The Contemplative Mammoth
grad school
Taking responsibility for our academic community: a response to sexism in the ESA’s list-serv
You’re enjoying your morning tea, browsing through the daily digest of your main society’s list-serv. Let’s say you’re an ecologist, like me, and so that society is the Ecological Society of America*, and the list-serv is Ecolog-L. Let’s also say that, like me, you’re an early career scientist, a recent graduate student, and your eye … Continue reading
ScienceOnline Interviews: Melanie Tannenbaum, Social Psychologist
Last year, I crowd-funded my attendance to ScienceOnline2012, an un-conference for people communicating about– and doing– science on the internet. In exchange, I offered to interview one attendee for every $100 I raised. In the lead-up to ScienceOnline2013, I’ll be sharing those interviews. Based on feedback from Twitter, I decided to interview student attendees in … Continue reading
ScienceOnline Interviews: Anthony Salvagno, open science biophysicist
Last year, I crowd-funded my attendance to ScienceOnline2012, an un-conference for people communicating about– and doing– science on the internet. In exchange, I offered to interview one attendee for every $100 I raised. In the lead-up to ScienceOnline2013, I’ll be sharing those interviews. Based on feedback from Twitter, I decided to interview student attendees in the sciences. My second … Continue reading
My Academic Independence Day
This is a quick update to say: I defend my dissertation tomorrow! I have a lot of thoughts about this, most of which I am unable to articulate because I am literally eating, breathing, and dreaming my dissertation, which means I’m finding it difficult to articulate anything that isn’t about late-glacial novel ecosystems, bison, dung … Continue reading
A very contemplative mammoth, indeed.
Things have been rather quiet on this blog in the last month or so as I’ve been working hard on #phd2012, and I wanted to give a brief update lest you thought this particular mammoth had gone extinct. I’ll be defending my dissertation on July 5th, and am planning on live-streaming the public portion of … Continue reading
How I cured my imposter syndrome
This post is part of the Diversity in Science Blog Carnival on Imposter Syndrome, hosted by Scicurious over at Neurotic Physiology. When I started graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, I felt like an imposter. I thought that all of my fellow grad students were more together, had more basic science training (I never … Continue reading
A paper published, a story told: Understanding the impacts of the loss of ice-age herbivores
Paleoecological research involves equal parts detective work, mental time-travel, and story-telling. Clues from the past are collected and pieced together to map out what landscapes might have looked like, and how they may have changed through time. It’s not unlike walking through the set of a play after all the characters are gone, and half … Continue reading
“So, what’s next?”
“So, what’s next?” As I hurtle towards #phd2012, I’m getting that question a lot these days; from family members, casual acquaintances, cab drivers and dental hygienists. Those who know me really well– colleagues, close friends, my spouse– know the answer, or at least some vague approximation. From everyone else, it’s a question that gives me … Continue reading
Farewell 2011, welcome 2012!
Before we get too much further into 2012, I’d better share my year-end review post. Last year was a bit crazy, between major life events and state and university shake-ups, but both I and my academic career survived! In 2011, I: Attended the 4th International Biogeography Society Meeting in Iraklion, Crete in January. If you … Continue reading
#PhD2012 FTW
After almost twelve years of post-secondary education, the end is in sight. Grad-school-time is more compressed than real time, and so “the end” isn’t actually for six to eight more months, but that’s close enough to raise my pulse considerably when I think about it. Between now and then, I’ll finish a significant amount of … Continue reading
