Syeda ShahBano Ijaz
@shahbano_ijaz
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Assistant Professor of Global Political Economy, Diplomacy & World Affairs, @Occidental Formerly @UCSDPoliSci GPE, CPE of Development, South Asia, Aid.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined May 2013
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Alhamdulillah. I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be joining Occidental College in Fall 2023 as an Assistant Professor of Global Political Economy.
I cannot believe my luck that I get to call the amazing city of Los Angeles home! 1/n
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My husband spent 4 teenage years memorizing the Qur’an. Each Ramadan, he leads tarawih prayers for a few days. Every time I help him revise portions of it (w/translation), I am in awe of a mind that stores that info & wins faculty fellowships from Harvard (both happened today!)
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@rjschoner
@Tulane
Thank you for your courage and support. Your students are lucky to have you <3
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This shows a complete lack of historical awareness of independence and freedom movements indigenous to South Asia and the global south. All she is saying, which is being documented as Jew hatred, is calling for freedom.
Azaadi = freedom
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24: get married, migrate & start PhD
25: have a daughter
28: program kicks me out despite no maternity leave (F1 visa). Reason? Progress too slow to finish in 5yrs 🤷🏽♀️
29: restart PhD
32: lose my father & become ABD
35: 3 TT offers. Graduate & start 1st TT job today
🤞🤞🤞
I was 36 when I finished grad school.
37 when I got the job at Rhodes.
39 when I got on the tenure track.
43 when the book got published.
44 when I earned tenure.
Just putting this out here for the young heads on this journey worried about trajectory.
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On this international women’s day, I scheduled my Ph.D. dissertation defense.
This comes seven years after an obnoxious male academic told me that I would never be able to complete a Ph.D. and another male colleague asked me to reconsider my career post giving birth.
Onward!
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Thrilled to share I’ve received the
@Princeton
Dissertation Scholarship at the
@BobstCenter
for my diss project “From Aid to Accountability: Politics of Last-Mile Access in Pakistan”. Thanks to my advisors
@ClaireAdida
,
@C_J_Schneider
&
@GarethNellis
for unparalleled support!
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#PhinisheD
Phinally defended my PhD at UCSD with the most supportive committee ever & in the presence of loved ones who matter most. I reached here on the wings of their prayers to become the 1st PhD in a family that underwent multiple migrations. Alhamdulillah!
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Since it's finally official, I will be an IGCC Dissertation Fellow for AY 2021-22. I have also received the Oceanids Memorial Fellowship this year, and the UC Doctoral Diversity Initiative Writing Grant. Happy to be entering year 5 on such good note!
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This is a big deal for me - it’s the first time that one of my completed research papers has won an award.
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12 years ago, we met while I was doing a masters in Oxford and he at Duke. Today, we have been married for 10 years. This is us, last week, back in the city where it all started, with me holding a presentation poster in my hand. May we continue to love, to strive & move forward.
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It's an odd time to reflect on personal achievements, yet also a more pressing time than ever for WoC to succeed.
Thus, I'm thrilled to share that I've been awarded the prestigious AAUW American Postdoctoral Fellowship, allowing me to dedicate AY 2025-26 to my research.
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I was selected as a 2021 member of the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. As someone who has struggled with and tried to address issues of diversity in academia, this comes as an extremely welcome honor. So grateful today!
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Last six months in review: lost a parent & a grandparent, solo-parented for two months, lived(-ing) through a pandemic, homeschooled, defended prospectus, submitted four grant proposals and graded some 150 undergrad research papers (amongst other things). I’m taking a week off.
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@emanabdelhadi
I’m always surprised by how much “touching” the old guard (especially the old white guard) gets away with. To elaborate on what you’re saying: I’m uncomfortable hugging students even if it is for Eid. I give them air high-fives and air hugs. Even in comforting, touching isn’t ok.
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I mentor several Pakistani/S.Asian students every year as they apply for grad school. Why does dropping the GRE matter?
1. Less well-off students cannot take the GRE multiple times
2. They do not have access to prep software/academies
1/n
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I’m emotionally exhausted 2day. B/w a spouse on the brutal job mkt, CA descending into Covid chaos, no grad fieldwork + a year of separation from my mother and grieving my dad - I’m done. But then my 7yo hops by chiming her fav g’night phrase, “Ammi, 2morrow is a new day!”
