BEING A GRADUATE STUDENT IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)

I am running a graduate seminar called “Academia and Beyond” where I asked students to have an academic journal where they write down their thoughts, hopes and fears about their careers. In class we discussed topics ranging from ‘imposter syndrome’ to “the art of spinning a story.” When classes were cancelled at LSU, I asked them to write about their thoughts about being a graduate student during this coronavirus crisis. Some of them volunteered to share their thoughts below, some anonymously. Several are international students with a very different perspective than those raised in the U.S. I only lightly edited these submissions to maintain the authors’ voices, so please forgive any grammatical errors; I added the titles as editor. If you are a graduate student and would like to contribute to this post, please send me an email prosanta@lsu.edu

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How to Keep Graduate Students From Feeling Forgotten

Being a graduate student during the COVID-19 epidemic has re-affirmed to me the importance of addressing the issues graduate students face – issues now being encountered on a much more intense and shorter time scale due to COVID-19. When universities were sending out their move-to-online and campus closure notifications rarely did administrators reach out to graduate students to ask about graduate instruction, or housing, child care, and medical needs. Given the fast-paced nature of the decisions being made to close campuses, this lack-of-direct-communication is perhaps understandable, but all the same it does not make graduate students feel valued. How do we fit in? Are we workers? Are we students?

In the coming weeks I hope to see discussions from professors and administrators for how to “extend the clock” for graduate students, especially for programs with a hard 4-or-5-year graduation deadline (thankfully, it’s 7 years for LSU graduate students – go tigers). I would also hope that this epidemic makes universities realize how important it is to provide health insurance to all employees, especially to vulnerable graduate students who may not be able to purchase good insurance from the marketplace due to their already modest incomes. I hope to see plans, on large and small scales, about how to jump-start now stalled summer research plans or how to replace critical networking opportunities found at now-canceled conferences for senior graduate students looking for post-docs. Many of us are now stuck at home worrying, will precious dissertation samples, which represent months of planning and field work or experiments, still be usable when this is all over?

Please reach out to your graduate student friends and colleagues to see how they are doing. Even if they seem “fine” they may not be. Many of my friends were already struggling with mental health issues, financial challenges, being in long-distance relationships, trying to start families, being separated from aging parents, braving the horrid job market, before this all started. COVID-19 has just exacerbated all of these worries x100.

What are my coping mechanisms? I am lucky to be in a supportive department with advisors who do not expect us to be working in the lab etc. during this period of time. Rather there is a “do your best” attitude and focus on getting done what you can control, like reading and writing. I encourage everyone to take this attitude right now. We still have weekly lab meetings which are as much a social outlet and group therapy session as a business meeting right now.

I’ve found that reaching out to long-distance friends and family for Skype dates and remote movie nights is a wonderful way to use the extra “inside” time I have now. I’ve been going for a walk every morning for an all-natural mood-lifer. The world seems a little less dark with spring migration beginning. I’m also excited for a “make lemonade out of lemons” reading group a couple of us are doing on biogeography – since everything is now being done online, anyone will be able to join, no matter where they work! Take advantage and tune in to those remote dissertation defenses and seminar talks and try to enjoy the “slow down” we are all forced into.

By Anonymous (submitted 3/25/2020)

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International Graduate Student Seeing the Bright and Dark Side 

All this started as a “terrible flu” somewhere far away from me. It has now become the world's worst nightmare. For the first time in my life, I´ve seen the worst side of human beings, I´ve seen how selfish, ignorant and idiotic people can be. Several times in my life I´ve watched the news in situations when an extreme climatic event impacted a given country, but I was never part of those impacted. This time it is different, this time I´m on the wrong side - as is the rest of the world. I´m not watching the news, I've chosen not to. By only seeing what people share on social media, I´m not sure what is more painful, seeing how people are dying or seeing how people´s fears, along with fake news, lead to people acting against each other. However, this time there is another aggravating factor in my case, I´m not living in my country of origin. As an international student seeing this pandemic far from home has been a real challenge, not only because we are out of our comfort zones, but because our beloved ones are out of our reach. This represents a real adversary against our sanity...

However, being optimistic and trying to see the “bright side” of all this madness, a few positive things are coming from it. As a grad student, I’m used to not having time for anything other than work, I wasn’t considering hobbies or anything like that. I was always talking about my research, things that I´d like to do, that I love to do, and that I must do because they are part of my responsibilities as a grad student. Conversely, I can do those things now! The coronavirus has given me that chance. Now is the time to clean sequences, analyze data, finish papers, and much more. I don´t want to talk about collecting samples because that´s a topic of another story…  Another positive experience of being a grad student here at LSU has been that I´ve felt how staff and faculty care about us. Almost every day they have sent an email either to inform us about a change of the current situation and how LSU is handling it or to asking if everything is going ok for us if we need help with anything. It´s good to know that not all people are crazy or selfish, it´s good to know that there are people around who are worried about me.

