Dr. Erika Alpert @ErikaAlpert@scholar.social

https://supchina.com/2019/08/07/uyghur-love-in-a-time-of-interethnic-marriage/

In case you feel like getting really mad about how Uyghur women are being portrayed as ideal brides, with Uyghur men "safely" locked away in concentration camps.

https://twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/1164233656799506433 < thread deconstructing Monopology: Socialism

And then Ted Cruz got mad at him
https://www.mediaite.com/news/ted-cruz-got-mad-at-guy-who-said-monopoly-socialism-edition-board-game-was-stupid/

I've done so damned little of my real job (teaching, writing) today, because of the time I spent researching university policies in order to see what can be done about some really transphobic, hateful language one of our students was subjected to from a staff member.

Even if the time put into it is objectively not that much, the mental burden of dealing with it all is just completely bloody exhausting.

But how much worse is it for my students? So onwards.

Solidarity is inviting a sad friend to write and weep together. We've both had hard years personally, but the wheels don't stop turning for either of us.

Said sad friend is one of like... three people I can envision meaningfully socializing with in the semester I need to finish my book manuscript, and I don't know how to politely tell literally everyone else in the world to please stop inviting me to things.

It counts as meeting my page goals if it turns out I got extra pages because I had my formatting messed up and needed to be writing US Letter instead of A4?

That counts, right?

There's probably a healthy way to write a monograph but I sure as fuck don't know what it is.

So excited about the undergrads I'm advising this year. Tinder AND GRINDR projects!

WELL HELLO it's a new semester now and being online seems like a good idea again 👋🏻

In addition to all of this I've also checked in with people from past fieldwork. And working on article edits now.

Ye gods this has been a productive trip. I'm so much harsher to myself than I deserve—but as I was typing to my partner earlier, there's

"...something about the constant temporary feelings, and the rush to see people, and the never really getting to settle in"

that always makes me a mess, and makes it easier to be unkind to myself.

So in 6 weeks I will have conducted 10 interviews—5 check-ins and 5 new. Hopefully maybe a couple others but we'll see. + Lovely academic and fun times with academics in these parts.

I think, on the whole, that this is not bad.