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My evals for my first year on the TT are in, and I’m drowning in happy tears. I love teaching, and I love my students, and I’m so grateful to end this year on such a positive note.
A snippet below.
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In 2020, I advanced to candidacy, did a survey experiment in Pakistan, gave five research presentations, organized a new workshop, put in 5 grant apps, solo-parented for 7 weeks, made a website, cooked countless meals and lost 35lbs! Going offline till 2021 :)
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Excited to Zoom-host
@NazitaLajevardi
for a timely conversation on the Muslim vote. Please join us this Friday at noon PDT!
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Applied: >50
Cycles: 4
PhD programs attended: 2
UCSD has fully supported me as a Muslim woman of color, a mother and a dropout. I haven’t been looked down upon. My academic ability/productivity has not been judged. Finally, I’ve been allowed to feel like I too can belong.
My only contribution to the grad school acceptance and rejection conversation:
Far too many of our depts do a shit job recruiting and retaining students of color. We must do better. Our programs & disciplines suffer when the students we train don’t look like the world we study.
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Today was a good day. Kid is back in after-school after 8 mos, I am a Research Affiliate with the Yale MacMillan Center, have a dedicated work space and can get this dissertation moving. So grateful for the bright days, & all the kind/generous people who make it possible.
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I'm on the academic job market this year!
I will be presenting my JMP at APSA amongst amazing folks at a panel on credit claiming (Sat, 8am) [yes, I do both IR and CP!].
Please reach out if you'd like to meet up & chat.
ShahBano’s work challenges the notion that aid damages democracy. Using a natural experiment in Pakistan, she shows voters mobilize to address gaps in last mile delivery of foreign aid, instituting bottom-up accountability locally
@shahbano_ijaz
#psjminfo
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Became an ABD today! Grateful for my committee and their confidence in me- this has been a delightful journey so far.
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We still miss La Jolla and I’m so glad we got to do this photoshoot right before leaving. I still cannot believe that we - a young, immigrant couple with high dreams and numerous obstacles - got here. Alhamdulillah.
Wearing the robes again soon for
@Occidental
’s convocation.
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Great way to start a week- first publication in an academic journal!
Thank you to all my co-authors for getting this project together - and an extremely relevant one at that - in the early days of COVID when we were all trying to finding our feet.
#OpenAccess
from
@JEPS_ed
-
Taking the Cloth: Social Norms and Elite Cues Increase Support for Masks among White Evangelical Americans -
-
@ClaireAdida
, C.Cottiero, L.Falabella, I.Gotti,
@shahbano_ijaz
, G.Phillips & M.F. Seese
#FirstView
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9 yrs today, being a mother to this racially conscious, sharp-witted, social-justice driven young girl. I am at APSA today & this is a testament to her strong support for me in breaking this very real glass ceiling.
Happy birthday, my love. May you always “Ascendio!”
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The one good thing about this week. Finally splurged on this.
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I never feel more orphaned than when I have good news to share or an important day ahead. I miss that he would call - always 5 mins after my alarm - to check I was awake. I miss that he would track my flights from miles away. I miss sending him “reached safely” msgs. :(
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Letter from my 7yo on my bed tonight. Why is my daughter so awesome? Alhamdulillah for her.
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It’s her first day of school at her third new elementary school in three years (and fourth elementary school across six grades). She has a lot of grit, but we need good vibes.
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In the past 8 weeks, we’ve made 10 trips to the medical center/hospital. I’m teaching two courses. Yesterday, my 10yo fractured her ankle in a fall in the school playground. Today, I submitted my first solo-authored paper. Irrespective of the outcome, I think I can be proud.
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Today, my daughter turns 2 months old and I returned to my office for the first time. Not because I have to work, but because I wanted some time to be on my own and because my partner literally pushed me out the door.
1/x
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This year, I was the finalist for four TT positions and received three offers. The most amazing achievement is that we resolved the two-body 'problem' (labels need to change) in our first TT jobs . My husband joins Occidental as an Asst Prof in Religious Studies in 2023. 6/n
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Excited to be a
@UCIGCC
Dissertation Fellow this year. Many of you know that I've traversed a very challenging & convoluted path to get here & I'm so, so grateful that I persisted. Thank you to everyone who unquestioningly supported me on this journey - y'all are my champions!