First week of quarantine and counting… 

March 24th, 2020

By Anonymous

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Going Back Home But Still Far From Extended Family

I've always had a morbid fascination with disaster movies, with the movie "Contagion" at the top of my list. Who knew that within a few years of the film's release, I would be living it myself. COVID-19 seemed very far away from reality while it was in China, but then it hit Italy, where my 90-year old grandma, my 86-year old godmother, and all my mother's cousins (who I've called aunts and uncles since I was a child) live. I had also lived in Rome for eight years, and I still feel a strong tie to the Eternal City that I once called home. I was watching the news about the virus in Italy very closely and as the days progressed, the situation became more and more drastic, and yet Americans seemed unfazed--it was happening in Italy, not here. The number of deaths was doubling each day, and soon the entire country was placed on lockdown. My grandmother would show me on Skype the piazza in front of her house, only a block away from St. Peters, and how it was completely empty--not a tourist or local in sight on a Friday night. It was very eerie, the sound from the pizzerias, gelaterias, and bars beneath my grandma's house used to keep me up all through the night when I lived with her.

It was surreal, but I kept reassuring myself that my family in Italy would be okay and that I should just get my work done--but it was becoming increasingly difficult to focus with Coronavirus updates permeating all news outlets, social media and conversations with friends and family. Growing up in an Italian family (my mother is from Rome, Italy) means that familial ties are very strong, and as the situation continuously escalated, so did the frequency of worried phone calls from my grandma, cousins, and mother, urging me to leave Baton Rouge and be with my immediate family in Michigan. I kept reassuring them that the virus was not in Louisiana, that everything was under control, but it was only a matter of days before it had reached New Orleans.

I had been following the situation in Italy closely, more closely than most others around me, and I knew how bad it could get and how quickly the tides could turn. This was not going to just "blow over." It was at this point that I decided that I would rather face shelter at home with my family than in isolation. This was not a decision that I took lightly given that Michigan was a 17 hour drive away, and I would have to face the drive with a cat in tow. I left quickly once it was announced that campus was closed to all except essential personnel, since I knew based on Italy's trajectory that we were only a few days away from a complete lockdown. I am now locked away in my childhood home with my family in Michigan, and while the constant yelling of a passionate Italian family and unreliable internet make it difficult to make any real progress with my research, at least I am surrounded by my loved ones as I watch the news and know that this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

-Alessandra Bresnan (3/24/2020)

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How Survival Training Prepared a Graduate Student For Corona Life

I took survival training during my first year as an undergraduate. It was a training to join a mountaineering club. There were eleven trainees and around ten instructors. The training was conducted inside a forest near the university. The instructors, however, brought us through a circling hike so we would not know where we were. They designed it in a such way, so that we would think twice if we wanted to quit the training. 

There was no day without rain. Some of us had fungal infections on our feet because it was wet all the time. All of us trainees were exhausted. For every mistake we made, the instructors would punish us with ten pushups per mistake. One night we had to do over fifty pushups wearing 30 pound backpacks, mostly because we did not try hard enough to find foods in the forest. In some countries, this would be illegal, but it was normal for a mountaineering club training in my country at that time. The instructors knew we could not even do one pushup. They just wanted to see us trying. Every count they kept repeating, “Do not think about what you can’t have, but think about what you do have and be creative with it”. 

At that time, I regret I took it. Later I learned that was the best training I had in my life. It helped me to endure the pressure of working on remote forests with limited resources and all the politics involved. It helped me to keep my head straight when my team and I lost our way back during an expedition to a remote mountain somewhere in the tropics. Something I had not realized at the time was that this training helped me to keep my stress level low while dealing with cultural shocks studying abroad. With the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown imposed for us, the message that my instructors banged into my head that night resonates again. 

It did not surprise me when my PI told me to be ready to work full time from home. I knew it would eventually come to us. I, however, was not still fully ready to work from home. I still have lab work that needed to be done. Currently, I am at a training stage. A senior graduate student that trains us is about to graduate. 

But again, thinking about what you can’t have is just going to add unnecessary stress. The first few days, I took time to think about the work I needed to get done and my responsibility as a curatorial assistant. I created a list of the work that I could get done from home. Eventually I realized I still have a lot to do. I have enough work to keep me busy until the next several months. It is, however, only half of the problem. The other half is how can I keep myself motivated working in a tiny space.

I waited until the last minute to write this article, so I had a better idea about how to keep myself motivated. The first few days, I spent scanning through my bedroom and look at all the resources I have and how I could improve my situation, so I could work at home and be happy. I first bought a better chair to replace the poker chair that I used to use to work from home. I cleaned up my desk space. I spent time managing all cables on the desk. I removed or replaced all the ugly stuff on it. I rebuilt my desktop PC to improve the cooling system and to keep the fan noise level low. I made sure to have enough games to break my routine. The goal is to make a space where I would prefer to sit in front of my desk rather than get into my bed which is just two feet away. 

I also work on other aspects of my life. I think about what I could not do during the normal working days that I can do now while social distancing. For example, during the normal day, I had to push myself cooking at night for lunch the next day. Often, I only cooked quickly because I was already tired. Now, I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I can cook whenever I am hungry. I’ve eaten more varieties of foods in the last couple weeks than I did the last couple months. During normal working days it is hard to find time to work on my manuscript. I had too much homework in my English class and other obligations. Now, homework and obligation have been stripped down. I have more time to work on my manuscript that has been haunting me for quite a while. 

That is just my story on how I trick myself into focusing on taking advantage of the situation. This little story may not represent the situation of many other graduate students. There are people that needed lab work more than I do but can’t have access to it. The conversations we normally have facing real people, now must be done facing a screen. Depending on how we see it, sometimes it feels harder because we can’t see expression from our audience and their natural reaction to our speech patterns. I, however, try to see the side where all the current lockdown situation is not all bad but it is not fun either. We would all probably agree that it feels like living in a war zone. The good thing is that all we need to do to fight the war is to just stay at home.

