#Dispatches: How Did the Coup Attempt Impact Your Academic Work?

#Dispatches From the Frontlines series crowdsources questions to get a broad survey of how the academic community is coping with various challenges.

This week’s question  – How did the coup attempt impact your thoughts or work as an academic?

Find next week’s question and form to share your response here!

Glossary:

• SS – Social Sciences
• Hum – Humanities
• STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

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I’m doubling down on integrating anti-racist material into my teaching. STEM is not apolitical. (Asst prof, STEM)

I’ve been feeling very defeatist about the value of my work and the point of doing it. I don’t yet know if this will meaningfully effect my future plans. (Postdoc, STEM)

My advisor has previously advised me to limit the news I consume, since the state of our republic often makes me unproductive. So I am upset with this coup attempt but guilty for taking time to watch Wednesday and Thursday and not being very productive since I’ve been so anxious. My department is not very understanding of emotional distress. They have no accommodations in place for the pandemic, so I am still expected to present my candidacy project and complete my QE this semester. I don’t know how I won’t fail, when my mental health is suffering. (Grad student, SS)

After seeing the events of last week I realized my class on the anthropology of science and technology couldn’t follow the general social issues format I had planned for this spring. It’s a new prep and throwing out the work I’ve already done isn’t great but the new syllabus I constructed better reflects key issues with Covid and social media which are going to be important to students to understand.  (Grad student, SS)

To my fellow academics — be real. Cut the BS. It’s impossible to focus in a pandemic let alone amidst political instability, social unrest and threats of public violence. Overachieving publically on Twitter isn’t helpful. It’s not human. Your students are watching (and struggling to survive). Let’s remind ourselves of the times we’re in and how academia can be a part of the solution and not continuing to live what many seem as a privileged and out of touch life. (Grad student, SS)

It is made it very hard to concentrate on anything. What’s even more frustrating is how I feel I’m expected to function and be productive as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on in our country. I feel like screaming sometimes “This is not important right now!” (asst prof, Professional field)

It is difficult to work and focus, I’m trying to work on tenure track job documents and papers, and who cares about some little paper if you might lose what benefits of democracy and freedom you’ve had to flee the country at any time? (Grad student, STEM)

It’s made it quite difficult to focus. I’m irritated because one of my professors is an absolute ass about the coup attempt (he compared a psychologist being academically critiqued for his theory to “a bunch of hotheads impeaching him”), and of course he’s the one who’s had tenure the longest. I feel like we’re all just pushing through, but pushing through during this AND a pandemic is just ridiculous. None of the work we’re doing right now matters that much and we need to acknowledge that. (Grad student, SS)

I’ve stopped working because of stress. I study fascism (in part) and seeing this has made it difficult to function. (Asst prof, Hum)

It has been very hard to concentrate on my work with all of the news. I had already shifted my focus in my work to look at the impact of racism in substance use disorder treatment and the protective factors of community and relationships in healing from the same, and these events have deepened my commitment to this work. (Postdoc, SS)

Hard to focus and work, worried about my students, many of whom are from minoritized, Black, Lgbtqi+, first gen, and immigrant groups; also worried about my kid, who goes to a super liberal school in a very red state  (Tenured prof, Hum)

I am exhausted. How can anyone be creative or thoughtful right now? What’s wrong with me that I am completely flattened by the pandemic and insurrection and election crap and other people seem to be full steam ahead on pubs and grants and things? (Asst prof, STEM)

As one of the only Americans in my program (in Europe), I find myself being the go-to apologizer/explainer. It’s been a regular role since 2016, but I’m increasingly at a loss for words especially since the events at the Capitol. I don’t think my colleagues realize it’s still my lived reality – I grew up in DC and have family in the area that I worry for. I had to push two major deadlines back because I could not focus and was constantly checking the news and speaking with family…My department was largely helpful and understood. Have seen a major uptick in American academics asking about moving permanently to Europe, and just a tiny bit worried about how this will impact my job prospects once I finish my PhD if the market is flooded by more senior academics fleeing an unstable political climate.  (Grad student, SS)

I work at a private high school where the main goal of many parents is to get their kids into US universities, primarily in STEM programs. We have a lot of POC students (not many Black tbc) and we are actively working to find other options for our students. Some international (non US) schools are really going to benefit from the work to keep our students away from America. On a personal note as an expat I am pretty horrified and actually starting to feel like an exile. Between white supremacist extremists and uncheck COVID I can’t see a time when I can ever go back. It’s scary and disheartening. (Non-ac, SS)

I am furious that we are supposed to somehow work through all of this like it’s NBD. I mean I was in a work meeting while the Capitol was being stormed and folks were just chatting away about planning when there was a literal coup that they briefly acknowledged going on. WTF! No government agencies delayed due dates, despite the horror that I felt that nearly overwhelmed me. I guess white supremacists threats aren’t as big of a deal as peaceful protests last summer. So I didn’t sleep and I’ve been a wreck and yet forced to work 18 hr days for 2 proposals (one due 1/15) and the other (2/3). I just want to scream but what is the point. And I feel shitty about being overwhelmed because at least I have a job and a salary and I’m not worrying about paying my bills (well any more than normal) and I know there are tons of people dealing with all this and precarity. But idk how much longer I can keep the plates spinning, because I’m not convinced these treasonous assholes are going to go crawl back into the sewer after Biden is in office. What if we’re in this rolling hell for a while? Idk if I have the wherewithal to keep producing at the level required to keep my job… and in industry I absolutely have to produce. I’m back to thinking about what happens if I fail out as soft-money. What’s my back up and how do I prep for that? So yeah, not good is basics where I’m at and I’m feeling extra raw because men treat me like I’m “hysterical “ because I can’t just ignore current events and be a robot. (Non-ac, STEM)

The US coup has been very distracting, impacting on my work output on manuscripts that I really need to get out in the next 3 months for grants and upcoming tenure application. CNN is on constantly in the background. I was just as distracted for the first 4 months of Trump’s presidency. Although I am Canadian, I am worried about my US friends and colleagues and about the potential danger/damage from own Canadian-grown right-wing fundamentalists. (Asst prof, STEM)