Meet
@shahbano_ijaz
, an IGCC 2021–2022 Dissertation Fellow. She specializes in the political economy of developing countries, and on gaps in last-mile access to foreign aid-funded social security programs in
#Pakistan
—and the implications for
#democracy
.
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My piece out in the Monkey Cage today, drawing on the research by
@mushfiq_econ
& co in Bangladesh and my survey experimental work in Pakistan.
What would persuade South Asians to get vaccinated against covid-19?
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Right now in NYC, my mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-laws are painstakingly prepping a dinner celebration for me, to which they’ve invited >40 people. I feel spoiled and in total awe of the multigenerational systems of support that undergird immigrants’ achievements.
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Just submitted grades, wrapping up my first semester as a professor!
Grateful for supportive colleagues and the hardworking, inspirational students at
@Occidental
College.
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It’s been so, so long. And I’m pretty exhausted. But also so grateful, so excited and so absolutely proud of how far I have come despite all the obstacles and all the people who tried to make this journey harder than it should be.
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Had an intense convo today about how some subsets of women are gravely underrepresented / implicitly discriminated against in the academy.
Then found out that I have been selected as a voting member of UCSD's Chancellor's committee on the Status of Women.
👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾
Be.The.Change.
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Just started this brilliant book that promotes an approach to studying development which attributes agency to poor voters. Fav line in intro begins, “It is in the politics of everyday claim making where we will find the factors that generate disparities in development...”
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Columbia. NYU. Yale. New School. UC Berkeley. MIT.
It doesn’t stop now.
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@amalkhan
To add to this: when we call upon Allah in Bismillah, the first quality that is used to describe Allah is ‘r(a)hm’, or the ‘beneficent’, the giver. This root word also means womb.
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In my first year as an AP, I've struggled to move my dissertation papers to publication. I realize that it's necessary to have a peer accountability group. So I'm gaging interest for a Junior Accountability Group (JAG) here:
#polisci
[Feel free 2 share]
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The hardest thing is to hear your 8yo daughter constantly sniffle as she isolates next door, braving Covid. I finally gave in last night, and spent a while massaging her feet while wearing two masks. That’s how she finally fell asleep.
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This year has been a rollercoaster, but finally ready to share some happy job market news soon!
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This announcement shows that the resilience of a Muslim, immigrant woman of color and a graduate student mother paid off. 7 years ago, I almost leaked out of the academy when a prof told me that I could never do a Ph.D. A group of elitist academics wrote me off because of ... 2/n
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Shortest 2nd grade ever. Duha was assessed for accelerated learning at her school and was moved up to 3rd grade. Fingers crossed she enjoys it!
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I share all this so that other women of color, graduate student mothers, immigrants and marginalized ppl can take heart that often *you* are not holding yourself down, systemic injustice is. With the right advisors (THANK YOU!) & the right support, we are all capable. 7/n
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My COVID is bad. I’m on my third dose of paxlovid but it isn’t getting better. 9yo is in ER with potential RSV (and maybe combined with COVID?)
Stay safe everyone!
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34. With family and finally, on fieldwork. Hoping this is the year :)
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I am afraid to apply to postdocs because I haven’t published anything yet. But I also feel I need a postdoc to publish. I’m riding high on doubts today.
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This was me. Judged for my clothes, appearance, inability to show up for social events & "attitude" in class in my 1st yr postpartum. I was forced-enrolled in courses so the DGS 'could keep an eye on my progress'. It was a shitshow that almost drowned me.
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Loved hosting this practitioners’ panel for
@wpesa_
2! Can’t believe we managed 2 iterations in 1 year showcasing some of the finest research on the political economy of South Asia. Thnx to all those who joined us and
@sarah_fthompson
&
@amilliff
for being awesome co-organizers!
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I couldn’t visit Pakistan in 2022 because of lots of intra-American travel, moves and the job market. I returned last night having achieved a degree of success in all those avenues. It is a pleasure to be in Lahore, my city of 25 years, in the seasons of Ramadan and Spring.
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I’ve never felt more vulnerable - in this country or in academia - as I do right now.
It’s 2023 and this is a cartoon that the
@washingtonpost
decided was fit for print. It includes a portrait of the angry brown man (complete with a big nose), the ugly veiled docile Arab woman, and of course both the kids and the woman are being used as human shields.