-- By Anonymous [Submitted March 27]

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How Preparation and Positivity Will Get Us Through This

No doubt, COVID-19 has joined in the list of historical phenomena that have revealed the vulnerability of human communities. We never saw it coming! This is partly true in some sense. Because by it, I began to consider (hopefully, I am not the only one in this boat) how scientific predictions and warnings from epidemiological data should be taken seriously by our modern culture. It is instructive that things like this could have been averted or at least prepared for? In his 2018 talk, the ecologist Daniel Streicker described how we can prevent rabies outbreak by tracking the movement pattern of vampire bats which function as a host to the virus. He believed that with some ingenuity on our part as humans, such as using genomics to forecast outbreak and spread of edible vaccines among the primary host, we can stall transmission to human population. He was optimistic that studies like his has the potential to keep us one step ahead of rare pandemics. As another example, in an article published some thirteen years ago, Vincent and his colleagues warned that we are potentially at risk of novel viruses emerging as a result of viruses living in horseshoe bats and human interaction with exotic animals. Bill Gates captured the whole thing in this compelling video following the success of the Ebola outbreak. That was only three years ago and how accurate were his suppositions. How chilling were the warnings! [See Bill Gates’s TED talk “The Next Outbreak, We Are Not Ready” https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?language=en]

We could only imagine how the trajectory of the current COVID-19 outbreak would have emerged if such profound statements and predictions made by scientists and concerned persons over the years have been heeded. This is indeed a serious concern for me as a graduate student doing basic research. True, my research may have little or no direct implication on community health. Maybe it is high time systems and policies are geared towards follow-up on predictions and findings for research that do. A typical graduate student does not merely want to see his or her work published. He wants to see the positive impact in form of policies and resources emanating from those toilsome expeditions in a remote Africa village or among natives of America. 

All that being said, being a grad student during this moment of the COVID-19 global health crisis kindled within me a deep sense of responsibility to the scientific community and the entire human population. The world is turning to researchers and frontline medical personnel to help stop the scourge. Two weeks ago, friends from my home country called. With a pinch of humor, they asked, something like this, “How close are you to finding a cure to the disease?” While I never once told them that my thesis focus on viruses or infectious diseases, their joke could not be taken any less seriously. They echo the way people view scientists. And it is this kind of trust that a graduate student researcher needs to continue vigorously in the quest to push back the frontier of knowledge as it relates to the good of humanity. In 2019, I had to drop my initial plan to visit my home country during the summer of 2020. This was on economic grounds. However, as I observed the unfolding anecdote of the COVID-19 in the world, I became somewhat compelled that this was one moment I needed to be back home (indeed if it were possible not to have any risk of getting COVID-19 myself or putting others at risk!). Why? I wanted to go to remote villages in my hometown to sensitize the communities on personal hygiene. I have always felt that as a student I am being equipped to serve poor communities and COVID-19 challenged my willingness to do that. 

Covid-19 has drastically affected a few things for me. This is not something I regret. One example is my research work. I believe I can always pick up from where I stopped, and that the topmost priority must be given to combating the spread of the disease. But the cancellation of classes the week before spring break was a real boost to my research. Since there were no classes for me to teach that week, I had some great time working in the lab. And indeed, it was amazing what progress I made in just a few days! I have looked forward to a scientific and academic meeting. But not anymore. The disease has altered routines, expectations and calendars. Once again, I must admit that I feel no regret. Now, the focus is to join in the fight to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Every other thing must wait.

My response has been that of hope and willingness to join in the fight to halt the spread of the virus. I am however deeply concerned about the decisions that are being made and how people might possibly react in the different cultures all over the world. I am concerned about my host country and my home country. As a citizen of an emerging economy, my empathy is for the people because of the sickly health care system and widespread poverty. My communications with family and friends back home have mostly centered on encouraging them to take the disease seriously by being strict on compliance to advice from health experts. Last week, I got so burdened. I wanted to reach out to the foremost medical research institute (I had my undergraduate internship here) in my home country to take seriously measures against COVID-19. Being a graduate student in a place like the U.S is helping me to learn more about global issues, getting different perspectives on them and somewhat strengthening my capacity to be more involved with communities. 

COVID-19 has come this far. It has had an overwhelming sway on many nations, especially in countries with the finest technology. It seems the disease is taking advantage of the apathy, lethargy and complacency on our part. Personally, I came to deeply appreciate the need for not just insight but also foresight in the issues of life. I felt the need to always know what exact decision to take and to be resolute about them. But you may ask, “How do you do that if you have to wait for scientist to be able to characterize COVID-19?” The lesson, I think is that we should always act as if we are in a war: always ready, ever ready. As a grad student, one of the training I am receiving is to think ahead. This always save time. For instance, when running an experiment, I should have the right controls. Failure to do so results in lost time if your data becomes questionable afterwards. 

Universities, including LSU are suspending face-to-face instruction; hence, making transition to virtual education. This is a massive shift. And it is not without the price of adjusting to the available technology. We are getting engaged with the new rhetoric’s of Zoom! This could possibly be overwhelming for both instructors and students. Obviously, this falls short of perfect, but are necessary to slow down the spread of the corona virus and flatten the curve. 

The COVID-19 pandemic impact on education is global. With this uncharted experience it becomes necessary that incoming graduate students should be exposed to training on how to effectively access and use virtual learning tools in future. This near approach of remote learning has been considered as an emergency learning. Hopefully, this whole experience will help in the synthesis of what is an effective way of using the online tools. 

