Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 1d

There is a name for people who write in short blocks. Authors!

If you write in long sessions only, you will end up either unpublished, or disappointed

For an overview of the psych research on this I love Paul Silvia’s /How to Write a Lot/

Mirya R. Holman @mirya.bsky.social · 1d

Duration: how long do you spend writing, when you write? (lots of people seem to think the only way to write a lot is to spend really long blocks of time writing. I disagree)

I ask: what's your ideal amount of writing? And how does that compare to your actual writing practices?

1 2

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 6d

IHE has it right, this is “running a Motel 6 at a Ritz-Carlton price”

And while FL legislators might be conservative I don’t think they were in the market for a money pit. Time will tell!

#academicsky #highered

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 6d

That’s $9555 housing support, $4777 non salary costs of administration, and $4111 academic support/student/year if the student body is 900 total. Almost 2x the per student spending of other Florida universities (per article) before touching salaries or the physical plant!!

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 6d

$8.6M housing support *outside* financial aid budget - this is almost 3x what they spent on physical plant!

$4.3M administration - again *outside* salaries

$3.7M “academic instruction and student support” *outside* salaries and facilities

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 6d

I have seen a couple budgets of alternative colleges/similar programs that are completely free to every student. Even they do not manage to spend $134k/student/year.

How is this even possible? Into the budget linked @ this article to see…

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 7d

You'll be shocked to learn New College of Florida is on the brink of implosion just a couple of years after DeSantis engineered an extreme right-wing takeover

Fun fact: NCF's new overlords spend $134K per student (!!...the average at other FL publics is $10K) www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida

Student outcomes and rankings are slipping at the liberal arts college while spending is up. Critics believe the college is at risk of implosion, and some are calling for privatization.

www.insidehighered.com

1

Reposted by Amalia Skilton

Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · 7d

RIP Jane Goodall — she forever transformed what it means to do fieldwork.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91

Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour

www.theguardian.com

3 39 150

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 9d

Paper is now out 🎉 Extra thanks to the reviewers and editors on this one - even more thoughtful than usual as we worked through a lot of technical specs and their implications. 🐦🐦

Project MUSE - Digital infrastructure and its impacts on language work: A case study of FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx)

dx.doi.org

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 15d

Conservatives - despite their rhetoric about red tape in the rest of government - don’t seem interested in reducing the compliance burden. If anything they want to increase it (Trump demands for student data). Staggering compared to any sector outside government

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 19d

To be clear, the cost-benefit analysis here DOES fall on the side of typesetting myself because it allows me to work with specific platinum OA publishers, and have all the #linguistics notation set correctly. But lemme tell you is it ANNOYING to typeset 800+ pages!!!

3

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 19d

Life pro tip: Never lay out your own book. All of the suffering, none of the excitement of writing or editing content #academicsky

1 3

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · 20d

I unfortunately think about this every day

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 20d

British politics really needs to wake up to what is happening in America given we have imported a huge amount of its culture war politics. Maybe there are some clues about what would be on the cards here under a Reform government?

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Aug 26

Open rank job in language and interaction at Rutgers. Relevant for #linguistics #EMCA jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/258...

Tenure-Track/Tenured Faculty Position in Language, Interaction, and Interpersonal Communication (Open Rank)

The Department of Communication at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information seeks a full-time faculty member in language, interaction, and interpersonal communication. The search i...

jobs.rutgers.edu

5 4

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Aug 20

Assistant professor position in language revitalization @ Berkeley 🐦🐦 aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05022

Assistant Professor - Language Revitalization - Linguistics

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

1 3

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Aug 9

Report ad > Scam, fraud and impersonation 😎

2

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Aug 8

Whole separate paper to be written about women working at barbershops. The fancy/queer branded kind, and the “this is a barbershop that happens to be owned by a woman” kind

1 1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Aug 7

This is the summer of Nescafé Ice Roast for me. Just passable as coffee, but fast and cold. Perfect for struggling under both authoritarianism and heat

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 31

BA postdoctoral fellowship call now out with a deadline in October. These fund UK/EEA nationals and people with UK doctorates.

Would love to work with someone on an application - we need more field #linguists working in the UK.

Postdoctoral Fellowships

The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships is a three year award made to an annual cohort of outstanding early career researchers in the humanities or social sciences.

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 11

I'm on hour 8 at the Bogota airport (flying back from fieldwork) and starting to get a little punchy. do not hold my OWN reviews written at this moment against me

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 11

Officially endorsed by me on behalf of #linguistics

Only missing tip in @hormiga.bsky.social 's post: Please, never write in your review "This paper should be edited by a native English speaker." You mean, "This paper needs edits for [grammar/style/voice/insert specific problem here]."

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · Jul 10

"Correct" spelling and "proper" grammar aren't worth fussing about. Just let people be.

scienceforeveryone.science/p/grammar-do...

Grammar does not matter

Please stop being a grammar pedant.

scienceforeveryone.science

4 12 58

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 11

Is this the Senate growing a spine????

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jul 10

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding.

Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24.

See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it.

🧵 1/3

Subcommittee Markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 8

Would be fascinating to see this figure for lab based (CS/psych adjacent) vs non lab based fields of #linguistics. My PhD was granted 6 years ago next month and I feel like my productivity is just now taking off as I can work w/ larger teams

Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · Jul 7

Publication rates before and after tenure: clear decline post-tenure in non-lab-based fields and sustained in lab-based fields. Super interesting.
arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10575

4

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 2

Yes.

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jul 1

On fieldwork but really, really sorry to hear this for all those at IU. Some storied departments on this list.

Not surprising if you have been following events there - still tragic and short-sighted.

Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · Jun 30

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees

Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

www.ipm.org

1

Amalia Skilton @amaliaskilton.bsky.social · Jun 26

This is sadly now a mainstream position in the UK though. Ask them how well it’s going - hint: not well

1 2