My four-year-old confidently told me at breakfast this morning I should just "go to the grant grocery store" if I need to get grants and now I have just been fantasizing what this magical grocery store of grants would look like 😂
No. Just no. First gen is NOT when you’re first in your family to get a PhD. It gets so tiring seeing people claim barriers that then erase the incredibly significant barriers some of us actually faced.
Not to play oppression Olympics but I honestly thought “first gen” meant first in your family to graduate college, not first to earn a PhD. Color me shocked to learn this today lol
I'm starting as an Assistant Professor tomorrow! I'm simultaneously elated and low key worried I'm going to miss a million things I should (or should not!) be doing. Any advice
#AcademicTwitter
?
If you tell faculty members they can't stay home to take care of their children who are infected with COVID19, you are creating a wider gender gap in those who make it to associate and full professors in the future. Let's not take steps backwards, please.
If you don't recognize power dynamics in your advisor-advisee relationships - especially w/ students who have marginalized identities, you are part of the problem. Acknowledging while resisting the urge to use your power over someone for gain is critical for diversity efforts.
I'm recruiting 2 fully funded Ph.D. students (w/ summer funding) to work on a NSF CAREER grant! We will be studying how to increase students' science communication knowledge and skills about vaccines & climate change. Reach out if you are interested!
I am proud to announce that I will join the biology faculty at Middle Tennessee State University
@mtsunews
as an Asst. Professor this fall! My
#BER
lab will study how to communicate politically controversial science topics like climate change, vaccinations, and evolution.
It is an honor to receive the
#NABT2021
Evolution Education award w/
@brownell_sara
for our work on Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Ed. Thanks to the awards committee for their work! It was the perfect reintroduction to in person conferencing. I missed my colleagues!
I got teaching evals today & I couldn’t be more proud of my students. Every single comment was respectful & many students gave me thoughtful suggestions for improvement. Importantly, all comments were delivered with kindness. I had 60 students! How did this happen? Well…
I'm coming up on one year in my new position and I just gotta say that being a professor is freaking awesome. I can't believe I actually get to do this 🤍
Submitted a paper highlighting the need for inclusion of Muslim students in
#evolution
education. Reviewer of said paper says it was "offensive" that we wrote that evolution and religion can be compatible. And we wonder why half the American public rejects evolution...
#SciComm
I received good news I was awarded my 1st NSF grant as an Asst. Prof! For this RCN UBE incubator, our team will convene a network of researchers to improve surveys of acceptance of evolution. I am so excited to work with this amazing team! (link below).
My first day of in person teaching as a professor is done! After 3 years teaching online I almost forgot the exciting buzz of the classroom. Not a bad day to wake up to as a
#firstgen
kid from the hood 😉 University life for the win.
Oh. And my students this semester? Amazing.
I'm a first year faculty starting my own research group and my UG research assistant got this shirt for herself after we received our first small grant for our research project. I definitely hired the right person.
#AcademicTwitter
Congratulations to
@brownell_sara
for her promotion to full Professor! I had the pleasure of starting as Sara's grad student during her first semester as an asst. prof in spring of 2014 & I've learned so much from her. 7 years from asst to full Professor! Not too shabby 🙂
🚨New
#DBER
pub! A new measure of perceived conflict b/w religion and evolution is the strongest predictor of evolution acceptance among introductory biology students, indicating a need to reduce conflict between religion and evolution for students:
Congratulations to
@MtsuMse
& Social Perceptions of Science lab PhD student
@Rahmi_QA
for winning the
#SABER2022
graduate student poster award on her
#Evolution
education research! It’s not too late to check out her poster here:
The Social Perceptions of Science lab is officially SABER bound! Can’t wait to introduce these amazing students and their research to the community in person this year!
#SABER2022
@nicolas_sommet
"Resource-rich individuals may be able to quell envy & malicious motivation among resource-scarce individuals with environments in which resource-scarce individuals can feel a sense of control over their outcomes". There I fixed it.
It's finally here! Our application for MTSU's
#DBER
postdoc cohort program is live!
Work with a post-doctoral cohort (and me!) through a structured program designed to train change makers in DBER ($70k/yr). Reach out for Qs and check out the website!
My regular reminder for when militant scientist atheists come out & start tweeting: you don't have to be an atheist to accept evolution. You can be religious & be a scientist. The idea that science is anti-religion is harmful to society & this is coming from a secular scientist.
student comments indicated that me & the TAs (
@Rahmi_QA
,
@SnarkDivine
,
@MaddieStewy
) modeled respectful & kind feedback, which then they used when giving us feedback. We taught them how to treat us by modeling it with them and each other! Big win for our team. Way to go guys!
