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Rachel K

@xrkulik.bsky.social
423 followers 596 following 817 posts

health policy and political science PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, studying the politics of data in American institutions. GEO steward. mixed race Chinese American. she/her

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Reposted by Rachel K
Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 13h
If you’re feeling like everything I’m saying is making it really hard to know how to interpret reporting numbers without a ton of context, then you’ve gotten the right takeaway.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
closing out the week with: - my first solo-authored R&R !! - a $3000 grant from Rackham graduate school for archival research - patio writing to finish a draft of another solo authored paper to circulate to mentors for comment
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
this is also at LEAST my third complete rewrite of the introduction.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
it's a "skim dozens of papers to write a single paragraph" type of day
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I've had the empirics for this paper written for literal months but it's fighting me so. hard. on structure.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I currently (somehow) have THREE regularly scheduled competeing seminars on Wednesday around lunchtime
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Reposted by Rachel K
Michael Shepherd @mshepruralpolitics.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Super interesting survey by @kff.org that is consistent with the findings of my book Rural Pain, Republican Gain. Rural voters are frustrated with healthcare and economic outcomes. But rural Republicans (the vast majority of rural people) still trust Republicans more than Dems on these issues.
press.uchicago.edu
Rural Pain, Republican Gain
An eye-opening look at how Republican policies have affected health outcomes in rural communities and why poor, rural white voters are turning to the Republican Party—not despite this harm, but becaus...
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Covid and flu shot, done! (Get your vaccines, folks)
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Reposted by Rachel K
Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 26/08/2026
(1) there's a generic "social science" call for the NSF GRFP (2) the SBE Directorate is NOT listed as one of the sponsoring organizations (3) POLITICAL SCIENCE IS NOT AN ELIGIBLE SOCIAL SCIENCE FIELD. (4) only 1st year grad students again www.nsf.gov/funding/init...
Social Sciences
Anthropology
Archaeology
Artificial Intelligence
Biological Anthropology
Computationally Intensive Research
Cybersecurity
Decision Making and Risk Analysis
Economics
Geography
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistics
Medical Anthropology
Quantum Information Science
Science and Technology Studies
Sociology
Urban and Regional Planning
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Man, that most recent Nicole Hannah jones article is a hard & important read
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Enjoyed Chicago, now stuck behind a broken switch on Amtrak… (The rail infrastructure in this country…)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Chicago is my happy place
A floor to ceiling bookshelf with political science books at Powells Chicago The Chicago skyline with Lake Michigan taken from the PointDumplings! Downtown Chicago with the Chicago river
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Reposted by Rachel K
سارة @sarahelazab.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I’m still not over the “Alternative Cultures” section with Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis next to books on CBD and freemasonry.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Appreciate a friend like @sarahelazab.bsky.social who’s as excited about wandering independent bookstores as me but… this one in Chicago is the strangest I’ve ever been to (and trust me, I’ve been to many)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Waiting for the train to Chicago to meet up with @sarahelazab.bsky.social !!! Can’t wait to catch up with a dear friend in my favorite American city
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
by high school i was smart enough to see straight through (and hate) hpmor so this is extra upsetting
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
completely appalling
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
making some edits on a paper that will probably improve it in practice (at least for the intended audience) but frustrate me in principle
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I’m so glad I read all of the books leading up to Nightwatch before starting Nightwatch because wooooow is it good. Discworld!!
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
A) this is bad B) this will go in my dissertation
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Reposted by Rachel K
Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Shout out to everyone who said it was just a temporary distraction and not a central organizing principle of modern fascism.
advocate.com
Elon Musk’s PAC makes transgender people its multi-million-dollar midterm target
America PAC is attacking Democrats in four competitive Senate races as the trillionaire prepares to spend at least $100 million helping Republicans.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
i am fully braced to read this article. fullllyyyyy braced
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pratchett is so so good at ragtag [complimentary] (Discworld is good at many things, but I have a soft spot for a ragtag cast of characters)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I am at APSA! I’ll be presenting dissertation work about the politics of measuring maternal mortality on a wonderful panel about data politics, with @philiprocco.bsky.social, @jaeyeonkim.bsky.social, and Sarah James. Join us for what should be a great discussion on Friday at 10 am
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