These are extraordinary circumstances and they present stressors for international graduate students. One is the question of health insurance. Does it get even more complex should there be a case of an international student with the COVID-19? The other is that of employment in the U.S. This latter issue will be critical for a graduating international student who had returned home for some reasons and cannot return to the U.S any time soon owing to the travel restrictions. The 90 days window of unemployment prior to start of the optional practical training program, or OPT could be lost, making it impossible to secure a job in the U.S. This could also be a problem for the graduating student even if he is still in the U.S. These international graduating students are really concerned about how the state of the economy will affect their opportunities for a job in the U.S since it is unlikely many offers run remotely. Except, of course if you can get an academic position. These are the reality faced by graduate students studying in the U.S and elsewhere. The whole thing is obviously complicated and sophisticated. The good news, however, is that the NASFA: International Association of Educators recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to address this and other issues of concern to international students. 

One of the beautiful scenes is the incredible warm-hearted gestures circulating amidst the COVID-19. Domestic and international students expressed their willingness to offer me help if I need anything. And it is not just from fellow students. The emails sent to all students from the LSU Interim President and other offices, or the ones I received from my professors and leaderships of a few LSU students’ organizations have been tremendously encouraging. Having this re-echoed in the LSU Reveille is supposed to be reassuring for the international students. Such benevolence is important in a time of crisis. As an international graduate student, it is pleasing to know your interest and welfare are valued by your University. Making this gesture more tangible by rolling out practical strategies and support systems for now and the future will go a long way in engaging the trust of the student’s community, including international graduate students. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented but when things ever return to normal, we would have learned our lessons. How should we treat scientific findings that affect community and global health? Can we pay too much attention to building an effective health system, especially in poorer countries? How much can we invest now to prepare people for the next pandemic? How should we respond to an unknown crisis even though it has not yet or may never come near our shore? Is it possible to have in place effective strategies to ensure continuity of innovation and education in the face of another future global epidemic? How do we ensure inclusion for international students should there be more nuances to future pandemics? Again, and again, our decisions should be such that help preserve lives. It must be people centered. School authorities and leaders everywhere are faced with a tremendous challenge. We may have to use some patience and understanding with them. But each one of us, including our leaders have the responsibility to take actions that are geared towards upholding the dignity of human life. We want to support those homes and persons already affected while protecting ourselves and others adopting the prescribed behavior mandated for taking the life out of the spread of COVID-19. That will take sacrifice. 

Uncertainties are inevitable. But God is sovereign and good and just. It is this conviction that keeps through my personal life and academic journey. It is not impossible to be anxious about one’s work and life as a grad student in the uncharted circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. I am however, not disturbed. As a lad growing up and having to endure financial hardships at home, one truth kept me unbroken: God is in control. Relax! It was painful. But, having this mindset has kept me motivated and secured my gaze on God for mercy and grace. Not only has this helped me to stay focus, but I see how having hope myself I can bring hope to those around me. Two weeks ago, a friend told me how distressed she was over the COVID-19 and that she wants to get my thoughts. I responded by sharing my hope in God, that I’m not afraid but instead look to God for mercy. Feeling humbled by this opportunity to share, I left her and went back to my task for the time. When I returned to the preparatory room, she had left a note by the door of the microwave machine that read, “Thank you for making me feel better about the virus!” Like everything that threatens our existence we always encounter fear as an emotional war. As a grad student in the era of the COVID-19 I have remained calm and full of hope knowing that God is in control. As I obey federal and state guidelines about staying home, social distancing, hand washing, and aligning myself to instructions on group meeting, I hope to make use of the time to read scientific papers as well as develop sound thoughts on my research. And, yes of course stay in touch with family and friends back home, in the U.S or other parts of the world.

-- By Anonymous [submitted March 27]

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Making the Best of a Bad Situation

Always, writing the first sentence is so difficult. Should it be,“COVID-19 negatively affects my life in the US?” No! There are also positive things caused by the situation. What about...”The Coronavirus changes my academic life in the US?” Yes..., but this sentence is somewhat vague. I am spending 30 mins to write just a sentence.

Should I go back to Korea?  I am a PhD student in LSU and come from South Korea. Actually, I went home to South Korea for Christmas holidays and re-entered the US in January 2020. At that time, I did not expect the COVID-19 would cause a lot of problems worldwide. I was worried about my family when the virus cases sharply increased in Korea in February and early March. In late March, the situation has rapidly changed. The Coronavirus cases have suddenly increased in the US but dropped in Korea. Currently, my parents are worried about me and suggest me to temporarily return to Korea until the situation improves. I cannot easily make a decision.  

LSU is closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this has affected my classes, including “Academia & Beyond”, which is my favorite course in Spring 2020. Especially, I enjoyed discussing difficulties in the graduate school with my classmates. We shared our own issues and talked about how to improve the problems. It was a healing time for my mental health. However, the class has ended due to the situation. OMG!

