Uncategorized – GEOCOGNITION RESEARCH LABORATORY

Negotiating the Job Offer

I have blogged about the unwritten rules of academia before. I often share advice to colleagues and students about how to negotiate when a job offer is made – at least in the U.S., negotiation is expected for almost every job, academic or otherwise. Here is my best advice (geared towards U.S. organizations): LEARN. ReadContinue reading “Negotiating the Job Offer”

Limiting alcohol during professional events

Recently, the Geological Society of America (GSA) published a news item. At the bottom was this note: “In keeping with its ongoing commitment to ethics and inclusion, Council approved a recommendation from the Committee on Diversity in the Geosciences to prohibit alcohol being served in the oral and poster session areas at all GSA meetingsContinue reading “Limiting alcohol during professional events”

Your Silence is Telling on You

#BlackLivesMatter #BlackTransLivesMatter Your silence is racism. Your silence is telling on you. Your silence is complicit with a system built on the backs of the oppressed and which continues to oppress. “But I can’t” “But my job” “But my hopes and dreams for the future” You can. No job is that important. You’re lucky youContinue reading “Your Silence is Telling on You”

Writing Manuscripts – Our Spreadsheet Approach…

One of the most difficult parts of academic writing is getting the manuscript organized. I have authored or co-authored over a hundred papers and I STILL have difficulty figuring out what to include in methods and results, or how to connect my findings to the broader research literature. I have written posts on writing beforeContinue reading “Writing Manuscripts – Our Spreadsheet Approach…”

Update on Sexual Harassers in NASEM

As I noted in a previous post, there are SIX (6) sexual harassers who are members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Now that the Science academy has had an initial vote to implement procedures for removing members who have sexual harassment findings against them, perhaps the Engineering and Medicine academies wouldContinue reading “Update on Sexual Harassers in NASEM”

Applying for NSF Funding – PI perspective

I recently collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of colleagues to write an NSF proposal. The process had all the best characteristics of science: learning each others’ language, building a common understanding of our project goals, building trust and respect for very different forms of expertise. I am so excited to work with this project teamContinue reading “Applying for NSF Funding – PI perspective”

The Geoscience Concept Inventory

Many people ask me for access to questions that have been developed over time as part of the bank of items that evaluate geoscience understanding. Here are item sets, including links to papers, that have been evaluated using item response theory approaches. This space will be updated as new items sets become available: Geoscience ConceptContinue reading “The Geoscience Concept Inventory”

The Academic Sexual Misconduct and Violations of Relationship Policies Database

6/7/19: Thanks to the amazing team at METALMARK WEB & DATA (https://metalmarkweb.com/), a new searchable online database is now available: https://academic-sexual-misconduct-database.org. Updated 9/15/18 to be crystal clear that I include violations of relationship policies within the database. Over two years ago, I started tracking academic sexual misconduct and violations of relationship policies. I started theContinue reading “The Academic Sexual Misconduct and Violations of Relationship Policies Database”

Sexual Harassment in 2018? Still Going Strong…

I thought it would be useful to put into context all of the cases of faculty/staff sexual harassment that are currently undergoing investigation or legal cases at US academic institutions. As always, these are only the cases that have somehow found their way into the media. Big shout out to student papers for bringing severalContinue reading “Sexual Harassment in 2018? Still Going Strong…”

Sexual Harassment and The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

It took me two hours (time I should have spent working on a grant proposal…), but I unearthed FIVE (5) confirmed sexual misconduct and ONE (1) ongoing investigation of sexual misconduct perpetrated by members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. (1) 2015: Geoff Marcy, Berkeley. RESIGNED, NOW EMERITUS FACULTY. http://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/famous-astronomer-allegedly-sexually-harassed-students *Member ofContinue reading “Sexual Harassment and The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine”