When I was rejected from Harvard's PhD program, my dad said “don’t worry doctor, they’ll hire you as a professor.” Now he’s even more convinced that he's *always* right about everything, but that’s a small price to pay for the privilege of being believed in by him.
I have no words to convey the sacrifices of my parents. Like others who move far from home, I carry guilt for not being around enough as they grow older. Now I can tell myself that, at the least, they have a pretty serious middle-class-brown-parent flex as consolation...
I know the job market is random as hell and doesn't always reward many deserving candidates for their brilliant work. I pray that I do full justice to the opportunity I’ve been afforded.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms. Here's a bombass photo from 1977 of my Maa taking oath as the Vice President of Punjab University's student union. In 1978, she would bike *in the rain* to her first job interview in Peshawar, where she beat out the preferred inside candidate.
I still remember how intensely anxious I was, waiting outside
@pstanpolitics
's office for the first time as an MA student. We've come a long way since then, but he's still a prime reason I've developed a thick skin (in a good way) :)
Honored that my dissertation 'The Microfoundations of Identity Politics in Pakistan's Megacity' has been awarded
@APSAtweets
Democracy & Autocracy Section Best Field Work Award and
@apsaurban
Best Dissertation Award. Immense thanks to both committees, my advisors and ofc کراچی
Wow. This blew up. God bless y'all for your well wishes. I don't have a Soundcloud to link to, but while you're here and feeling the positive vibes, please consider donating to
@MSF_USA
. Their work saves lives around the world:
My dad's advice on revising paper drafts: "Take a step back and imagine that your work was instead written by your worst enemy. What kinds of comments would you give them?" Umm, has my dad been talking to Reviewer
#2
?!?
I read the piece by
@ClareMalone
carefully and believed it. But Hasan's video (with receipts) shows undoubtedly that it was a garbage hit-piece and just extremely questionable journalism.
A Yale economics professor has some ideas for how to deal with the burdens of Japan’s rapidly aging society. The “only solution,” he said, is mass suicide of the elderly, including ritual disembowelment.
Looking for information on domestic violence shelters in Islamabad, Pakistan. A young Afghan woman and her two children have escaped an abusive relationship and are in urgent need of a safe-heaven. Please reach out if you have any information. Thanks!
Eid Mubarak! I miss my family so very much, and I hope that everyone can find a way to connect with their loved ones on this special day. I wish I was celebrating with these boogers, eating Tuc biscuits, with not a care in the world.
My favorite thing on the internet today: Academics volunteering to provide paper feedback to junior scholars in lieu of (likely cancelled) conferences.
#AcademicTwitter
Fellow social scientists: Do you have a former or current RA that you *highly recommend* but who could use some extra hours/more lines on their CV? Looking for someone with advanced data analysis skills and ability to code in R. Thank you!
Paper now out at
@cps_journal
with
@NicJLyon
on whether sharing ethnicity with a police officer affects expectations of bias or favoritism. In particular, we focus on citizen perceptions of procedural justice in quotidian interactions with the police. 1/
Of course
@NadraPak
is completely missing the point. There is absolutely no reason to associate the ID of a woman with her husband or father. There is no need to designate a “head of the family.” Plenty of countries do this while maintaining data safety.
@yougoglencocco
It is one of the security features to guard family data from unauthorised access.
In order to maintain the integrity of family data,
@NadraPak
informs every family head about any processing through which someone becomes part of his family. 1/
My review of
@NiloSiddiqui
,
@sahar_shafqat
and Mariam Mufti's edited volume on Pakistan's political parties is now out. It was a pleasure to review this wonderful volume, which belongs in every class on Pakistani/South Asian politics! Review here:
RA opportunity (please retweet!): Looking for an Arabic-speaking RA to join my research team on immigrant political incorporation in New York City! If you are fluent in Arabic, based in NYC, and interested in gaining research experience, please apply here:
zen mind: relax. live by letting things happen.
anxious OCD mind: i can avert global catastrophe by cleaning my apartment....again
nerd mind: iS tHiS a cRiTiCaL jUnCtUre iN HiStOriCal iNsTiTuTiOnAL dEvELoPmEnT
Last night I dreamt that a paper I submitted a couple weeks ago was sent out for review to a prefect I was terrified of in middle school...Why am I like this
Please, please consider donating to organizations working to help Afghans. Some options that you can donate to with confidence according to Charity Navigator ratings:
If you are safe and healthy and your livelihood is not threatened, please, please donate to relief efforts for those impacted. It doesn’t matter how much you make or how much you give. It counts.
