build up a sense of belonging or shared purpose, both among graduate researchers and in the School or University more broadly, and I thought the club was a good way for me to contribute to this.
You gained a Graduate Research Teaching Fellow (GRTF) position. Can you share why you chose to apply for the teaching fellow position and how this role has influenced your PhD journey? As a Teaching Fellow and tutor, which courses are you involved in and what do these roles involve?
Alan Bechaz: I’ve enjoyed being a tutor for the Introductory Academic Program in the summer teaching period and for Sociolinguistics and Language Learning during Semester 1 this year. Now, I’m beginning classes for Transcultural Communication at Work in Semester 2. These subjects are structured quite differently, with a mixture of tutorial, lecture, and seminar class formats, so I’m pleased to have a chance to try my hand at different ways of working. I applied to be a GRTF because I thought that it would be useful for me to gain some teaching experience. Previously, most of my teaching or tutoring work had been with school students, so I wanted to start doing some teaching in a university context. I also hoped that having my time more structured by commitments besides my PhD work might help me to prioritise and manage my time a little better, although I think this is still a work in progress.
Could you describe any significant challenges you’ve faced during your PhD journey and how you overcame them?
Alan Bechaz: For me, I think the biggest challenges are quite personal, things such as motivation and confidence. I don’t think I’ve overcome these challenges, it’s more about finding new ways to keep going or trying something different. Even though my research isn’t directly about experiences of mental or emotional distress or mental health service use, I’m still asking people to share their views and experiences relating to potentially sensitive topics, and I think this entails a lot of responsibilities. It can be tricky to balance a sense of not wanting to let people down with the amount of freedom involved in the PhD. If I want to put off a task that feels uncomfortable for a day or a week, I usually can, because it’s generally my choice when and how things get done. I’m sure this is common, but it’s amazing how difficult it can be to push on with the work when there is so much flexibility. Writing things down, being around other people, and talking with supervisors are all helpful here.
What advice would you give to new PhD students starting their journey?
Alan Bechaz: My advice is probably the same as the suggestions I heard when I was applying and starting the degree. Setting boundaries and routines, staying connected, beginning to write early, and narrowing the project’s scope – these are all good pieces of advice. For me, I think hearing these suggestions is quite different from learning them through trial and error, or sticking with them as the project develops, so I’m also trying to be patient as I keep re-learning what works well. I think it’s also true that all the difficulties I’ve encountered tend to be more manageable if I speak about them with someone else, so conversations with supervisors, other students, counsellors, and friends or family are all very valuable.
Thank you for your time and for talking with me today, Alan.
Thank you, Xiaoyi.