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Eleven years ago, a young, immigrant couple set out in pursuit of a dream. Ten years ago, they became parents which made the fulfillment of that dream thrice as hard.
But we got there tonight. Just wanted to say that, to feel that and to celebrate that.
Alhamdulillah.
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Asim Khawaja and Atif Mian have served as role models for generations of Pakistani students and have literally served as that tangible example of what it means to be an academic.
1/ A superb choice! I must do a thread on my friend
@aikhwaja
Asim is a rare academic who combines research with institution building.
He works on big Q's that require deep and sustained analysis, e.g. the 15+ year long LEAPS project in Pakistan.
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Thank you to my fiercest champion, my grad school baby, whose mature beyond her years, who tells me to never quit no matter what, whose 5 moves (with an impending 6th this year) have not harmed her cheer or optimism and who claims she’ll be the happiest 9yo the day I graduate!
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Guess which NYU department has no representation here? :P I can’t believe I was right about them so many years ago.
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I joined my current Ph.D. school - UCSD - knowing that the UC system (with all its flaws) had better support for graduate student parents. I was also lucky to enter a dept with female faculty who had families. I was not burdened with the inevitability of my 'circumstances'. 5/n
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Got to practice my job talk at
@CGUnews
today! Thank you to
@MelissaZRogers
for inviting me; so grateful for all the questions and feedback :)
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...how I looked and what my circumstances in life were. Colleagues told me to 'reconsider my life choices' because being in academia needed much more commitment. The ivory tower was sealing itself off to me. I then read Mary Ann Mason's "Do Babies Matter?" It was eye-opening. 3/n
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What an excellent book! I wish it had come out before my dissertation so I would’ve had to spend less time convincing folks how “seeking access” is a quotidian pol’l act that is neither programmatic nor clientelistic. This will be super helpful framing my work going forward!
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It’s been a year and a half and it’s only now that Covid anxiety is hitting me hard. Wasn’t able to sleep all night due to sweats/panic. Traveling from PK to US today with unvaccinated 7yo amidst delta. Leaving mom behind and feeling a lot of dread. Wishes/prayers requested.
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Happenings at
#APSA2022
. Met celebrity prof and Sycamore Elementary alum (same school that Duha now goes to!!!) Professor
@kelly_zvobgo
!
Also finally met the wonderfully smart fellow academic carer
@GarrettMAA
!
It is these people, this tribe, that make academia worth it!
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I will be in mourning today. I cannot believe this news. Bear supported me in my academic career at a very difficult time, and tried to recruit me to OSU's Ph.D. program in 2016. I was going to send him a thank you email after my defense. Omg.
One of the best people I knew, Bear Braumoeller, (
@Prof_BearB
) died. I cannot believe this and I am not sure how to process it. To many who know me, I rarely discuss my life at Ohio State without mentioning Bear. 🧵
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This happened today! Thank you to all who joined and for the delicious pizza :)
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White/woke people researching the global south are often poor allies, esp when they patronize women from the global south, telling them how to do life. Just heard a gate-keeping story about a white prof giving a Pakistani applicant tough time with references. 1/2
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Just before falling asleep last night, my entire dissertation materialized in my mind with chapters, data analysis that needed to be done & I began dreaming what the book’s cover photo should be. Today, I woke up dreading the amount of work ahead. Does this happen to you too?
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I am so grateful to have landed this very supportive community of South Asian political scientists while I am at
@YaleMacMillan
this year. Thank you to Sarah for organizing this and inviting me to be a part of it.
energized & in awe of the collaborative community of phd students at Yale after this semester’s 1st session of the South Asia poli sci working group:sth I began convening when I got there, & was on hiatus last yr.
@dipinkaur
@DeepikaPadmanab
@fahdhumayun
@StommesDrew
+others!😊
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In the end, I want to thank the many, MANY people who mentored me through this journey. Thank you
@C_J_Schneider
,
@ClaireAdida
,
@GarethNellis
, Simeon Nichter & Prashant Bharadwaj. It truly took a village and I would not be making this happy announcement without y'all. n/n
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@LarakaTayyara
Got married at 25 so can’t claim to know counterfactuals but have convinced my dghtr that getting married before 30 is foolish. 30 and above is the right time to marry the *right* guy. U’re not out of time & shouldn’t feel that way. Before 30, it’s a gamble - after, a decision.
