Happy to officially announce that I am joining the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barbara
@CommUcsb
as an Assistant Professor, starting January 2024. आइ वडिलांच्या आशीर्वाद आहेत भारी.
I have the huge privilege of building my research program in political communication at UCSB, with broad focus on understanding the role of political entertainment in shaping citizenship. More on that soon.
Came home to Delhi last night. Woke up to 98 F weather, whirring ceiling fan, mom's chai, and smell of frying mustard oil.
I've underestimated how much I have missed home.
I've underestimated how much taxing the past year has been.
Lemme heal now.
My parents have never been to the US. I'd be lying if I said I am not heartbroken everytime a friend's parents visit. I want to show them the school, my office, my peers, my theater before I graduate. The massive US consulate backlog only means that none of this will happen.
RAGA meeting with Beth Winkelstein (Deputy Provost at UPenn) and CHAS administrators about our revised contract was a complete train wreck.
"THERE IS NO NEGOTIATION", she yelled at us, as she individually forcibly muted us all on Zoom.
I am sick of the brass at UPenn.
Many thanks to
@falklab
@MXDelli
, Joe Cappella, &
@dannagal
for their consistent support, the kind and scientifically rigorous community at the Communication Neuroscience Lab, and to
@aswinp
and
@AnnenbergCARGC
for providing direction to my new global and comparative scholarship.
Many thanks to
@uohcomm
for hosting me earlier this week, where I delivered a talk on "How can political humor shape citizenship" and had the pleasure of interacting with some brilliant graduate students. Heartfelt thanks to Prof.
@usharaman
for inviting me!
As of this morning, I have quit my GA position.
It was not an easy decision. Riepe College House is a special place, and it should not have come down to this.
RAGA meeting with Beth Winkelstein (Deputy Provost at UPenn) and CHAS administrators about our revised contract was a complete train wreck.
"THERE IS NO NEGOTIATION", she yelled at us, as she individually forcibly muted us all on Zoom.
I am sick of the brass at UPenn.
Willow, my cat, passed away this morning after sudden escalations with her pneumonia. She was in terminal stages of feline AIDS, and was suffering through multiple infections (ear, dental, intestinal).
She is no longer in pain, or being forced for cuddles. Run free, mera chiku.
It's official! I'm part of the
@cszphilly
mainstage company starting today.
Excited MOST about the fact that
@dannagal
and I now share the same comedy ensemble AND she is on my diss committee. Get ready to see some weird improvised renderings of our neuro policomm research 🎉
Thrilled that
@shitPrateekSays
is now in
@cszphilly
's mainstage company! I'm also on his dissertation committee. Prateekshit, prepare to do your defense as "Backwards Scene." You give responses, then I'll ask what I think the question should have been.
@AnnenbergPenn
@falklab
Finally, many thanks to
@CommUcsb
for inviting me into their wonderful and exciting intellectual community. Beyond thrilled, and much to look forward to. ♥️✨
Indebted to the support and love from the
@AnnenbergPenn
community. Special thanks to
@wagnercelest
without whom I would not have gotten through this job market cycle. Your help and support at every step was invaluable. I love you and I am so grateful, friend!!!
Thank you for amplifying this,
@heatherjaber
I am one of those GAs, I am an international student, and I am waiting till Friday to learn if I will be kicked out or not. Irrespective of Friday's decision, the GA community has been let down, deeply, by the college administration.
Hey
@Penn
what happened to the “thank you thank you thank you” you sent dorm GAs Thursday reassuring them they could stay in dorms as per their contracts? What happened today, after they spent a week helping the undergrads you’re sending home? You exploited them & kicked them out
“With around 25 years of experience covering politics, I have never witnessed a female leader enduring the kind of relentless attacks and slander that Moitra is currently facing,”
@bainjal
writes.
Beth Winkelstein interrogated Mackenzie with all the empathy of an investigating cop, and then went on call her a liar to the Rhodes Trust.
Not the first time Winkelstein has verbally misbehaved with a Penn student and acted against their best interest, none of this is shocking.
Rachel Aviv investigates the case of Mackenzie Fierceton, who was championed as a former foster youth who had overcome an abusive childhood and won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship—until the University of Pennsylvania accused her of lying.
This message we received today from
@Penn
International Student & Scholar Services makes their priorities very clear: save University from liability by protecting American students.
This "URGENT Important Information" is just a legal statement.
Another special thanks to Jason Coronel, who has been unbelievably generous with his time and advice, and I look forward to collaborating with him for a very long time.
Do NOT apply to be RA or GA at Penn. The college housing system does not respect your labor.
