Dismantling the Ivory Tower

[studentlifeproblems]

[shanteparadigm]

Off-The-Record Advice for Graduate Students - Steve Salaita

A few things they won't tell you during orientation.

[africandiasporaphd]

Reinterpreting Southern History | C-SPAN.org https://ift.tt/2G0t8CG #ADPhD #slaveryarchive —- “Reinterpreting Southern History

Historians who edited or wrote essays for the book Reinterpreting Southern Histories talked about new avenues for approaching and understanding the history of the South. Topics discussed included Native Americans, the Civil War, slavery, the environment and the Great Depression. This panel was part of the 2019 Southern Historical Association’s annual conference.” https://ift.tt/2ugVKoQ Follow #ADPhD on IG: @afrxdiasporaphd

[gahdamnpunk]

Definitely not writing these down 🤐👀

[distantvoices]

Hindu nationalists have made it a trend to attack students inside university campuses while the police stands by and does nothing

Students at Sabarmati Hostel, Mahi Mandvi Hostel, Periyar Hostel of the JNU were attacked on Sunday evening. The JNUSU has alleged that the attack was orchestrated by RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The university's students' union, JNUSU, has claimed that some "masked" persons entered the JNU's Sabarmati and other hostels and thrashed the students with sticks and rods on Sunday.

The students' union has alleged that the attack was orchestrated by the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The JNUSU has alleged that ABVP "goons" pelted stones and also vandalised the property at the Sabarmati hostel.

"The ABVP attackers, with covered faces, are trying to enter Periyar Hostel by climbing the pipes," the JNUSU said on Twitter, adding, "ABVP members wearing masks were moving around on the campus with lathis, rods, and hammers".

JNU: WhatsApp messages planning attack traced to ABVP activists

The messages suggest that the masked people who entered the JNU hostels were ABVP activists and their supporters.

None of the attackers have been arrested by Delhi police while the same police has detained and arrested thousands of students, journalists, educators and others for peacefully protesting against the CAA-NRC, even killing as many as 30.

[distantvoices]

ANI on Twitter

“Govt Sources: Claims made by Hindu Raksha Dal Chief Pinky Chaudhary are being investigated. Delhi Police has taken cognizance. To identity

The Hindu Raksha Dal is just another Hindu nationalist group.

[jmjafrx]

Anyone doing #ADPhDReads 2020?

I’m doing this (of course) and starting with Ed Baptist’s The Half has Never Been Told for #1. If you join in, use the #ADPhDReads hashtag so we can chat books and nerdy things!

The year 2020 marks a new decade and an opportunity to reset and renew our commitment to scholarship on Atlantic slavery and the Atlantic African diaspora.

This reading “challenge” or adventure is simply a loosely organized reason to revisit older texts, reread favorites, and explore new genres.

There is no prize (unless you count bragging rights), but if you decide to read and want to be in community, use the hashtags #ADPhD #ADPhDReads and/or #slaveryarchive on social media. Share what you’re picking up and post your thoughts. Let’s discuss.

#ADPhD Reading Challenge #ADPhDReads

Note: “Slavery” here refers to the system of racial bondage that began circa 1440 and was abolished circa 1888. Not modern day sex trafficking.

1. A book about slavery and capitalism that cites Eric Williams 2. A legal history of slavery 3. A book about African diasporic systems of belief (ex. Robert Farris Thompson) 4. A book by a slavery scholar of African or African descent 5. A book about slavery and memory 6. A book about African diaspora art 7. A book on African and Native/Indigenous slavery 8. A book by a woman of color slavery scholar 9. A book about slavery and gender in the African diaspora 10. A book about sexuality and slavery in the African diaspora 11. A book published by an indie press about slavery 12. A novel about slavery 13. A book published by a trade (not indie) press about slavery 14. A book about slavery on the African continent 15. A book by an independent scholar of color about slavery/African diaspora 16. A book by a non-Western scholar about slavery/African diaspora 17. A book about Indian Ocean slaving/slavery 18. A book about black resistance, organizing and/or political movements (ex. maroonage, abolition) 19. A book about two African diaspora communities separated today by a “border” (ex. Lorgia Garcia-Peña’s Borders of Dominicanidad or Lorelle Semley‘s To Be Free and French) 20. A book of poetry about slavery 21. A book about slavery in the Caribbean 22. A book about slavery in Latin America 23. A book about Native/Indigenous communities and slavery 24. A slave narrative/testimony

Addendum: There are several 2020 reading challenges circulating. Before posting this, the one I saw was theFree Black Women’s Library reading challenge. Support her as well!

Read the post: https://ift.tt/2T2oGLA

[huffpost]

Mom declares her daughter is done with homework in viral email.

Blogger Bunmi Laditan sent her 10-year-old’s school a clear message.