In addition, my primary research is affected by the COVID-19 closures. In the situation, everyone in LSU needs to be telecommuting from home except for essential people. Because of this, going to the school is limited. As a graduate student working on insect taxonomy, examining tiny wasp specimens is mandatory to conduct my research. I can move my microscope to home, but I cannot bring my fragile insect specimens to home. Also, I cannot conduct molecular analyses at home. If I extracted DNA at home, I will be likely to get tons of Homo sapiens DNA.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts my academic life, positive things are also caused by this situation, especially for my family. For example, I am spending a lot of time with my wife while stuck at home. Maybe, I know some guys do not agree with me :). In the normal situation, I usually work at school from 9am to 6pm, meaning that I do not have enough time to talk with my wife. After COVID-19 outbreak, we have enough time to share our thoughts and emotions. Also, we cook and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together at home. Additionally, we contact our parents in Korea more often. We usually contact them once a month, but currently once a week. This is a valuable gift for our family.

Research is really important for my future job, but I can postpone the work. The most important thing is maintaining my health and keeping those I care about healthy too.  Without good health, I will lose my wife, family, friends, work, and actually everything! Hope the current situation returns to normal in the near future.

-- By Anonymous (submitted 3/25/2020)

My love letter to Louisiana

I see a lot of talk about #Louisiana ranking lowest among the states in various national rankings. It is far from perfect, and it is hard for many people, but it was many wonderful features too: it is wonderfully culturally and racially diverse, a dollar goes a long way, and the cultural gumbo is unique. Here is a short list of what I love about the state.

(1) Diversity – 2^nd highest percentage of African Americans of any state. Our three largest cities have black women as mayors (let me know when your state does that.) Spanish, Native and French influences abound and there are large Honduran and Vietnamese populations as well. https://www.roadsnacks.net/most-african-american-states-in-america/

(2) Affordability – you can buy a house cheap (one of the top 10 states for that). My five bedroom, with a pool, and big front and backyards cost less than my brother's one bedroom apartment in Queens. Wish it was easier for the poor to move up, but middle class life here is pretty good in terms of affordable houses. https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-to-buy-a-house-in-every-state-ranked-2018-8#40-nebraska-12

(3)  Louisiana is one of the friendliest states (#12). I am still shocked as a New Yorker that people let me borrow their truck, and help me change a flat, and are genuinely kind to strangers. “Oh darling, how can I help you?” is not an uncommon refrain. Southern hospitality is a real thing https://bigseventravel.com/2019/08/the-50-friendliest-states-in-america/

(4) Louisiana is one of the most fun states. Ranking probably goes up if you like to drink. New Orleans is Disney World for adults. Mardi Gras is amazing and ridiculously fun if you do it right – as locals do

 https://wallethub.com/edu/most-fun-states/34665/

(5) Great food – The seafood is amazing as is crawfish season, king cake, etc. Ranking probably goes down if you are vegan, or vegetarian as I was (now pescatarian) – you can still get fat. Many people live off the land eating deer, alligator, duck, crawfish, squirrel, feral hog etc.  #4 in this ranking of states: https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/every-state-ranked-by-its-food-drink

(6) Great music: New Orleans Jazz, Zydeco, Cajun, etc. Louis Armstrong to Lead Belly, Buckwheat Zydeco to BeauSoleil. There are always festivals and free concerts, Cajun dances to Blues and Jazz Fests, and I love that people really love to dance here. https://www.deep-south-usa.com/louisiana/music

(7) The weather: okay it gets ridiculously hot in the summer which is six months long, but hey – no shoveling snow, your car lasts a lot longer without all that salt on the road. You can sit outside in December; you don’t need a big winter coat or furry boots. I love snow, but I also like an extended Fall. This list agrees with me. https://medium.com/thrive-global/top-us-states-with-the-best-climate-year-round-c2d71225e629

 

(8) Big Water – you got the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi – bayous and bays. I love that I can be so close to so much water – yes, sometimes too much water. There is really something about paddling through a nice bayou.

 

(9) Mystery - Where else in the U.S. can you feel like voodoo and magic might be real; where they give ghost tours (in earnest) and talk about vampires and the "rougaroo." There are some amazing storytellers here and everything feels possible. People who need to escape their past often claim they are from Louisiana (e.g. Henry Morton Stanley, John James Audubon, Paul Belloni Du Chaillu, Tommy Wiseau). It's easy to fit in because everyone can belong here.

I’ve lived in Montreal, Arlington, Ann Arbor and I grew up in New York City. None of those places are perfect, and I love features of all of them, but I have a hard time thinking of ever leaving Louisiana. There is a reason it has the highest rate of philopatry (4 out of 5 residents were born in the state) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/upshot/where-people-in-each-state-were-born.html

Yes, I know there is lots of bad too, but I think the state gets better every year. I know lots of people trying to make it better and I know they will succeed. This post is just a reminder there is lots to love about living here.

Sarah Parcak On Getting Paid for TV Work

This post is republished with Dr. Parcak's permission. From a Facebook post:

I am doing a public advice post (please share widely, this is set to public) for ALL my archaeology, history, science, and other academic colleagues who are asked to do TV work. I am going to give you standard day rates for filming/consulting, what to ask for, how to do contracts, what is reasonable, and how to negotiate. If 100% of us take a stand against the industry-standard practice of not paying for our hard earned knowledge and expertise, we'll force them to change. Here goes...

FILMING PAYMENT: Industry standards for filming range from $800-$1500 per day, plus all food, travel, and associated costs. $1000-$1200 per day is about right. It's intense work. PS them telling you "but it's only a half day" means your entire day is shot, you have to include travel, setup, prep, and extra time...it's 100% of the time a full day.

NEGOTIATING: Some back and forth may be required. Set a lowest limit for yourself and don't let them go below that. Be polite but firm. If they don't have $ to pay you, it's not worth it. All of them are getting paid.