I am staying on as a GA for my personal reasons, and honestly, against my best judgement. You don't have to.
My cat has been living with me for 10 months now, and yet every display of trust from her feels shocking. You let ME touch your paw? And instead of scratching you PURRED? Wow, what's happening!!?!
For starters, I fail to see myself in majority of the research conducted in this field and presented at SANS. There is little talk of demographic composition of study participants at the conference, and usually occupies no more than a single line in our publications (1/n)
Dear
@SANS_news
community, we have conspicuous diversity issues. Period.
Acknowledgement is cheap so lets start from the beginning: students of color arent coming into the fold or even becoming interested in our field in the first place. We are doing something wrong. What is it?
Can't access the only assigned bathroom in the entire dorm (the Quad at UPenn).
Twice in three days.
Do I need to call the director of college housing every time I need to go pee?
This is humiliating and demeaning. It is like they are trying to push me out at this point.
I'll start:
@akaPrateekshit
is doing cutting edge work aimed at improving people's political efficacy and engagement with democracy. He is interested in humor and engagement with news as paths to a better future. He's an improv performer & brain scientist & wonderful human ✨
I have covid. I am okay. I cough, my throat sore, and chest congested but no fever I am okay.
Will be quarantining. It's time for absolutely deranged tweets let's GO!
"oh it's not the end of the world" I say to myself, as the barista forgets to make the little art on my coffee that has been holding my mental health together
Super excited and grateful to share that I’ll be joining the Dept of Psychology
@USC
as an Assistant Professor in Jan 2023! My lab will use neuroimaging, network analysis & behavioral methods to study social connection. I’m thrilled to be joining such a vibrant community!
My incredibly talented, smart, and fiercely kind friend
@wagnercelest
will be an Assistant Professor at
@UFJouDept
this Fall!!! Watch out, academia, you are about to get a whole lot better! 🥰🎉👏
In 2016 I visited the US for the 1st time for my campus visit at my dear
@AnnenbergPenn
. It feels incredible now to share that I'll be starting as Assist Prof in the Fall at
@UFJouDept
@UFJSchool
! I really couldn't feel more grateful and excited!!!!🐊🙏😍
My apartment didn't have electricity for four days straight. Couldn't cook, work or sleep. Supply was finally restored today, and I called my family on video to tell them all about it. First thing out of my dad's mouth: your hair is too long, get it cut.
Happy father's day.
RAGAs at UPenn are demanding a fairer contract to ensure their health and safety during the upcoming semester. The contracts that we signed months ago have been voided, and we have not yet been given our new contracts or been consulted about it.
If you can, PLEASE engage with your racist friends on FB. Blocking them and boasting about that here gets you no points. These are hard conversations, but can go a long way in healing the collective pain being felt right now. I am trying to do my part, and I urge you to do yours.
If you've been paying attention to Indian news, want to do something about it, and are in or around Philly, come meet us at the Broken Button on UPenn's campus for a protest tomorrow at 1 PM.
See you there.
My brilliant friend and superstar
@wagnercelest
, looking all cool & scholarly here, just published an amazing cross-country research on TV audiences in US and Argentina.
Read more to learn about similarities and differences in what we seek from watching TV in the 2 countries!
NEW ARTICLE: "Affect, Curiosity, and Positionality in Context: Watching Television Entertainment in Argentina and the United States," written by PhD candidate
@wagnercelest
, was published in the International Journal of Communication. Read here:
While preparing the open book exam paper for my Computer Vision course, I found a video from UPENN ... about 18 months old video but I saw it for the first time .... here is a video featuring one of IAB ka बच्चा (IAB's Kid) ...
@shitPrateekSays
I am honestly in disbelief: I'm performing MURDER MANOR, a completely improvised murder mystery show, with a STELLAR cast at
@cszphilly
for the month of October!
Buy tickets here!:
This show has been a SOLD OUT hit in the past 3 years -- don't miss it!
What luck to have accidentally share the frame with the brand new DOCTOR Celeste Wagner
@wagnercelest
, shown here humbly defending her stellar dissertation.
I am short of words, so I'll say this: what a privilege to go through grad school with a Celeste Wagner to look up to.
Congratulations to our newest Ph.D., Dr. Celeste Wagner!!!!
@wagnercelest
successfully defended “Responding to Media Coverage of Gender-Based Violence in Argentina and the United States" and will be an assistant professor at
@UFJSchool
this fall. 🎉🎉🎉
It's real!!! My brilliant friend and colleague
@wagnercelest
is now a professor teaching her own class at the amazing
@UFJouDept
🐊. The students don't even know how lucky they are. Go Cele!!!
