Courage to embrace the gaps.
Inspired by a chance encounter with university president Eva Martha Eckkrammer, it’s my new productivity mantra for the year: *Mut zur Lücke*.
Excited to share the bulk of my postdocotoral work from the @ditalialab.bsky.social on how cells interpret dynamic morphogen signaling during development! Many thanks to our collaborators & coauthors @shelbyflies.bsky.social, Massimo Vergassola, Jacqueline Janssen, and Anna Chao.
On behalf of the COBAP Team, thank you so much to the authors for all your hard work!
If any of you will be at EPSA, I'd love to raise a toast together and celebrate this amazing paper.
Excited to see new work on the politics of Covid border closures—smart design, rich data, and important findings.
Grateful to see my borders papers contributed, and even more so to see the research carrying the torch forward with more fine-grained data. This is how knowledge builds. 👏
What bring together an American, a Brit, and Puccini? German sausage
We will miss you in Mannheim @nspmartin.bsky.social !
It worked!
Or at least, it seemed to: I said "Alles gut?" And they didn't say "Nein!" But rather, "pay us now." 🥳
They are currently listening to “Stand my Ground” by Within Temptations. Something about cheerily singing the lyrics in a German state office “Won’t. Back. Down.” feels right 😂
.. now it’s just me, the likeness of my dog, and all the docs, awaiting our fate.
As a social scientist I am intrigued by these state processes (a functioning bureaucratic state?) and as a person, I find them stressful—often humiliating—and difficult to navigate.
Will report back—wish us luck!
Today’s a big day: I’m at an appointment to officially swap my US-based driver’s license for a Germany-based one. The first time I took my partner with me, and we were not successful.
Second time, I asked a colleague to come with since I do not speak much German. But he threw up otw! So..
From the streets to her very own tufted chaise..
Happy National Rescue a Dog Day! -- which is every day in Pepper's apartment.
Omg yes! This is huge.
DM me for more details if you'd like to join! ❤️
But what about celebrating rejections--can we do that? If so, when and HOW should we celebrate?
I'm attending EPSA in Madrid and hope to open a discussion on this topic: celebrating submissions, rejections, and more of the "little things" we do to keep shared knowledge and truth-telling alive.
I know it's a strange concept -- celebrating rejections -- but it's not entirely my idea. I first thought of this after reading @mirya.bsky.social 's post on having a grieving ritual post-rejection and even setting an annual rejection GOAL (❤️ this!) miryaholman.substack.com/p/on-getting...
It's disappointing, if unsurprising, but I am wondering: Is there a forum to share, commiserate, chronicle, and even CELEBRATE politicized rejections?
I'm also wondering about other Fulbrights--is the whole program cut? Will we have to wait to find out piecemeal like this, one by one?
On Friday, I finally got a formal (rejection) letter for an exchange EU-US Fulbright Fellowship I applied for (pre-Trump), was interviewed for, and selected for—but ultimately, the State Department de-selected me without any explanation.
They didn't award anyone else the position either..
Update: I was glad today to learn that these research funds were not reversed in the end, and the project continues!
However, it remains challenging to plan with the realistic concern that it could change at any moment or suddenly be stopped with no explanation again.. so we must remain vigilant.
📣 new fellowship at the MZES, University of Mannheim! Deadline 26 April 2025. Come join us 👇🏻
I am excited to get back into conferencing and workshopping new ideas this year--after a hiatus last year to finish my dissertation.
First stop: Stockholm! "Contemporary Politics in the Western Balkans" hosted by Sweden's Institute for International Affairs.
I will present a paper about how family dynamics shifted during intensive repression---using evidence from southern Albania's minority groups before, during, and after the country's most authoritarian period.
Thanks to my **amazing colleagues** at the MZES University of Mannheim, I feel ready.
In Sandra's words, "It is fundamental that good science must be free. The fact that this freedom could be curtailed in one of the leading hubs for research, the USA, is frightening." So, we are scared, it's true, but also, like Sandra, we won't give up on these basics when the research matters.
But if I were still in the US, I would have joined a protest alongside you. When we can, we must continue to speak out, stay open, informed, and willing to share our knowledge. This way, when opportunities arise to do science, we will still be ready. When they are taken away, we are still together.
Lastly, I want to support all scientists who stepped out of their comfort zones to protest last week! None of us entered graduate school thinking our work would become so politicized -- indeed, I chose political SCIENCE for a reason. (I did not want to go into politics.)
For all my criticisms of the U.S. system and electorate in recent years, preventing human trafficking is a value we have upheld for decades, which I also share. I hope for Sandra's sake and the love of humanity that we continue to do so.
Those running against DeSantis have followed suit: "The key thing is, we don’t tolerate the trafficking of women, or frankly, the abuse of women. We do not tolerate that."
Americans HATE human trafficking and LOVE taking on the bad guys. Even the most problematic politicians know this.
since Trump, and/or his son, likely helped fly the Tate brothers on a private jet to safety in the US despite credible charges against them in Romania for trafficking, rape, and money laundering. Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken a stand against the Tate brothers.
After all, it doesn’t take much moral work to agree that no one should be enslaved; if we can prevent it, we should.
Regarding gender, when women are disproportionally exploited, men suffer abuse, too.
Does Trump wish to be king of human trafficking increases? Could be..
I am personally grateful that scientists do the work to help us all learn what we can do to prevent human trafficking. I was shocked to learn that her project was affected because the U.S. has long treated fighting human trafficking as a non-partisan issue.
The second time I saw a person being forced to move against her will, in Thessaloniki, Greece, I was more prepared. I was able to approach the victim safely, ask if she needed help, and alert the appropriate authorities when she said yes.
This is partly thanks to research like Sandra's.
I have witnessed human trafficking in public twice. The first time, I was nearly a child myself, 18yo, in D.C. I saw a young girl being moved against her will through the metro. I wanted badly to help, but I was frozen and regret that I did not act quickly enough. The scene haunts me to this day.
