Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow @SLU_Official, studying systems thinking skills. Loves learning, stats, plants, cats, and coffee shops. Do and do good. She/hers.

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

Just signed up and watched the trailer. Super excited and grateful for this resource, @BMDewsbury !!

[Bryan Dewsbury @BMDewsbury]

Hi all,

It is my pleasure to launch the HHMI Biointeractive and SEAS program's FREE course on 'Inclusive Teaching'. More than anything, this course asks us amidst the haste to slow down, pause and reflect on being human-centered in teaching .

https://t.co/7MeiE6oMq1

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

Chef's kiss on this tweet; I really needed the uplift

[Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn]

Sure, we bemoan what X-Boy has done to the quality of discourse on this platform, but I was heartened - indeed, moved - to see that a nuanced analysis of pedagogy that I posted was just liked by an account with no followers called "Hot girls waiting for you here."

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

Professors should not serve as punchbags for the university admins.

A story from this article:

- Tolu Odumosu submitted for tenure after 5 years at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville). His application was highly supported by the department, but the school rejected it.

Why? Because “he hadn’t published any single-author books” (the requirement he never heard of)

▫️

Tenure requirements are becoming more life-draining than before.

The main purposes behind tenure requirements are:

- Universities want faculty members to secure funding, which generates overheads. But funding is hard to get! So, your profile MUST stand out.

- Departments compete for ranking. They don’t want a faculty who is not great.

▫️

As a result:

- Fewer people want to pursue a tenure-track academic career these days.

- Young faculties experience enormous stress under tenure pressure. This hits their personal life really hard.

- Students suffer from overwork and lack of mentoring because (in particular) their advisors are under pressure themselves. I do not defend such faculties, but this seems to be a big contributing factor.

- Risky #research is postponed “until after tenure” (and often never pursued), resulting in fewer discoveries.

▫️

My personal opinion:

1. Yes, tenure by itself can give you freedom. However, I don’t see many associate professors suddenly leaving their comfort zone and going into risky research after getting tenured. This prompts the question - what does this freedom pertain to? (a provocative thought)

2. Tenure track is often turned into a rat race. This makes everyone miserable. Students, postdocs, faculties. The requirements MUST be lessened. It’s basically exploitation.

Personally, I am not on a tenure track. And I don’t care if I am given tenure or not.

▫️

With this in mind, let me recite another story form this article:

Columbia University had been trying to GIVE tenure to David Helfand for nearly FOUR decades. Each time, the astronomer said “no thanks”.

Why? “Tenure does more to suppress academic freedom of those who don’t have it”. - he said.

(He was on five-year contracts. However, in July 2022, the provost refused to give him a new contract, so he got de facto tenure.)

▫️

The point is:

❗Departments should lessen TT requirements. Excessive competition, ranking and quantities is not why we go into science. We're not here to do business.

❗Tenure has been essential to academia. But fierce competition is not.

#AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

This is most certainly a vibe.

[Dr. Taylor van Doren ☕️ @taylor_vandoren]

me leaving my office after writing code for 8 hours to make 1 little figure

[Oded Rechavi @OdedRechavi]

Me and my students editing a Google Doc while I’m in a different time zone

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

This will TOTALLY make an appearance in my next R workshop🤩🤩

[Matthew B. Jané @MatthewBJane]

New theme “theme_starwars” now available on #theme_park

[Farhana Qahar @FarhanaQahar]

If any PIs are interested in recruiting PhD students lmk! I am broadly interested in Biology Education, science Education, Teaching controversial topics like Evolution and Religion, Climate change, Vaccination etc. I would love to chat about opportunities
#PhD #Biology #education

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

@Choosy_Female @ebspeth1 Thank you!! ☺️

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

@ebspeth1 Congrats to both of us for bringing this work out into the world!! 😊

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

✨Summer reading list✨ (I guess for as long as summer lasts?? It's July now??)

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

Does a point of no return come for us all, eventually?

[dr. alicia andrzejewski (she/her) @aliciaandrz]

there is, without a doubt, the sense in academia that if you struggle with mental illness, are disabled, that’s your problem—you simply can’t handle the “rigors” of the academy.

there are endless performative shows of support, but when it comes down to it we’re often on our own.

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

Meeeeee. Looking forward to hearing about student motivation and buy-in!

[The Grading Conference @Grading4Growth]

Roll call! Who's joining us starting tomorrow for the 4th annual Grading Conference? What do you hope to get out of the next two days? #TheGradingConference

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

@Choosy_Female @DerekSollberger Always happy to dive into some data! Thank you for being awesome, too!!😁

[DR. ＶＩＪＩ ＳＡＴＨＹ @vijisathy]

In the same way that I thought good instructors never had negative student feedback, I've learned that good instructors aren't even understood to be doing good work from area to area. I'm saddened to think of the colleagues we have lost & will lose bc we don't see it.

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

@ebspeth1 🤣as much as it can be intimidating to learn something new in R, I do think you'd like it since it makes R Markdown files look more visually organized and readable. Wanted to share just in case 😉

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

@ebspeth1 I'm saving this for later because it looks really sleek and helpful!

[Soundarya S Rajan @SoundaryaRak]

Don't miss out on Quarto in R; it's a game-changer!

Even beginners can take advantage of its powerful capabilities.

Follow this thread 🧵 to learn more and level up your #RStats game with #Quarto

#BeginnerFriendly

[CSU_Ecology @CSU_Ecology]

No one:

Ecologists: “Well, it really depends on scale.”

[Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D. @PandaThePostdoc]

@CrystalUminski So, so sorry to hear about Travolta😢 it's been lovely to see pics of him here and all the adventures you've had together! He's had an amazing human. Sending comforting vibes.