Recommended reads #203
An article in Slate about how folks in the humanities aren’t doing the off-campus volunteer academic service like they used to.
Profiles of faculty who made major career pivots because of the imperative to do more about the climate crisis. This really hit home for me. Two of their four subjects left faculty positions for other roles. So this article is 50% “quit-lit.”
This one is 100% quit-lit: I Left Academia to Work in a Pub Because I’m Working-Class.
Here’s some switch-lit: how toxicity drove me to leave my unicorn job
A post from Beronda Montgomery that isn’t new but it’s so good: working from affirmation, not for affirmation. This also really connected with me.
Related: Some reasonable journalism about the trillion trees nonsense. (The one line that really stuck out to me is the revelation that the lab with a history of getting misinformed takes into the media hired their own publicist. Man, some academic worlds are so fundamentally different than the ones I navigate in. A lab with a publicist. Wow.) Some context about the silliness of the trillion trees business is in this earlier article.
I missed this when it came out in April (or I’ve forgotten over the course a few months, but I doubt it?): Science published a story about concerns involving the review process of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. I have a lot of thoughts about this, I mean, I have so many thoughts about this, but it wouldn’t be a good thing unless I shared them with detail and nuance. And this isn’t blogging-with-detail-and-nuance situation for me at the moment.
Not-so-natural disasters on the rise. Just wanted to highlight what I thought was a solid piece of climate journalism.
Why do rich people love quiet?
I hope you have a nice peaceful weekend. And if you’re in the temperate part of the Northern Hemisphere, that you’re enjoying your summer.