CONSULTING PAYMENT: This will vary. Remember most of you have earned PhDs! You're more knowledgeable than lawyers and they all charge lots. I've seen most folks charge between $100-$200 per hr, more for shorter intense full day efforts (i.e. "Can you please review this script and make sure it is factually accurate?" OK 20 page script, but fact checking, and intense day, so $1500-$2000). You can set rates for phone calls, research etc.

BUT I DON'T FEEL OK TAKING $: Check your temperature and get over the guilt. 100% of the film and production crew are getting paid. You deserve it. You won't get rich but you will be able to pay down a credit card bill, go to a nice dinner, buy books for research...your choice. And if you still feel guilty, do what I do and use the $ to support your excavation work or research or students (I've used $ from TV to buy my grad students computers, or help with emergency situations).

RULES TO FOLLOW: Before signing anything, check in with your University legal office and of course coordinate with your Chair/Dean. Yes they can be pains but also these folks are working for

YOU. Nearly every uni allows consulting, e.g. this type of thing, but there are conflict of interest forms, and sometimes $ effort release forms, or other paperwork. DO THE PAPERWORK this will bite you in the butt if you don't. Keep paper trails, keep track of phone calls and meetings and always follow up with thank yous to the lawyers. Honestly most of them are great. They'll be on your side.

HOW TO START: Develop a standard rate sheet with your specific guidelines for external consulting. I don't have one (I am lucky and have an agent to do this for me), but you can easily develop one with your uni legal office (trust me, they can be very helpful) OR ply a lawyer buddy with a nice dinner and wine and ask them to help you set it up. One page, straightforward, "These are my rates for X Y and Z, here is what I am willing to do." Ask around, a lot of academics have them and I bet people would be willing to share templates. Give rates for filming, research, X phone calls, what you will require (payment within 30 days, reimbursement within 2 weeks etc).

SO YOU GET AN EMAIL/CALL ASKING YOU FOR X...: Well it has to start somewhere. The first phone call is free, unless they want to "pick your brain." But even then you hold 100% of the cards. First you need to decide if the company/person is decent. Look them up online and see what they've done. There should be a good website and info on their previous shows. Most companies are "indies" (independent). Ask them on the call what the show is about, what they can share with you (a one page overview doc is minimum what they should be able to share), what they want from you, how much time they think it will take, what their company ethics are, do they employ women and POC (i.e. do they value diversity). YOU be the one asking the questions. Come up with a list, print them out, take notes. The person asking the ?'s in in charge and here you are in charge. If they want to "pick your brain" its the same ?'s. "How did you find me? What are you interested in? Is the show greenlit (commissioned) or being developed to pitch? Who would this be for? Are you talking to other experts?" Get a TON of info from them. They'll spill the beans, they always do. After all that, say, "Wow, this sounds so exciting! I'd love to be involved. Lets talk about a contract and my rate sheet." If they ghost, f&*k 'em. You can't pay rent or for groceries in "exposure".

BUT THEY TOLD ME THIS IS JOURNALISM: OK here is where there is a divide. I've done a bunch of unpaid segments, but for news, and things like 60 Minutes. 60 mins was very, very special and worth every moment I put into it. A documentary is not journalism in the traditional "paid versus unpaid" sense. Yes of course it is "journalism", but you still need to get paid *if it is not a news entity*. A talking head interview say for BBC or Fox News or local news commenting on a recent discovery= journalism and unpaid, and frankly, good practice for you. A TV crew from and Indie coming to your lab and filming you for an entire day= PAID. There are clear lines. Don't let them lie to you. They will lie. Not all, but some.

CONTRACT: Here is where you need to rely heavily on your Uni legal office. ALL PAID WORK

REQUIRES CONTRACTS. You will be used otherwise and at risk of serious exposure without a contract. "Trust us" they will say. They can kiss your a$$ 8 ways to Sunday if they say that and RUN AWAY. In the contract are terms for the total work you are willing to do, exactly what you will be paid for, travel costs, what you can and cannot say publicly, how to protect your research (some TV people will tell you that you cannot publish till their TV show goes live---in some cases this may work, others it may not. Protect yourself here!), your IP (yes your words are your IP!), standards for behavior for both parties (contract null and void and full payment due if Director turns out to be abusive for example...you need an escape clause)....the good news is that this is ALL standard boilerplate contracting stuff, and there are countless examples of all this online, and where Uni legal offices are SO helpful. Most of what they do is contract law, and their job is to protect you.

HELP IT ALL WORKED I'M GOING TO BE ON TV: Here is where the Internet is your BFF. There are SO many wonderful presenter resources online. I won't list the, but look on Youtube or Google and see what advice is there. Also watch shows with your favorite history/science presenters, see what they do, learn from the pros. Remember you are YOU and your enthusiasm and authenticity are what the viewers want. You'll get better over time, most Directors are actually super decent and they'll work with you and make you relaxed (they have lots of tricks for this).

I wish you all the luck in the world. We need more of you on TV, and you all need to be paid fairly.

By - Dr. Sarah Parcak 

A Scientific Scale for Scientific Presentations

Know your audience, what level should you be speaking. Here is a helpful guide to start.

America Forgets

AMERICA FORGETS

Listen young friend, I am saying this as you lie asleep, alone in your temporary housing ­– a metal cage. I have watched you from afar. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat with my own family, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guilty, I came to think of you.