“Hello Maya’s teachers,

Maya will be drastically reducing the amount of homework she does this year. She’s been very stressed and is starting to have physical symptoms such as chest pain and waking up at 4 a.m. worrying about her school workload.

She’s not behind academically and very much enjoys school. We consulted with a tutor and a therapist suggested we lighten her workload. Doing 2-3 hours of homework after getting home at 4:30 is leaving little time for her to just be a child and enjoy family time and we’d like to avoid her sinking into a depression over this.”

[fishyandclintbarton]

A++++ parenting 💜

[dienaziscum]

I’ve talked with a whole cadre of child therapists and psychiatrists about this very issue. There is little conclusive evidence that homework significantly improves elementary school children’s grades, understanding of subjects, or facility with various operations, processes, etc. However, plenty of evidence suggests that ever-increasing amounts of homework for young children lead to stress, anxiety, emotional fatigue, resistance toward academics in general, lack of leisure time to build social/interpersonal skills, and poorer family relations.  (My kids were doing about 3 hours a week IN KINDERGARTEN, at age 5 – so that’s ½ hour every night, after a 6.5 hour school day, or else saving it up for long slogs over the weekend, even more disruptive. And that wasn’t including reading practice!)

We have stopped doing homework altogether with my 7 year old as a result of severe anxiety/depression and a learning disability. She had gotten to a place where she had so little self confidence and truly believed that she was stupid and worthless, not just because of homework of course – but every time we tried to sit down to do homework with her, it’d end in tears with her really vehemently berating herself, and no amount of encouragement could ameliorate the damage done. Now, granted, she’s got other things going on besides just an overload of school work. But in NO WAY did the homework help her, either academically or emotionally. 

No little kid should have to spend an hour or more each night getting through homework. Now, my deal with Siena is that if she wants to give her homework a shot, I will absolutely help her if she wishes for help, but I no longer force her to complete all of it or to work on it for some set length of time before finally throwing in the towel. 

Guess what? With the pressure taken off, she’s actually doing MORE independent work now, purely out of the desire to learn and practice, than she ever was before we’d decided with her therapy team and school that homework was just not a thing this kid could handle.

Luckily for my older daughter my school’s 3rd-grade team decided to hand out homework only 3x/week, and the sheets take no more than 15-20 minutes to complete. That is totally reasonable for 8-9 year olds! 

Anyway tl;dr just because the school system may require it sure as shit doesn’t mean parents can’t, or shouldn’t, fight it. Do what’s right for your kid, and above all, let them be kids. 

[darkwizardjamesmason]

I eventually stopped doing homework because I was overwhelmed by it.

[ryttu3k]

There was an article just the other day in the local paper about a primary school that’s abolishing homework! You can read it here (autoplay video, gives you a few seconds to stop it).

[outforhealth]

Download the Youth Activist Toolkit from Advocates for Youth

The new Youth Activist Toolkit was developed with youth writers and activists to be a detailed guide to help young people develop a plan, organize a coalition, and define and implement strategies to achieve measurable social impact goals.

The new Youth Activist Toolkit was developed with youth writers and activists to be a detailed guide to help young people develop a plan, organize a coalition, and define and implement strategies to achieve measurable social impact goals.

[justsomeantifas]

rich people:

millennials:

[freeandresponsible]

I am fairly sure there are other explanatory factors for a dropping life expectancy, such as skyrocketing obesity rates and no one exercising enough. There’s not much evidence that increases in the quantity of working hours is linked to a dropping life expectancy.

[justsomeantifas]

x

x

x

x

x

for folks in office jobs:

x

x

x

x

ya ever hear of researching shit before you embarrass yourself?

[pseudomonaslisa]

it’s also funny that u would imply that people not getting enough exercise is in no way linked to people working longer hours

[exmellivorinae]

OH MY GOD whyyyy did no one tell me you’re supposed to send thank-yous after interviews?? Why would I do that???

“Thank you for this incredibly stressful 30 minutes that I have had to re-structure my entire day around and which will give me anxiety poos for the next 24 hours.”

I HATE ETIQUETTE IT’S THE MOST IMPOSSIBLE THING FOR ME TO LEARN WITHOUT SOMEONE DIRECTLY TELLING ME THIS SHIT

[a-windsor]

NO ONE TOLD YOU???? WTF! I HAVE FAILED YOU. Also: Dear ______: Thank you so much for the opportunity to sit down with you (&________) to discuss the [insert job position]. I am grateful to be considered for the position. I think I will be a great fit at [company name], especially given my experience in __________. [insert possible reference to something you talked about, something that excited you.] I look forward to hearing from you [and if you are feeling super confident: and working together in the future]. Sincerely, @mellivorinae

[exmellivorinae]

THIS IS A LIFESAVING TEMPLATE

[a-windsor]

YOU ARE WELCOME

[emeraldboreas-deactivated201809]

My brother got a really great paid internship one summer. The guy who hired him said the deciding factor was the professional thank you letter my brother sent after the interview.

