What someone wears to class isn’t going to make or break their grade. Being exposed to the course content is!
Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana
@zraresearch.bsky.social
Former tweeter. Sociologist of racial inequality, urban studies, and culture. Baltimorean always, no matter where I actually live. Knitter. Creator of practicalphd.net. I skipped sad and got angry. Always speaking for me.
What “summers off” looks like: - 5 comp exams - 1 dissertation defense - biweekly check ins with group of grad students - dept committee meeting - board meetings - prep and organizing for soc conference circuit - writing on 3 articles and a book manuscript - analysis for 2 articles - reading
When power is rooted in disinformation, data become a threat. apnews.com/article/eeoc...
US civil rights agency moves to end demographic data collection after 60 years
The Trump administration is seeking to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment ...
apnews.com
Just met with a grad student and helped them broaden their research questions. They asked “how do you do that so quickly?!” Practice my friend…just start practicing.
Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana@zraresearch.bsky.social · 4w agoReflecting on my personal experience and advice I give grad students about the big picture: practicalphd.net/2026/07/15/g...
Reflecting on my personal experience and advice I give grad students about the big picture: practicalphd.net/2026/07/15/g...
Getting to the Big Picture
One of the hardest things for some researchers (including myself) is getting to the big picture. This might be an overarching research question for your research, a way of describing the research …
practicalphd.net
Translating from Stata to R is coming along. Got stuck on a collapse command in my Stata code, but taking some time to read to figure it out.
Committed to recoding a dataset from Stata to R this summer to really learn R. Today’s work started slow and I was stuck quickly, but I figured it out (order matters! Duh!) and made good progress! Slowly but surely!
People living in this city are often told who they are, often by people who haven’t bothered to learn anything about them. At Baltimore Beat, we know that our job isn’t just to educate — it’s to listen to and amplify the people who are already here. baltimorebeat.com/2025-impact-...
2025 Impact Report
People living in this city are often told who they are, often by people who haven’t bothered to learn anything about them. At Baltimore Beat, we know that our job isn’t just to educate — it’s to…
baltimorebeat.com
It’s easy to create stress in an academic job. Even taking tenure out of the equation, there’s always more to do and it’s easy to feel like it’s all a priority and all should have been done yesterday. Putting that kind of pressure on work that really doesn’t have a deadline is something we can fix.1
Proud to announce my very first article award!! Honorable mention for the SREM Oliver Cromwell Cox Award!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 This one is for the village that helped me untangle the complex story that became an article about controlling images of neighborhoods. academic.oup.com/socpro/artic...
Do foundations post statistics anywhere so you can see how many folks have applied in the past? I’m imagining a similar report to what some peer review journals produce with number of submissions, rejections, R&Rs, and acceptances.
With my book manuscript in, I’ve been taking a much needed break! Today involved doing nothing!! Lounging! It has been fabulous!
Just sent a draft of my BILF (book I’d like to finish) off to the press editor!!! It’s a real thing that’s finally happening!!! 😭🎉😭🎉😭🎉
I don’t have it all figured out (like how do I get a gray color scheme???), but I am making maps in R!
A colleague suggested this could be the product of AI use…👀👀👀
Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana@zraresearch.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt’s very interesting to see mischaracterizations of my research pop up in the citations…also how some scholars completely avoid engaging with my methodological contributions…hmmm…
Gotta love when a reviewer (not me) recommends my work to an author! Also does the author think I’m that reviewer and not me? 😂😂😂
It’s very interesting to see mischaracterizations of my research pop up in the citations…also how some scholars completely avoid engaging with my methodological contributions…hmmm…
Y’all!! This book is really coming together!!! I can’t wait for the next phase in the process and being closer to sharing it with the world!
Sociology folks: If you're interested in having a conversation about the @soc4pal.bsky.social boycott, show up tomorrow morning to talk to some of the organizers! Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Just spent a week serving as a mentor for a group of amazing graduate students studying topics around poverty and policy. It reminded me of a workshop I participated in as a graduate student years ago. Full circle moment!
I only caught one of the witty 2000 hip hop references at graduation, but whoever came up with them deserves a raise!
Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.
This year, I’ve made more time for reading. I built it into my teaching, figured out how to prioritize it for the work I’m doing on book (special shout to driving the kiddo places for an easy time to read a book), and tried a new way of notetaking that is working. It’s brought so many new ideas!
I keep getting suggestions for grad programs like I don’t already have 2 MAs and a PhD…
Michelle S. Phelps@michellesphelps.bsky.social · 3mo agoLinked In's no doubt AI-fueled jobs tab just suggested I apply to work as Adjunct Instructor at the university where I'm a full professor. 😂 So the good news is I don't think the robots are *quite* ready for their takeover.
Heading to the library to make myself pick up a book in person so I can peruse the section the book is in. Might be leaving with more than just the one.
a man in a suit and sunglasses is sitting in front of a bookshelf and says the library is open .
ALT: a man in a suit and sunglasses is sitting in front of a bookshelf and says the library is open .
media.tenor.com
How We Get Free Join @keeanga.bsky.social for a virtual conversation with Ula Y. Taylor about Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Thursday, April 23rd at 5:00 pm ET RSVP to attend:
Register Now – How We Get Free: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ula Y. Taylor – YouTube
How We Get Free: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ula Y. Taylor – YouTube, Thu Apr 23, 2026 - Join Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ula Y. Taylor as they celebrate the new edition of How We Get Free: Black Femi...
events.haymarketbooks.org
After dragging a bit on revising the intro chapter last week, I had a great writing day that made me feel back to my normal writing self. Onward and upward! Getting closer to a full and complete draft of this book manuscript!
Making tenure count, for MSNOW I wrote about my employer, The University of Iowa, creating a center for intellectual freedom. It's a reactionary project built on decades of conservative propaganda about higher ed.
Opinion | Beware conservatives promoting “intellectual freedom”
Victor Ray: This conservative lie about schools like mine is furthering authoritarianism
ms.now