There are things which I am thinking, my dear asylum seeker; I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were entering our country because you dared to seek the freedoms I enjoy. I took you to task for seeking a better life. I called out angrily when you protested the break up of your family.

At your seeking safety I found fault, too. ‘You are poor. You will only add more mouths to feed. You do not have a job, and will only add debt to my country.’ As you crossed the border, you turned and raised your hands and called, "Thank you for letting my family seek asylum, safety and liberty in your country," I frowned, and said in reply, "You must first be detained indefinitely, before you are given due process."

Then it began all over again late this afternoon. As I came near, you were down on your knees, pleading for your freedom. Your children were separated from you. I humiliated you before the world by marching you into a small metal cage. “Keeping you is expensive, and if you had to pay for it, you wouldn’t be so bold!” Imagine that, from a fellow human.

Do you remember later, when I said you were an animal, how you stared timidly, with a hurt look in your eyes? I finally came over, impatient at the disruption; you hesitated to say anything. "I don’t care, do you?" I snapped.

You said nothing, but fell in one tempestuous plunge; your children pleading with the guard with all the love blooming in their hearts, which even neglect could not wither. Then you were gone, back into your enclosure.

Well, friend, it was shortly afterwards that my resentment slipped from my mind and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, or reprimanding; this was my reward to you for being a survivor. It was not that I did not love my fellow humans: it was that I expected too much of you. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years in this country.

There is so much that was good, fine and true in your character. The heart of yours

was as big as the dawn itself over the hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in to America expecting love and liberty. Nothing else mattered tonight. Friend, I have come to your bedside in the darkness, I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know that you would not understand these things which I have

told you in the waking hours. Tomorrow I will be a real friend! I will chum with you, suffer

when you suffer and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when intolerant words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "She is an asylum seeker." I am afraid I have visualized you as a criminal. Yet as I see you now, friend, crumpled and weary in your cage. I see that you are still a victim. Yesterday you were in harms way, struggling against gangs, drugs and violence. I have asked too much, too much!

Instead of condemning and criticizing others, perhaps we it would be better to try to understand them, to try to figure out why they do what they do. That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness, rather than contempt.

Modified from Father Forgets, by W. Livingston Larned 1927

On Terry Wheeler

Dr. Terry Wheeler had an enormous influence on my life. He was the first to tell me about the fields of Biogeography and Systematics when I was an undergraduate and the first professor to invite me to take a course at the graduate level with him. (I didn’t know that was possible as an undergrad back then.) I went on to get a Ph.D in Evolutionary Biology and I am now myself a tenured professor studying biogeography and phylogenetic systematics. I still have my notes from my courses with Dr. Wheeler and have never forgotten the foundation of knowledge he helped me build – but he also transferred his passion for the science. From him I learned of strange lands and connections between places that seemed distant and unexplainable. I learned to sketch the world map from memory on a chalkboard from him – and I do it for the same reason: showmanship – the students eat it up. From Terry I learned about Darwin, Wallace, Lamarck, Cuvier and many others; he was a great storyteller and he made the classes interesting by making them personal. I learned that he used an undergraduate project I did as an example in his classes while I was still a student at McGill: I remember being absolutely floored and touched by the honor. By chance he was presented the “McGill Teacher of the Year” honor at my Mac graduation ceremony in which I happened to be valedictorian – he would joke with me after that he was only at that graduation to hear my speech. He helped me understand not just science but scientists. He continues to influence how I teach undergraduates and graduate students of my own. I am not sure where I would be without Terry’s influence on my life – but I would certainly not be where I am. I am glad I got to keep in touch with him after I graduated from McGill in 2000, it took me about twelve more years before I had the guts to call him “Terry”: he will always the wonderful Dr. Wheeler to me.

#ParsimonyGate: The Perspective of a Reformed ‘Hardcore’ Cladist

If you are reading this article you have probably read the now infamous editorial in the journal Cladistics http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cla.12148/full . Although signed “The Editors,” it isn’t clear if this was approved by anyone besides the current Head Editor who is most certainly a “hardcore cladist” (someone who thinks parsimony is the most reasonable, if not only, tool for inferring the historical relationships of organisms through phylogenetics). I distinguish between “hardcore cladists” and just “cladists,” because I think I am a cladist and that most other systematic biologists are too. A cladist in my personal definition is anyone who is distinguishing between pleisiomorphic (“primitive” features shared with a designated outgroup) versus apomorphic (derived characters distinct from the outgroup condition). Under my broader definition, basically everyone doing morphological or molecular work to discover the relationships of organisms is a cladist, and it doesn't matter if you are using parsimony, likelihood, or Bayesian approaches. The only exception are folks that are using overall similarity (e.g., bats and birds are close relatives because they both have warm blood and wings) which doesn’t distinguish analogy (convergence of characters) versus homology (characters derived from common ancestry) because it doesn’t follow the Henningian, or cladistic principal, of distinguishing between pleisiomorphic versus apomorphic characters.