I truly couldn't be happier! I've been wanting to be a university professor for the past ~10 years and having joined
@UFJouDept
@UFJSchool
feels like a dream. 🥲🐊🧡Thank you to everyone for making me feel so welcome!!!
I am never not blown away by the sharpness and rigor of
@danicosme
's work. And on top of that, what an INCREDIBLY thoughtful colleague and mentor! Truly a gift to the discipline 🫶✨
Come work with kind people who do cool, cutting edge work! Feel free to DM me with questions about the lab, our work, culture etc. Lots of great opportunities in a super supportive environment! Join us!
Come work with us! CNLab is hiring a research coordinator! The research coordinator will work on projects relating health communication and neuroscience to real-world outcomes. Apply here (and please share widely):
The newly minted Dr. Wagner thinks "Dr. Wagner" sounds like an old white man 😅
If you attended her defense, you'd know that THIS Dr. Wagner is about to change that perception for good.
Congratulations, my incredible friend!!! In awe and admiration, always and forever. ✨🤩
Soy PhD!!! Soñé muchísimo este día y me siento muy feliz! Gracias a todas las personas que me ayudaron a llegar acá, sobre todo
@fedetiberti
, mis papás y mis hermanos❤️Gracias infinitas a mi comité estelar
@MXDelli
@MKraidy
@PabloBochon
& Diana Mutz✨ y a todo
@AnnenbergPenn
🙏 🥲
Deputy Provost Beth Winkelstein was asked if she would work without a contract, to which she claimed that she IS working without a contract right now.
I call BS. She is a tenured prof and the Deputy Provost.
Can I get legal experts on this?
@sanjayjahlee
@GETUPgrads
any help?
RAGA meeting with Beth Winkelstein (Deputy Provost at UPenn) and CHAS administrators about our revised contract was a complete train wreck.
"THERE IS NO NEGOTIATION", she yelled at us, as she individually forcibly muted us all on Zoom.
I am sick of the brass at UPenn.
If this week had a lesson, it would be that voting once every two years without any organizing would not get us anywhere.
Let's start small. Support local organizing efforts around you.
I am supporting UPenn grad students in getting a fair
#Universal1yr
extension on stipends.
Our petition for
#Universal1yr
has been around for a few days and we already have hundreds of signatures in support! Anyone can sign but we particularly hoping to see Penn graduate students' names! Sign here:
A conversation I had this morning with a friend. I'm heartbroken, and feel completely helpless.
Help is coming too little too late. Every single day.
To those who are asking me how they can help, I don't know, I can't either.
She is global. She is communicating. She is social. She is changing.
@wagnercelest
doing it all. What a freaking star.
Huge congratulations to Prof. Wagner on the dissertation award. A force to reckon with.
UFCJC Journalism Assistant Professor
@wagnercelest
received the 2023 International Communication Association Global Communication and Social Change Division Best Dissertation Award.
The college housing administration has no reason to change their ways until they are starved for human resources.
So, do not apply to be RA/GA at UPenn. Especially international and low income grad students -- the free housing is not worth it. DM me if you have questions.
Narrator: And the yellow paint covered the white footprints of the group of armed vigilantes who roamed the streets with hammers and baseball bats just a week ago. Fishtown... was fixed.
*pans out* *fades to black*
Directed by Tate Taylor
Fishtown is currently getting its own version of DC’s yellow “BLACK LIVES MATTER” street paint on Girard Ave in front of the 26th district police station, except Fishtown’s says “END RACISM NOW.”
THIS IS NOT A DRILL
@dannagal
and I are sharing the
@cszphilly
stage for the first time ever. And this is also Danna's comeback to the stage after 4 years and I CANNOT wait!
March 4th!!! Be there!!!
@AnnenbergPenn
West Philly folx -- after much bullying by
@kinjaldave7
I'm doing my first stand up set tonight! I'm following her act so... God bless me. If you are around, come!!!
ARE ALL POETS NAMED AFTER EDGAR ALLEN POE????
find out the answer to this question and more at "a stiff one at bindle's" a lovely evening of comedy at a bookstore - Nov 6 in West Philly
Can't miss the masterful
#Orry
pose by
@parmeshs
and the majestic backdrop of Godrej's Vikhroli office. Thank you for hosting me!!! Can't wait to be back, hopefully with
@aswinp
next time. xx
Really happy for anyone who has escaped exploitative academic systems. ❤️
I do wish that ex-academics didn't justify their departure with how good they were in the academy to begin with. As if quitting after not getting enough pubs/prestigious grants is somehow inferior.
