Anna Meier Profile picture
Dec 4, 2021 10 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Words that mean different things in US and UK academia: a thread for confused academics on both sides of the pond, or, Anna writes the dictionary she wishes she'd had. 1/
“Faculty”

US: Professors
UK: Like a college at an R1 in the US sense; the “Faculty of Social Sciences” would be all social science departments 2/
“Staff”

US: Department administrators, librarians, research support staff, etc.
UK: All of those people plus professors/lecturers 3/
“Lecturer”

US: Someone who lectures; their job title is probably “professor” or some variation; could also be a graduate student
UK: Equivalent to assistant professor 4/
“Administrator”

US: A dean, provost, chancellor, etc.
UK: Any support staff—grant officers, registrars, payroll coordinators, etc. 5/
“Administration”

US: The deans, provosts, chancellors, etc.—university leadership
UK: Synonym for “service” in the US sense—committee roles, etc.

This one trips me up constantly. 6/
“Course”

US: A 10 to 16–week class on a specific topic
UK: A degree program (e.g., BA in political science) and so also a loose synonym for “major” in the US sense 7/
“Honors”

US: Something extra you do during your bachelor’s degree, like a thesis or more difficult coursework
UK: Synonym for bachelor’s degree, signifying a 3–year program 8/
“Coursework”

US: All of the work you do for your classes
UK: Synonym for essay/paper/traditional written assignment; does not include exams, presentations, general studying, etc. 9/
“Dissertation”

US: A thing you write for your PhD and generally not for other degrees
UK: Any thesis, including at the undergraduate and master’s levels /10

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More from @AnnaMeierPS

May 26
The Collins family insists that their philosophy is not racist. Here is a thread of white supremacist tells that jumped out in this article alone. 1/ theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/a…
First, the kids' names: Octavian George, Torsten Savage, Titan Invictus. Clear allusions to a) Rome, a common source of alleged "white perfection" for white supremacists & the manosphere, and b) Scandinavia (even starker alleged narratives of purity). 2/
Second, Malcolm's claim that birth rates are a problem in countries where "women have rights." Whether he recognizes this as misogynistic or not, it's parroting some of the more violent manosphere language. Strike 2 on that front. 3/
Read 9 tweets
Nov 28, 2023
Last week, I helped run a session on time management for PhD students. A quick summary thread of the big discussion points, in case others might find them useful: 🧵 1/
FIRST, not everyone works the same way. Some people can, & should, write every day. Some can’t! I am a “burst” writer, in that I churn out large pieces of writing in concentrated chunks of time & then do nothing for days. (Thanks to @RChloB for the “burst” language!) 2/
By the time you get to grad school, you probably know how you work. Trying new work patterns is totally cool; forcing yourself into someone else’s isn’t. Communicate to your advisor how you work so they know what to expect. (If they demand you change, that’s a them problem.) 3/
Read 13 tweets
Jul 10, 2023
First submission: December 2020
Publication: July 2023

This one has been a journey, folks, but here we go: “Racism By Designation Making Sense of Western States’ Nondesignation of White Supremacists as Terrorists.”

Here’s what it’s about. 1/ tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
Worldwide, very few white supremacist orgs are officially listed by govs as "terrorists," & none before 2016. This limits the policy instruments govs can use against them, but more fundamentally, it signals what kinds of violence are deemed aberrant and which are acceptable. 2/
We argue, however, that what’s actually going on is institutional racism: when it comes to white supremacist orgs, designation is at best window-dressing to pacify particular constituencies, and at worst a distraction from continuities in counterterrorism policy. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Mar 6, 2023
This term, my students are doing “think-alouds”: 15–minute audio recordings of their reflections on the first few weeks of content. Listening to these has taught me a lot about how they view their academic work. 🧵 1/
1. On the whole, students struggle to view assignments as interconnected or building on each other. They seem to see these as discrete tasks—almost tickbox exercises. Students in the past have told me things like “I only need 1 week of class for a specific essay prompt.” 2/
I try to give assignments that are more about synthesis, but that's a skill & if students aren’t building it, these assignments catch them off-guard in their 3rd yr (when they get to me). The lack of scaffolding, concerns abt “self-plagiarism” (ugh), etc. in the UK contribute. 3/
Read 14 tweets
Jan 24, 2023
Writing my first lecture of spring term today, and while I don’t think I’m an expert by any means, there’s a process I’ve found to make it easier that I’ll share in case it’s helpful for others.

It’s not like we’re taught how to do this! 1/
Caveats first: we’re going to bracket the “are lectures an effective pedagogical tool” discussion for another time. I usually lecture to groups of 50–75 third-year politics students. Everyone's style is different & what works for me may not work for you.

Alright, onwards. 2/
Before touching the lecture itself, I review the readings. If I don’t know the topic intimately, I do more reading. Sometimes I have to (re)teach myself some history. I make notes & get a feel for what I should be covering. This part is fun because I’m learning. 3/
Read 16 tweets
Dec 7, 2022
There are lots of threads in this story. Let's pick them out:

-massive involvement of former soldiers & others w/ military training—Germany has a massive problem w/ white supremacist sympathies in its security forces w/ this being just the latest case. 1/ nytimes.com/2022/12/07/wor…
-involvement of COVID conspiracy theorists—in German, Querdenken, or "lateral thinkers"—has been reported alongside QAnon-inspired conspiracists. Links b/n these groups & the broader far-right are well-known. 2/ tagesschau.de/investigativ/r…
-role of the Reichsbürger (loosely, the German version of sovereign citizens) in feeding on anti-government sentiments and contributing to neo-Nazi ideologies in these spaces. Germany banned a Reichsbürger group for the first time in 2020. 3/
Read 6 tweets

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