@robert_a_blair
Who are these folks? I had the opposite problem growing up. My Maa would take graded tests back to my teachers to say I’d been graded too leniently.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: APSA Democracy & Autocracy section Best Field Work Award. Please send in your nominations and feel free to nominate yourself. Details below:
Visited Yale with
@salma_mousa_
6 years ago. We were on the same red-eye, were both late to the first event, and stayed in the same hotel room. When we picked Stanford, Salma's mom was *so* upset she said no to Yale. Life has a way of coming full circle... Congrats, my friend.
Hesitated before sharing, but I am thrilled to be starting as an Asst. Prof at
@Yale
this fall!
To all Yale students, especially new moms, international, and Middle Eastern students, my door is always open.
Hit me up with your shawarma recs in New Haven.
#arabinacademia
Happy birthday to one of my favorite writers of all time,
@harukimurakami_
. Here is one of my favorite passages from his memoir-of-sorts, 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running':
The financial success of films in different markets is strongly influenced by their alignment with the traditional folklore, ingrained cultural narratives, and core values of each society, from Stelios Michalopoulos and Christopher Rauh
Presenting joint work done with
@NiloSiddiqui
today at the Annual Conference on South Asia. Kudos to
@AIPSmedia
for bringing such a diverse group of scholars together.
Ran into incumbent MNA Syed Asif Hasnain (
@SAsifHasnainPSP
) in NA-240 today. From speaking to voters, it seems the contest here is between different factions of the MQM. PTI (
@PTIofficial
) etc. not really contenders in this traditional MQM stronghold.
#2018Elections
#Karachi
This claim, and many of the responses, should engage with the significant heterogeneity amongst "non-white" voters. Not against simplification in general, but we're missing a *lot* here by ignoring, for example, the differences between naturalized immigrants vs. Black voters.
NEW 🧵:
American politics is in the midst of a racial realignment.
I think this is simultaneously one of the most important social trends in the US today, and one of the most poorly understood.
@sameen_mohsin
Thank you. Academics who are not public health specialists need to stop pontificating on how this is just “hype” and stick to their area of specialty.
PM
@ImranKhanPTI
and
@zfrmrza
, we urge you to begin an aggressive public education campaign (TV, radio, in Urdu) to keep people from congregating in groups and in public areas. You must demand that Pakistanis exercise social distancing. Please — before it’s too late.
This is great on-the-ground reporting by
@zalmayzia
indicating that the vote for TLP, at least in Lyari, may not signal a shift to extremist religious politics.
Update: Matt Colvin has donated all of the supplies. “It was never my intention to keep necessary medical supplies out of the hands of people who needed them,” he said. “That’s not who I am as a person.”
@Razarumi
’s new book reminds us that Pakistani identity (like all identities) is contested, constantly in flux, and many seemingly contradictory things at the same time.
I can't wait for art museums to open up again. Till then, here's a beautiful collection from South Asian artists. My favorite is Supita Das's installation entitled 'A Soaring to Nowhere.'
My Uber driver today had his engagement broken off a few days after the election: he and his family voted for Sher, his fiance's family were ardent Balla folks. I am reminded of:
Folks, today is
#GivingTuesday
. If you have not been economically impacted by COVID, and especially if you received the stimulus check, please consider donating generously today. May it bring you good karma.
@NiloSiddiqui
and I have made it on to
@pstanpolitics
's blog, so the intensely anxious M.A. student who first met with him seven-odd years ago is very, very happy.
I know that many folks, like me, have had to cancel or postpone overdue trips to their home countries. Today, I listened to this 8 minute podcast episode that made me feel more at peace with things:
Hi! Can you help me get a visa to reach my father in Qatar? My father, while transiting from Doha on his way to the US, has fallen ill and is now at the Hammad general hospital. 1/n