I left academia a few years back. Not because I wasn't good enough: I had won awards for my research, had prestigious Royal Society postdoc funding, published in good journals etc...I left because it was increasingly becoming a choice between my "success" and my health.
Writing tip: have a document called “deleted parts.” Anytime you’re writing or editing and delete a line, put it in there. You may find a way to use it later.
#amwriting
A bonafide star ✨ In awe and so proud of you, my friend!!! Your dissertation and the valiant efforts that went into it deserve all these recognitions and more!
More important things are happening in my country & the world but I just had a memorable NCA 🥹. I’m honored to have received three dissertation awards (Pol Comm & IICD divisions), and the NCA-wide Gerald R. Miller award. I’m beyond grateful and happy. Thank you so much
#NCA23
🙏
Had a stress dream last night where I was taking a college class by
@ava
and I missed a class test because I was talking to my mom/sister for too long? I begged for another test but it was a hard no from Ava DuVernay.
In short, PSA for keeping dream journals this quarantine.
I am now convinced that every male comedian that I have ever so naively looked up to will eventually crumble under the weight of their own ego.
The fragility. Good God.
@HectorJKilgoe
it's simple: use canvas for classes, piazza for discussion, slack for community building, groupme for informal banter, zoom for lectures, and google meetings for office hours. what is so stressful I don't get it.
Thank you
@gcsc2020
for awarding me a Best Dissertation Award! Grateful to my amazing advisor
@MXDelli
& supportive committee
@MKraidy
(thanks for being there+photos!),
@PabloBochon
& D. Mutz. The comments from the reviewing committee made me tear (esp 1st one). Gracias ❤️
#ica23
5. Don’t announce the changes you’re making to decrease racism. Just do it. And the positive impact will follow suit. For example, diverse your selection of students when recruiting. Don’t brag about your “Diversity and inclusion” policy. Minorities are people, not trophies.
@piyushKAVIRAJ
My friend, I grew up in Panvel!!! My fluency in Marathi is terrible but I remember these posters and their details quite fondly. So lovely to see another
#Panvel
person who recognized this poster style!
"the question becomes: ...Are you able to be heard as you hear yourself, known as you know yourself? ...we postulate that cognitive effort associated with self-presentation and stress may constitute consequences"
Darin is a uniquely sharp and insightful young scholar. Read more:
What is code switching and how do our brains do it? In a new Q&A, doctoral student Darin Johnson shares insights about code switching, linguistic racism, and more from his new article in Affective Science
@affectScience
@falklab
[COVID AID] My friend
@prayernaaah
is collecting money to wire over to mutual aid organizations in India to combat the current deadly wave of COVID-19.
Any amount of money helps. Please please PLEASE consider donating.
DM if you have any questions.
Had the privilege to review "A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar" by
@CatyBC
and
@lfeldman17
for the International Journal of Communication.
This book answered several questions for me, and then generated some.
@lfeldman17
& I are grateful for the very thoughtful, nuanced, positive review of our book, A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar (
@ucpress
), in the International Journal of Communication. Thank you,
@shitPrateekSays
!
Me: "Can I ask you a dumb question?"
Also me: Just tell me there is no such thing as a dumb question. Say it. Say it so we can move on and I can still feel some control over this interaction. SAY IT!
Update: most people who had applied for extensions, including me, have been accepted, however with certain caveats + we are advised to leave campus (not necessarily vacate) if we can. Thank you for all the support, everyone!
During this stressful day for the international student community at Penn, who is sending us "home", I'm thankful for the home I built here, the wonderful ASC community. Especially my buddy
@shitPrateekSays
. We arrived in this country together on prospective student day,
I wish we talked more about how people pleasing is so common among international students in the US? The survivalist need to be accepted here often translates to overly accommodating for others needs.
...which has made large generalization without being inclusive of their communities and perspectives. Thank you
@robchavez
for starting a dialogue about this. These are just my two cents, and I hope this discussion helps us move towards a more diverse and inclusive science. (6/n)
Saw an old white guy say "Inshallah" to two desi boys, who then get offended and retort "We are not Muslim, we are Indian, Hindu" bahot badhiya yeh ochhapan saala poori duniya mein phailao
One of the few wonderful things about IIITD is that it hosts Saumya as a poet and scholar.
I participated in a similar competition years ago, won it, then walked up to her, inflated, and asked her what she *actually* thought of it.
Without hesitation, she says "Crap! ☺️"