Read on Twitter
Thread: This echoes with me a lot right now. I was supposed to be ending my “summer of travel” today. Between my @FulbrightPrgrm trip to South Africa in May ( @ElbieHenning), @mathcogsociety in Dublin in June, a July trip to Wales, & 2 DC trips, summer was going to be busy 1/21 https://twitter.com/RickSteves/status/1279454759095865345
Add to this, the trip I did take to Chile in Jan (to present work & build collabs), I would have been to 4 continents this year. Someday, I’d like to go to all 7 (early math in Antarctica?). But as @RickSteves notes in his blog, it’s not the # of places, it’s the people . 2/21
I learn A LOT from my international colleagues (and not just what words mean very different things in the US vs. UK, right @CamillaKGilmore?). For example, structural facets of schools & classrooms vary across (and w/in) country— “normative” dev is very much context specific 3/21
Even our measurement is very context dependent. For example, a common item for measuring math anxiety in the US is asking about their anxiety while having to calculate a tip. Doesn’t work if you’re in a country that doesn’t do tips (and pays service staff a living wage). 4/21
These conversations that you have in person, that make you think about broader contextualization of your work, force you (in a good way) to think beyond your small research program. “Universal” assumptions or baseline assumptions about what “people” do may no longer hold 5/21
I’ve been fortunate to develop a lot of connections internationally (too many to name). It takes time & repeated opportunities to start these collaborations...back in 2013, @DrVicSimms and I met at @SRCDtweets & had a great discussion about research, agreed we should collab 6/21
We were both pretty busy with building up our research programs (I was a new assistant professor at the time) and things just move slowly. In 2015 at the next SRCD, we again agreed we should collab, but made more concrete plans. We still moved slowly and then decided...7/21
...we have to finish this before SRCD in 2017! We did. Now we have other collabs in progress (home math environment related) and with @AbbieCahoon too! 8/21
I was fortunate to spend part of last fall in Leuven w/ @Bert_De_Smedt and @cipt_kul and the amazing students, postdocs, researchers, & faculty @leuvenresearch. The climate and ways of seeing first hand how different research groups function is so beneficial for my own work 9/21
Similarly, when @tuebang invited me to Tuebingen in 2018, I met and got to know folks whose work I had read, but follow more closely now bc of rich, in person discussions. For example, @krzysztofcipora @Moji_Soli who recently did a wonderful MCLS online talk on open science 10/21
In 2014, I even had the opportunity to go to Shanghai with @SaraAnneSchmitt and Chenyi Zhang to build a collaboration at East China Normal University. 11/21
It also goes the other way too where this past year I have been able to host people here @LifeAtPurdue. I had a visiting grad student from Norway for part of last fall and @DrGallagherM came in January on a grant he was awarded. 12/21
I love having ppl visit our @pearl_center group. I hope we can host ppl again soon. Please let me know if you’re interested in coming—we can try to find a way to work it out! (Note to Americans: pls wear a mask. If we all do @Twitter said we can have an edit button). 13/21
I’m also a bit sad because we had an @NSF conf grant awarded ( @cbhornburg @Dr_JoyceLin @elitkow @GiuliaBorriell1 & Melody Kung are co-PIs) in January to host an international group of researchers here at Purdue in Oct for a mini conf/workshop on the home math environment...14/21
It would have been great to bring so many people here. Now we’re working on shifting to a virtual workshop (which will still be awesome) but it won’t be the same. I was hoping to bring ppl over to my house for a dinner on the deck, but it will have to wait until later. 15/21
I do have to say that I am grateful for the work @mathcogsociety and @MCLStrainee have been doing to keep ppl connected during this time with weekly presentations. It is really nice to see people’s faces and names, even if it is just over zoom. 16/21
Just a quick throwback, I first caught the travel bug after studying abroad in Florence, Italy in 2003 and got to do a bit of traveling around the country in addition to taking classes. Yes, there was once a time when I did not have a beard. 17/21
I truly miss the chance to see and connect with all of my international colleagues and friends. I hope we’re able to have in person conferences again (remember, Americans, PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASKS!!!!). 18/21
But, despite missing out on all this travel, I am grateful for the chance to have more connections (though different) with people here. My lab is fantastic...I have 2 of the best grad students ever ( @KingYemimah and @laurwesterberg) who are brilliant! 19/21
Our college has been hosting weekly research & coffee online get togethers (thanks @JessikaHuber!) where I’ve learned so much more about what other ppl in @PurdueHHS are doing. 20/21
Most importantly, I have had more time with @AshleyMPurpura and our kids which (though impossible to get work done) has been amazing. I should also note that I learned more about random animals (thanks #wildkratts) and @Pokemon than I ever would have imagined. 21/21