We made it! Keep an eye out for the *very* excited members of The Social Perceptions of Science lab at
#SABER23
! It’s the first time for some of them 😁
I'm interviewing Ph.D. applicants to join our lab in 2022! Please share widely with any students interested in the identity aspects of teaching and learning contentious
#BioEd
topics like
#climatechange
,
#evolution
, &
#vaccines
.
Details here:
The Social Perceptions of Science Lab is sporting matching shirts for our
#NABT2021
road trip. Looking forward to seeing these undergrad researchers (Laine & Alexa) present at their first in person conference!
If you are interested in how to teach controversial science topics effectively or undergraduate science communication education, come check out the talks and posters coming from the Social Perceptions of Science lab at
#SABER23
!
✨New
@CBELifescied
publication✨! This one was a labor of love & I'm so excited to finally share it. We looked at how Black biology students took on the role of science communicators during the COVID-19 pandemic and what support they needed... 1/x
It's job market season again! Let's make the rules of
#academia
for
#FirstGen
students visible. 1st! After any interview, send a thank you email to whoever you met. This is sometimes expected, but if you're like me, it can seem like an odd expectation. So, write that email folks!
My heart & mind are so full after
#SABER23
. I’m incredibly grateful for our community & constantly impressed with how much support, love, & intellectual stimulation my colleagues, students, and I get when attending. Keep it up SABERites! We have a great thing going! ❤️
These undergraduate researchers are awesome. Their first time conferencing
#NABT2021
in person and they killed it! Congrats Laine and Alexa on communicating your science like a pro and representing the Social Perceptions of Science Lab 👏 👏👏
As a biologist, would you hesitate to tell other biologists that you are Christian? Find out what students say in my and
@brownell_sara
new pub in
@CBELifescied
about Christianity as a Concealable Stigmatized Identity in Graduate Biology Programs:
Interested in perceptions of evolution among Muslim students? Come check out the poster being presented by
@Rahmi_QA
right now! It is her first SABER and this mentor is so proud!
#SABER2022
If anyone is interested in doing a post doc in STEM education research as part of an
@NSF
funded postdoctoral cohort, we will be recruiting soon at MTSU!
Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming program and 4(!) positions.
I set intentions each year with 1 word. Last year was “balance” - figuring out how to professor & be a whole person. I did find balance! I worked less & published just as much, but still felt guilty often. So, this year is “peace”. I will let go of the guilt! Wish me luck🤞
At
#SABER2021
Dr. Niral Shah had excellent closing thoughts during his plenary talk on anti-racism in
#STEM
(1) Humility is how we should frame ant-racist work in STEM and (2) Centering personhood of BIPOC students is critical for progress in DEI efforts.
Congrats to
@MtsuMse
PhD student and SPS lab member Katie Coscia (
@SnarkDivine
) for winning a
@CbasMtsu
3 min thesis award!! Not bad for your first semester as a PhD student. We are so glad you are here!
We have a new pub in the
@CBELifescied
special issue on community college students. We examine their
#evolution
perceptions. Our most surprising finding? Community college students' evolution understanding was not related to their acceptance of evolution.
*New publication alert* Do you teach evolution at the community college? See how CC student acceptance of evolution compares to university students in this new
@CBELifescied
pub. Congrats to
@lizard_barnacle
and
@brownell_sara
for leading this work!
On this day! It’s hard to believe that almost one hundred years ago it was actually illegal to teach evolution. Even harder to believe that it is still incredibly controversial in society, even though it is a core concept of biology.
I'm an Arizona native and moved to Tennessee for my
#DreamJob
this year... Now I'm seeing the trees start to change colors for fall for the first time ever and I CANNOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT!
This is going to be epic.
#FallColors
Also, please remember scientists of color are often religious at higher rates than their white colleagues. Let's be careful how we are talking about the compatibility of religion and science and create a more
#Inclusive
scientific community! 2/2
So excited to be embarking on this awesome postdoc cohort training program! If you want to learn more, come to the postdoc informational summit hosted by
@ClemsonUniv
where
@GrantGardner19
,
@bleiler_sarah
& I will be there to meet and chat about the program and application!