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I realized that I wasn't at fault. The fault lay in the lack of institutional support & policies that could create equity for graduate students like myself. The fact that *political scientists* had failed to identify that - & blame my capabilities instead - still amazes me. 4/n
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I dropped my daughter off at school. She’s 8, a 3rd grader & can’t wait for Art Renaissance Day (Friday) when she will tie-dye shirts and eat ice cream. She took an extra shirt & $s for a friend who can’t afford either. Police oversaw drop off today. My heart is broken.
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I’m so grateful to Malala - because of her, my daughter has a real-life Pakistani Muslim hero to look up to. She follows Malala like I followed...nobody? My only heroes growing up were white, female writers who were long dead. HBD and thank you Malala!
Chapter 23! Ready for a quarter-life crisis 🥳 Thank you so much to everyone for all the good wishes
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The delta variant is raging strong and I am ridden with uncertainty on fieldwork, future and life. But feeling immensely grateful for being able to spend some time with family this summer, in Lahore, in good health avec mangoes.
Indeed,
Kun Fayakun.
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Fieldwork during COVID-19: week1: daughter had Covid scare; week 2: her school district got shooting threats & their schedule (+ my sanity) was disrupted; week 4: my flight back gets canceled 6 hrs prior. Traveling via alternate route now. Good wishes & prayers requested!
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So grateful to be a part of the
@BobstCenter
@Princeton
Dissertation Scholars Workshop and for the opportunity to present my project here!
Spending the day at the
@BobstCenter
@Princeton
Dissertation Scholars Workshop. Happy to learn from so many rigorous dissertation projects and to share parts of my own. So thankful for this opportunity!
@RDancygier
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For all those watching this
#T20WorldCup21
without their parents (particularly dads), or other loved ones lost in the past two years (particularly to COVID-19), I feel you. And I’m so sorry.
I can hear Abbu’s running commentary in my head at each ball.
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After not being home for 16 months, in which Pakistan has been beset by political and economic turmoil and faced the worst floods in its history, I am grateful for the opportunity to witness its beauty once again. Alhamdulillah.
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I belong to the dying generation who wants to spend at least part of my weekend on phone calls with old friends. Strangely, no one picks up without an appointment/schedule anymore. I crave to hear the smiling voices of people that take me home.
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I sincerely hope that search committees in the post-COVID market are considering the impact of the pandemic on those outside the tenure track: that it has lengthened uncertainty of employment and low incomes, and disproportionately affected
#AcademicParents
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Last couple of days have been a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of news on the medical front. Requesting prayers, good wishes, positive vibes.
It’s absolutely true when they say,
جان ہے تو جہان ہے
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As a chai academic (i.e. I prefer my chai to my coffee any day), this is what constitutes a perfect morning.
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Just narrowly missed getting hit by a white pickup truck outside UCSD grad housing at 1030pm. Not sure if it was drunk driving or an attempted hate crime. Truck drove onto grass and followed me as I ran into my apartment screaming for help. Happy birthday to me.
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I spent almost all of Monday receiving feedback from my extremely generous peers and mentors at UCSD. And they did it without making me, a grad student, feel terrible. In fact, at 2pm on a Monday, I was smiling ear to ear. Can I just say I love UCSD polisci! Thank you <3
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Wanting to do sth similar for S.Asian PoliSci as GSIPE, I reached out to the amazing
@sarah_fthompson
and
@amilliff
to start an online junior scholar workshop &
@wpesa_
was born. Now we have
@natalya_rahman
and
@bm_read
on board. Yesterday, I met these people for the 1st time! 💕
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@JohnHolbein1
I'm a PhD candidate @ UC San Diego Political Science. My dissertation looks at how eligibility for foreign aid funded public programs changes political preferences / engagement. I study gaps in last-mile access (LMA) to argue that local-level accountability can emerge around LMA.
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So, this also happened sometime this year:
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My 37yo brother got vaccinated in Pakistan today. Now all immediate adult members of my family have some form of immunity (my other brother recovered from Covid six weeks ago).
I did not think I would love to see this day. SubhanAllah.
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@fahdhumayun
The Gates foundation is probably reconsidering all their women empowerment funds to Pakistan :P
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Presenting my recent work on foreign aid information and compliance with public health behavior in Pakistan at UBC’s PoliSci Graduate Student conference tomorrow. Grateful to UBC’s awesome PSGSA for putting together this agenda!
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