[suaimhneas-peace-deactivated202]

should it be an email? or like a physical letter?

[daminwayne]

email, you want to send it within a few hours at max after the interview if you can so it’s fresh in their mind who you are. 

[khirsahle]

Confirmed! I interviewed for a job right after arriving in NY. The interview went incredibly well, and I went home and immediately wrote a thank you letter and put it in the mail. I had a super good feeling about this interview.

I didn’t get the job.

However, a few weeks later, I was called in to interview with another editor in the same company, and I did get that job. I found out later from the initial editor (the one who didn’t hire me) that he had planned to offer me the job, but since I didn’t follow up with a thank you letter, he assumed I didn’t really want it. He offered the job to another contender–but when he got my letter in the mail shortly after the offer had already been made, he went to HR and gave me a glowing recommendation. It was based on that recommendation that I got called in for the second interview.

So: send an email thank you immediately (same day!) after the interview. If you’re feeling extra, go ahead and send a written one too. OR go immediately to a coffee shop, write the letter, and return to the office and give it to the secretary.

Either way, those letters are important.

[neurofancier-deactivated]

Pro tip: If you really want HR to develop a personal interest in your application, publicly thank them on linkedin. Just make a short post telling your network about how X recruiter really went above and beyond to make you feel welcome, or about how be accommodating and professional they were, or whatever. Make sure to use the mention feature so they’ll get a notification and see it. 

Flattery will get you everywhere… and public flattery that might make its way back to their manager, doubly so.

[oaky-dokey]

Obligatory plug for one of FreePrintable.net’s sites: ThankYouLetter.ws. They have a whole section with interview thank you letter templates, and a page with specific tips for interview thank you letters. (There are also tons of other letter templates if you browse around a bit.)

[cricketcat9]

As a former professional recruiter and recruiting manager, I confirm, especially for entry-level positions, where you are competing with oodles of people. This little thing can make a difference. Also the fact that, maybe, you took time to google the “interview etiquette”.

[boogiewoogiebuglegal]

SIGNAL BOOST

[ironswordandstarshield]

The post-interview thank you notes can be a good way to recover in case you got asked a question whose answer you either didn’t know or felt was super weak. So if you follow the above given template, jump in with something like “upon further thought to your question, here’s my revised answer.” 

But yeah always send a thank you note after an interview. It’s a small thing but it makes a hell of a difference. And def send thank you messages to any recruiters who may have helped. And also after you get the job. Small things like that really go a long long way.

[toothmuncher3000]

Holy shit I had no idea

[dismantlingacademia]

How academia uses poverty, oppression, and pain for intellectual masturbation

Today, anything and everything is allowed if a postcolonial/decolonizing seal of approval accompanies it, even if it is devoid of any political urgency.

[dismantlingacademia]

NowThis Reports

For a shocking number of students, the college experience means living in your car to avoid massive debt. These two students showed us how they get by while homeless and in college

[jvlianbashir]

when you find an academic source that’s perfect for your paper but it’s behind a pay wall

[deadmomjokes]

Deciding to cite it anyway base on the abstract, knowing your professor probably won’t go through and look up every source in works cited

[rootbeermolecule]

if you guys want to read academic papers but they’re behind a paywall, get the chrome extension Unpaywall. when you visit a site that requires you pay for their journal to view the article, the extension will look for other open access sites that will show you the article for free, and it’s all completely legal. all that money goes to the publisher, the writer of the paper gets none of it. https://unpaywall.org

[sewickedthread]

If you can find out an author’s name, contact them. They may be willing to email it to you.For free. 

[gay-tm]

[gothhabiba]

Diversity initiatives don’t work, they just make things worse: the ideological function of diversity in the cultural industries

by Anamik Saha edited by Yasmin Gunaratnam Dev Patel might have won the award for Best Supporting Actor (that’s Dev Patel and not Riz Ahmed, Burberry), but when the nominees for the 2017 BAFTA Awa…

One of the most troubling outcomes of the commodification of diversity, as Leong outlines, is that it pressures individuals into performing their otherness in a way that meets with the approval of the dominant culture. As an example, in my research on British Asian theatre practitioners, my respondents would describe how they have to present their ‘diversity’ in a somewhat exaggerated, or at least assertive way in order to qualify for the money the Arts Council have ring-fenced specifically for ‘culturally diverse’ theatre companies. This is how diversity initiatives make race. It is despite, or indeed, because of diversity initiatives that representations of racialised minorities continue to be reduced to a handful of recognisable tropes, with little variation. As Gray puts it, ‘diversity is a technology of power, a means of managing the very difference it expresses’.

[dismantlingacademia]

Graduate School Can Have Terrible Effects on People's Mental Health

Ph.D. candidates suffer from anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation at astonishingly high rates.

[niggazinmoscow]

it’s a big win