Tomorrow I'll set off on my first conference travel since 2019 to Switzerland.
In the 2010s I went to 3-4 conferences a year (and greatly enjoyed it) then the pandemic and #LongCovid put things to a grinding halt.
Hoping my energy management and pacing regime will work but also excited to see old conference buddies again and learn about new research.
Also excited about the train journey (including the scenic Gotthard route) #AcademicChatter#ConferenceTravel
My university, UCL is now supporting train journeys for #ConferenceTravel over plane tickets due to the #ClimateEmergency but it still takes so much dedication to actually do it as it's more complicated to key together journeys. I've got tickets from three different rail companies on various platforms / apps. #AcademicChatter
A turbulent start to day 2 of my #ConferenceTravel as the direct train from Basel was cancelled due to engineering works. Took a slightly earlier one and need to interchange in Olten.
Organised impeccably at Basel - as you'd expect from Swiss trains #AcademicChatter
Our faculty slack has a 'kudos' channel to announce good news, like awards, publicity, new grants, etc.
We recently added a 'soduk' (kudos backwards) channel where people can announce and commiserate over rejected papers, bad proposal reviews, etc.
I really like this setup, it both encourages people to announce and take pride in the things that go well, and provides a space where's it's encouraged to discuss the fact that things often don't go well, that all of us deal with rejection, and that this is okay.
Totally busy finalising both my thesis and a future book, but still delighted to receive an invitation for a #CorpusLinguistics book review in a very relevant journal. Will post when published, promise 😃 #academicchatter @phdlife @corpuslinguistics
I have a perversion to disclose here.
Please don't judge me.
....
I love editing stuff, both my stuff and my students and collaborators's stuff.
So at present I can edit via overleaf about 4 papers in progress by my students, 1 master thesis, 1 paper of mine under review and another in preparation.
My small poll has ended https://mastodon.social/
and I suspect I might have found a tiny effect, which I sort of expected (at least because it's in me):
maybe scientists care a bit less about "coherence" of views, when they debate important things in life/society/politics, compared to people with a different background.
It's not super striking, but coherence is very much important for 64% of scientist, but to 77% of non-scientists.
Has anyone figured out a good way to inform Zoom speakers of how they're doing on time at conferences? Interrupting them seems to be the only method that works, but that's also ... Sub ideal... #AcademicChatter
Linguists and philosophers - where is the place or places to look for a nice explanation of Kratzerian semantics and in particular talk of ordering sources for worlds?
(Something fitting for an audience of beginning grad students in philosophy!)
imagine you strongly debate with someone else about "important stuff" in life (involving morality, crucial political standings, war & peace choices etc).
How much do feel important to test the other person's "coherence" on that matter, and expose any incoherence?
"Fewer U.S. scientists are pursuing postdoc positions, new data show" 📉
"The trend underscores concerns that the academic community is facing a postdoc shortage and that early-career scientists are increasingly favoring higher paid positions outside academia."
“It’s not a situation that’s good for the country.”
Wanna help a master student to accomplish her thesis about the embodiment of emotions?
You can do by answering this survey!
It should not take you more than 5 or 10 min and you don't need to be familiar with robots or AI to answer.
Bad weather- classes suck.
Good weather- classes suck.
56 F/13 C and overcast with mist but not actual rain - classes are great (but if you miss this window you’re screwed). #academia#academicchatter#academicmastodon
Equinox is making it easier for me to choose to which journal I want to submit my next paper: "Equinox does not accept manuscripts that have already been submitted to preprint repositories, such as SSRN. However, an author may deposit their accepted postprint manuscript in their Institutional Repository (only), with due acknowledgement to Equinox Publishing and an embargo period of 24 months." #OpenScience#AcademicChatter#AcademicPublishing
For every day I spend systematically answering e-mails, I leave dozens of books unread.
I already have an email policy in my syllabus, which says that I prefer to answer questions in class, since we see each other several days a week.
What other tips do you have that have worked for you?
Yes, I have what are considered "diverse" interests for academia. My web page, scholarly profiles, and CV all reflect this. I do not fit nicely into a single field. I create bridges. I work across and with different disciplines. When is that going to stop hurting me?
This article really resonates with me. The current system is untenable and most university administrations have taken away any agency that faculty have in the system.
Spelling it all out. Lots of quotable bits. Such as this:
"The growth of managerial and administrative grades responsible more and more for controlling academics rather than supporting them is one of the most important trends in the modern university. That structure emits a constant white noise and static of demands that don’t seem connected to lecturers’ training or aims. And that suppression of academic Voice is critical to a proletarianization or retreat of value and worth far more important than the squeeze on relative salaries (and therefore status) that we’ve concurrently been experiencing."
"Most people going into universities had at the start an ethical sense of their future, a vocation, something that wasn’t just mechanical but which was somehow simply right. The university must be just such a moral place, or it is nothing. As of now, it’s doing a pretty good job of looking like nothing: drab, pointless, miserable. That’s doing harm to all of us."
Question is, how to push back, when we are busy doing too much.
Thinking more and more seriously that I should create a "Tutorials in Physics" journal that doesn't publish new research, but tutorials on advanced but relatively settled topics, aimed at first year PhD students who need an introduction to the topic. #Physics#AcademicChatter
"It is impossible to be a top-line manager and administrator and mentor and researcher and writer and outreach officer and IT expert and online instructor and pedagogical innovator and recruiter and teacher and marker and external examiner and press pundit and grant bidder and editor and look after your own wellbeing. No-one can do that. "