            This view of cladistics I outline above are basically the foundation of Willi Hennig’s 1966 book “Phylogenetic Systematics” that is the bible of the Willi Hennig Society (publisher of Cladistics) and the foundation of modern systematic theory. At the time the idea of distinguishing between pleisiomorphy versus apomorphy was radical. Famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr was the first to call those following Hennig’s principles “cladists” - as a pejorative by the way. Mayr preferred doing “evolutionary taxonomy” - basically where the expert on a group makes a hypothesis about the relationships of organisms based on characters they think are most important for supporting those relationships (e.g., owls, eagles and hawks are all each other’s closest relatives because these “raptors” all kill with their feet). The other alternative method in systematics in those early days were the numerical pheneticists that used overall similarity to group organisms as I explain above. (Read more about this interesting time in history in David Hull’s, “Science as a Process.”) The original cladists weren’t fighting for parsimony, they were fighting to only use derived characters in phylogenetics. Parsimony came around a little later with the work of several groups mainly from the University of Michigan and American Museum of Natural History. Parsimony was the only game in town to the early cladists, which was mainly for understanding the transition of morphological characters from primitive to derived. Then with the rise of molecular tools for obtaining DNA characters came new methods for inferring trees: model-based approaches including maximum likelihood and eventually Bayesian inference. Systematists of all sorts would meet at the annual Systematic Zoology/Biology meetings every year until the “hardcore cladists” decided to break away and have their own meeting, the meeting of the Willi Hennig Society founded in 1980.

            Now I should mention I trained as a systematist at both the University of Michigan and the American Museum of Natural History, the hot bed of cladistics and Hennig worship, albeit late in the game in the early 2000s. I was a hardcore cladist most of my early graduate career. I thought parsimony was the only reasonable way to infer relationships because it wasn’t a model-based approach like maximum likelihood or Bayesian inference. Those models made too many assumptions I thought and was taught. Alternatively, parsimony wasn’t a model because the foundation of that idea is to “minimize ad hoc assumptions about homoplasy” (i.e., reduce noise in the tree from characters moving around). Using parsimony, the shortest tree with the fewest steps (or evolutionary transitions) is the best tree – period. The other methods were using models to guesstimate from DNA sequences too much about how often an A (adenine) turns to a C (cytosine) or a T (thymine) to a G (guanine). It was crazy how much assuming those crazy-assuming people were doing. If they just did some morphology they would better understand how all this stuff really worked and that there is only one true religion, I mean method, parsimony. We were the Jedi knights that stuck to our principles; those other folks just weren’t thinking it through. Then something happened: I saw the light.

            I realized at one point that there isn’t a right way to study historical relationships. We can’t actually know the truth about who is related to whom when discussing organisms that diverged millions of years ago. We are also using methods that are extremely computationally intensive. They are all models, even the heuristic we use to run parsimony. No computer on Earth can fully resolve a phylogeny of more than a dozen or so species using any heuristic of parsimony or likelihood: there are just too many possible answers. When we study a historical science using morphological characters or DNA we will never be sure we are right. As I started using DNA methods more I realized I wanted to start better understanding when these lineages started to diverge. I needed to put a rough age on a group and to do that I needed to use likelihood and Bayes because only those use evolutionary models from which you can understand how DNA sequences change over time. I slowly found myself using these other methods more and more. Did I still use parsimony, sure sometimes, but it gave me the same answer as those other methods, just less information (e.g., a tree without branch lengths or information about time). The relationships themselves are interesting but I also wanted to know about evolution and biogeography beyond the tree.

            Now I’m still a cladist, and I hope I can count many friends among those in the Willi Hennig Society. (I named my dog Willi.) The folks in that society helped me think more clearly about methods and the philosophy of systematics, and also about the limits of what we can know in general (epistemology). They have invited me for talks at their annual Hennig meetings and I always learn a lot at this conference. Many people are intimidated by these meetings because many senior members do yell at each other, but they are friends in the end - trying to improve each others work. They do sometimes pick on folks that aren’t their friends, and that isn’t cool. You do have to bring your “A” game to Hennig because there are no concurrent sessions and there is an unlimited time for questions. You always have to explain why you picked a certain method over another, it isn’t about using the newest method it is about justifying your choice. (Much like the Cladistics editorial was trying to say. I think.) Compared to other meetings where there is often few, if any, questions - even after a terrible talk - I actually think Hennig is doing it right. They have many fewer members than other major systematic societies so they have the luxury of having just one session at a time and an open-ended question period. The Hennig conference is also strongly skewed male, which is a problem they really need to fix. Many senior members of the society need to tone it down a bit too. They can be crass and pedantic and use jargon as a weapon to make semantic arguments over relatively mundane things (“how can you test a model with a model”; “is there such a thing as an order-quantifiable metric of similarity”). I still publish in Cladistics (as recently as last year) and it even had a Bayesian analysis in it. Although I let my membership lapse a few years ago I’m not opposed to going to another meeting in the future. I think the editorial they published is a step backwards only because it sounds so uninviting: “If alternative methods give different results and the author prefers an unparsimonious topology, he or she is welcome to present that result, but should be prepared to defend it on philosophical grounds.” Many read that as, “You can submit non-parsimony things but you need to explain why, and even if you explain why, we still might not like it because parsimony.”

            I think the editorial was a mistake because it sounded like they will only accept the parsimony answer if you get alternatives from other sources. And that makes the journal “Hardcore Cladistics” and it was, at least recently, just “Cladistics.” I do hope they reconsider their stance, or at least clarify. I still consider Cladistics a great journal, one that I enjoy reading because of its organismal focus on systematics. I haven’t had issues with editors or reviewers telling me I need to do a parsimony analysis or remove a likelihood or Bayesian analysis, but I’ve heard that other may have. Time will tell if the journal and the society can right the ship, unfortunately, it was a storm of their own creation that has it teetering.