MTSU STEM Faculty Land $1.25M NSF Grant to Mentor Post-Doctoral Education Researchers: MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Grant Gardner, Department of Biology professor and researcher, along with Middle Tennessee State University faculty Liz Barnes,… MurfreesboroTN
When academics overproduce they set that bar for everyone else too. We can all pretend we're not competing but the job market is so tight that yes, we are competing. Pretending we're not is gaslighting. Especially for
#firstgen
students who don't have economic security 1/2
I did something today I've always wanted to do; I walked down
#Darwin
's thinking path at his house in Downe. It was no surprise to me why he loved it so much. It was beautiful!
Daycare closed due to a + COVID case, again. My son is home until Sept 6th. If I owe you email replies, paper edits, etc., I really appreciate your grace and patience. Parenting in the time of COVID is no joke. I just feel lucky I have so much flexibility in my job. Others don't.
After using 3 apps and finally receiving my (very delayed) neg COVID test, I'm officially on my way to
#NARST2022
!
@Rahmi_QA
and I are looking forward to co-presenting our work on Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education. Can't wait to see everyone!
In times like these, it's nice to see something like this that reminds me of what we can be thankful for
#AcademicChatter
Also, a quick reminder that child mortality rates have largely declined because of
#vaccines
Finally, this data visualization is on fire 🔥.
I
#givethanks
for the many ways the world has improved.
Child mortality has fallen. Life expectancy has risen. Countries have gotten richer. Women have gotten more education. Basic water source usage has risen. Basic sanitation has risen. / Data from
@Gapminder
. Dots=countries.
I'm honored to partner on this
@NSF
project with amazing scholars at
@UofMaryland
@asunews
&
@HowardU
to study the intersection of race, religion, and science paths.
@AngelaGoogle2
is involved too! Excited to share results with you in the next few years:
22 yrs ago the most popular measure of
#evolution
acceptance was published and never updated... until now. Check out the new Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) 2.0 in
@CBELifescied
!
How do gender, political, & religious identity relate to students' comfort learning bioethics topics like abortion & gene editing? What increases/decreases comfort? Check out
@bayedws
1st lead author paper, a collaboration b/w
@asu
@mtsu
.
@brownell_sara
It is such a sad day for women & their children. There are so many more babies who could be born loved if we just let their moms become who they need to be first. Now women will thrive less and so will their children. Let women have children they can love... This day is so hard.
Hey bio ed researchers! Do you know about Concealable Stigmatized Identities (CSIs)? Do you want to know more? I'll be giving a talk at
#SABER2020
tomorrow in which
@brownell_sara
and I used this lens to explore how Christian graduate students conceal their identity in biology.
A new paper outlines how promoting conflict b/w science & religion is a group-binding behavior for science graduate students. The problem? This bad for science communication. Most Americans are religious & religion is linked with things scientists really care about. 1/9
FREE TO READ
This analysis of original survey data finds that among US graduate students the "religion-science conflict" serves as a way to express solidarity with a group that is central to their identity.
Our new
@CBELifescied
study suggests that 30% of intro bio students do not think life shares a common ancestor - it also suggests that misperceiving evolution as atheistic, rather than agnostic, might be one reason why!
Trying to prepare for class today when your colleague just died of COVID19 is... hard. Business just goes on as usual. Feels weird.
Please get vaccinated and wear a K95 mask. It's so little to ask to save people's lives.
Does conflict between religion & science negatively impact students’ experiences? In collab w/
@AngelaGoogle2
@brownell_sara
, the SPS lab published a new study in JRST exploring the experiences of Black Christian graduate students studying biology... (1/x)
Is it ethical for me to continue to take grad students if there is no way to offer them health insurance? I thought I was able to when I was hired but I’m finding out we can only offer international students health insurance. Should I only take international students then? 1/2
Folks compelled to comment on the MC Hammer/Jerry Coyne debate happening here, this is a great opportunity to use Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE) and use conflict de-emphasizing strategies! 1/2
Today at
#nabt2022
, Ph.D. student
@Rahmi_QA
will present research on Muslim student perceptions of
#evolution
at the
#BER
symposium, rooms 201-203! Come join us!
I have fond memories of my 1st time presenting at this symposium & love that I now get to mentor Ami to do the same!
Are you teaching
#evolution
? Did you know ~1/2 of bio students think you have to be an
#atheist
to accept evo? Consider discussing that evo is
#agnostic
rather than atheistic and it might help some religious students perceive less conflict w/ evolution!