please save me from remote tech support for boomer parents (who I love very very much)
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Reposted by Rachel K
Erika McEntarfer @erikamcentarfer.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This change grants Commerce political appointees veto power over data and research releases by scientists and statisticians at NOAA, NIST, Census, and BEA.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
1.2 million deaths a year is complete nonsense, or requires an extremely misleading definition of "food-induced." Like, the US has about 3 million TOTAL deaths per year. He's classifying nearly half as food induced?
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Lancaster County Coroner Steve Diamantoni said the cause of death was not from the measles. The newborn died shortly after birth from a laceration of the spleen, although measles antibodies were present in postmortem testing, he said in an interview."
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
65 pages into Night Watch, and VIMES!! (That is all)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I'm really excited to present dissertation work at APSA for the first time, but it also seems really hard to present part of a dissertation monograph. Do I start with the framing and motivation for the book, or for the empirical case in the chapter?
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
it's 1 am so we don't think the emergency plumber will come out to look at my parents' sump pump, which has been blaring for hours... hopefully we don't wake up to a flooded basement I guess?
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
econjared.substack.com/p/the-govern... cool cool cool
econjared.substack.com
The Government Report That Made Me Stop Trusting Our Statistical Agencies
I’ve waved people off this degree of mistrust. I no longer can do so.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
gorgeous day for writing on a patio! Today: working on an R&R, APSA presentation, and emails/admin
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
As a scholar of government data, fascinating “It all tends to be the same data,” said Gifford. “If some app tries to tell you it has a fancier forecast, you roll your eyes a bit, because it all mostly comes from governments.”
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Important reporting on officially sanctioned transphobia. (And continuing misinformation coming from HHS)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I’ve been dissertating pretty frantically for over a month, so a book and a drink on a patio tonight is really lovely (Reading world building science about how goblins are fungus in Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, but might have to switch to a book on kindle when it gets too dark!)
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Reposted by Rachel K
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I like this notetaking example. it is a good case of how gender works. Notetaking has never been about producing a transcript. It is a bureaucratic skill in the 20th c. organixarion because it is SENSEMAKING. Those women socialized to take notes? They have been doing men’s metacognition for them
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
well this is horrifying. (and editorial choices were made) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The Children a Scientist Took Home
Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for his work on a disease in Papua New Guinea. But his biggest experiment was on the children he took back to the U.S.
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I was going to share a dissertation chapter today that needs a few more hours of writing, but a bee or wasp just stung my palm so I might have to be done for the day… (Ouch!)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
the Gates Foundation just funded IHME for another 10 years (over 540 *million*, the biggest philanthropic donation to the University of Washington in its history) and I have thoughts
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
accent is genuinely not terrible, which is a real compliment! (tonal languages are *hard* if you don't grow up speaking them) Also just a really nice gesture, can we get more leftist politicians who know how to create good vibes instead of listening to the consultant class?
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
on the edge of my seat for the second week running because of politics (a Hong loss would break my heart. I was so mad not to be in her Senate district when I lived in Madison)
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
so does Darline Graham have *any* other qualifications than "Lindsay's sister" and "endorsed by Trump?"
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
This is incredibly bleak
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Reposted by Rachel K
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas @ebonyteach.blacksky.app · 05/08/2026
He's electable if we elect him.
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Reposted by Rachel K
Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 05/08/2026
Body isn't even cold yet
Mallory McMorrow
@MalloryMcMorrow

Congratulations to 
@AbdulElSayed
 on winning the Michigan Democratic primary to be our nominee for US Senate. Abdul has my full endorsement and support.

This was a brutal primary (believe me, I know). And Trump and Mike Rogers are counting on us staying divided. Let's prove them wrong by beating Mike Rogers and taking our country back. 🇺🇸
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
still too wired to go to bed but pheeewwwwwww
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
good news from Missouri as I obsessively refresh MI results Kansas defeated its thinly veiled anti-abortion ballot measure too!
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
ignoring the senate primary at the moment to drop in and say that local Ann Arbor politics (mostly around development) continue to baffle me
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Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
How late am I staying up for this Michigan senate primary?
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