In this “Whiskey Optional” episode, PTJ facilitates a conversation among four colleagues from dif…
Episode 23: Being Academic and Pandemic Time
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Academia
Why Have Mainstream IR Journals Largely Ignored Pandemics*
* I have changed the title as I got plenty of pushback on twitter--that there is plenty of IR on Pandemics, not just in the major journals. And I will add an update at the bottom later to address...
Over 1000 U.S. Political Scientists are Worried about Democratic Elections in November: Here’s Why
This is a guest post from Jeffrey C. Isaac and William Kindred Winecoff who both teach political science at Indiana University, Bloomington Last Wednesday the two of us circulated an open letter...
no, Realism cannot explain the international Covid-19 response
As the world rushes to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, international relations scholars have a lot to say. We are not public health experts, or pathologists. But we can speak to the way states...
More Academia Posts
The Latest in the Data Fraud Scandal
This blog mostly focuses on IR, but this story has implications for all doing social science, as the accuser at the center of the conversation asserts quite clearly. So, I am posting the latest and most thorough account of how this played out thus far here. There are many questions to ask, but the one asked directly in the piece is: how does one deal with flawed work? Attacking the quality of research is one thing--that is what lit reviews are all about--but the integrity of scholars? As the piece suggests, that is tricky business indeed. This is not the end of the story by any means,...
After Tenure
While the lead up to tenure is often terrifyingly stressful, even attaining that goal is a bit daunting as it raises the question, "Now what?" I suppose on some level one can then set one's sights on the next thing, Full Professor, but that obviously doesn't have the same significance in terms of career and life trajectory that tenure does. Getting tenure raises all sorts of questions about what you want to be when you grow up, if a life in the academy makes you happy, or if the kind of life you are leading in the academy is what you want to be doing. When I first started graduate school, I...
Online Media Caucus Call for Papers for ISA 2016 Reminder
Our new caucus seeks to promote the use of online media in our teaching, research, policy engagement and service. We have a broad imagination both about what we mean by online media and what kinds of papers/panels would be of interest. Online media include social media such as twitter, blogging, facebook, tumblr, and the like, but also the use of the internet for surveys, simulations, data repositories, virtual meetings, and more. We are in interested in papers/panels that are research-oriented (using the internet in one’s research), pedagogical (internet in the classroom, online...
The Freedom to Speak Up As Academics: The Right to Make An “Ass” of Myself Personally
On Thursday, I became part of a growing group of academics that has had a letter like this written about them: As a parent, I’ve been doing some advocacy about my children’s school this year. The advocacy received some local media attention recently when my children’s District Administration tried to defend an activity that violated federal privacy rights. Luckily, I’m in a department where, instead of encouraging me to be silent, senior faculty advised me to frame the letter and include it in my annual evaluation under “service.” I love my university and I love the fact that I’m still...
New directions in academic publishing
I've wrote a post today with Bethany Albertson for The Monkey Cage. The post reports the findings from a recent article we wrote for the relatively new academic journal Research and Politics. The article includes a survey experiment we conducted to assess what messages, if any, the American public finds persuasive on climate change. Both represent interesting departures in the academic blogosphere and publishing. The Monkey Cage The Monkey Cage was independent up until September 2013 when it came under the aegis of the Washington Post. Since then, it has become the central hub for academics...
Thinking about the intellectual future of higher education
Recently, articles have emerged in both the United States and the United Kingdom concerned over the current politico-intellectual trend toward diminishing the importance and funding of the humanities and social sciences (HSS). For all the reasons the authors indicate, this trend is problematic. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines are of course incredibly important. But they are only part of the collective agenda of intellectual inquiry, and cannot be made to dominate universities without intellectual, economic, and political costs. In this short post, I will...
Belated ISA Recap: Norms in IR, Norm Violations in IR, Pop Culture in IR and Junior Scholar Panels
So I'm a wee bit late to the post-International Studies Association Annual Conference blogging ritual, but better than never right? Let me begin with a first-time experience for me at ISA that I truly enjoyed and highly recommend: participation on a Junior Scholar Symposium Panel. If you've never done this, here's how it works: You read four papers by emerging scholars, but instead of a regular panel format the papers are discussed in combined poster/workshop format at one of several round-tables in a big ballroom. Authors bring poster versions of their papers, and everyone reads in advance....
Skype Academic Interviews – What (Not) to Do
Hi all! File this post under "unsolicited advice from a newbie DGS." Here are my tips on how to not crash-and-burn on a Skype interview: Take a professional picture and make sure your Skype handle is professional – this might be the perfect time to set up an alternative, work-related Skype account. DON’T have a mood listed. No one wants to see that you love pirates or pigs or whatever at this stage. Be on early and make sure Skype is set up as online. Dress professionally – get your dog, bike, etc out from behind you – you can take a sample picture right from Skype so you can see what they...