@ravenscimaven
PhD in Bio Ed. I never received formal training for this but I chose to make it the focus of my dissertation and my postdoc work. I now run a research group as an Asst. Prof studying how to communicate science to people with different world views:
In my research interviews w/ biologists, even before the pandemic, they often thought it was "not their job" to address science denial in ways informed by social
psych. They often said its only their job to "teach the facts", not to persuade. Time to rethink those goals, yes?
What could NIH have done differently during the pandemic?
Dr. Francis Collins to
@JudyWoodruff
: "Maybe we underinvested in research on human behavior. I never imagined a year ago ... that we would still have 60 million people" not get vaccinated.
It was fun talking to
@aaas
and
@AAAS_DoSER
about how to reduce tension between science and religion. Check out my interview for tips and to learn how I got interested in studying the science of teaching evolution!
#AcademicTwitter
@andy_muan
@Rob_O_Malley
If you want to check out some tips for how to mitigate this, I've done some work on creating a framework for being culturally competent towards students of faith in evolution education:
In memory of Richard Lewontin and his impact on evolutionary biology. This embryo project encyclopedia entry on his and Gould's "Sprandrels" paper was one of my first publications and as an undergrad it profoundly changed the way I thought about evolution:
It is with profound sadness I relate the news that I just heard. Richard Lewontin died this morning. He was in poor health and passed away three days after his wife of many years, Mary Jane. He left an indelible mark on the field and will be remembered with deep admiration.
Excited
@aaas
meeting is kicking off today! If you're attending, check out our videos in "Evidence for reducing conflict between science and religion". Joe Graves, Jamie Jensen,
@brownell_sara
and myself discuss our work! We come together for our live panel Sunday. Can't wait!
Our new study suggests the importance of teaching the potential compatibility of religion and science. More than half of college biology students thought that one has to be an atheist to accept evolution.
@AAAS_DoSER
@BioLogosOrg
Listening to
#NABT2018
education research award winner
@brownell_sara
talk about her with with
@LizBarnes222
on religious cultural competency. Such great an important work!
I'm excited I was able to contribute to the
@SmallPondSci
and
@hormiga
blog. Check this out if you'd like to learn more about how to talk to religious folks about evolution - especially if you are not religious yourself!
The SPS Lab is presenting at
#NARST2022
today!
@Rahmi_QA
we be leading a roundtable on Muslim student evolution acceptance and co-presenting a talk w/ me on Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education. We are looking forward to sharing our work with everyone!
A new publication is out in collab with
@ASU_RISE_Center
in
@CBELifescied
! To study attitudes toward evolution, we need robust surveys to measure evolution acceptance. So, we explored the validity evidence for two evolution acceptance surveys... 1/x
If you all haven't seen
@DrTRMorton
give a seminar on CRT and STEM education then you are missing out. He is 🔥. If your STEM department is looking for seminar speakers, I highly recommend you invite Dr. Terell Morton. Phenomenal speaker!
@SABERcommunity
In my first year as a PI, building a research lab community and culture has been so much fun. It is a joy to watch my (7!) undergraduate researchers start to form a community. I can't wait to add graduate students and postdocs to the mix!
#AcademicChatter
I am incredibly lucky that this does not apply to me because my husband takes on a lot of our childcare, but that's not how it is in most heteronormative relationships. I know my female colleagues with children are hurting right now.
I found this very useful for thinking about how to set up my own research lab in the future! Lots of great ways to make a productive and inclusive lab environment 💜
Put your money where your mouth is. Give research students higher stipends and you will see Black students thrive more in STEM. I am committed to writing in higher stipends for my students and I intend to actively recruit Black students in my research space.
@RAScott324
@College_FIIT
And people ask me why I didn't take my husband's last name. I'm an academic and my last name is Barnes. Prime alphabetical academic real estate since kindergarten, yo.
@AlisonObrPhD
Thank you for that recognition Alison. That original tweet was a bit triggering and it’s good to see not everyone is trying to “oppression grab” ❤️
For the first time, I get to "profess" science each week to biology majors. I am planning my course and I just keep getting SO EXCITED about the material (eg, mitochondrial evo!!!) I know it is weird times and all, but this semester is going to be so much fun.
#AcademicTwitter
The truth is, I HAD to overproduce to make sure I got a job. Now, I see this trickle down to what will be expected of my trainees and others in our field and it makes me regret it a little even though I know it's what I had to do. 2/2
#OverlyHonestAcademic
After a long week of great work (two weeks actually) there's nothing like forgetting work and hanging out with the little guy. His favorite activity so far? We saved 5 worms 🪱 from drying out on the sidewalk this morning during our walk. He is very proud 🥰
#AcademicParenting