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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana

@zraresearch.bsky.social
8.6K followers 823 following 574 posts

Former tweeter. Sociologist of racial inequality, urban studies, and culture. Baltimorean always, no matter where I actually live. Knitter. Creator of practicalphd.net. I skipped sad and got angry. Always speaking for me.

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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I’ve been writing articles for a while now, but nothing has made me feel like a writer like working on my book. It’s all writing, but I get to be a writer in that one space somehow. Can’t explain it.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I’m resetting during my sabbatical to take care of myself first: practicalphd.net/2026/09/24/r...
practicalphd.net
Resetting During Sabbatical
Now that I have given my university 6 years of teaching and service, I am finally on sabbatical! As is expected, I’m using the time for research, but I’m also using the time as to reset…
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I’ll take a writing problem over an idea problem any day! Easy fix!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Things I hate about Outlook: 1) reactions: why do I get an email summary instead of making them easy to see when they come in? 2) folders: so what about something where more than one folder applies?? 3) email chains: why do they get broken up so I can’t see one conversation?? 4) search function
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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Trump is already planning for the 20*30* Census. This time, not only does he want to stop counting noncitizens, he wants to stop counting race and ethnicity. Can't have an unconstituional racial gerrymander if you pretend not to know where Black people live. My latest in @thenation.com
thenation.com
The Trump Plan to Cook the Census Books
From adding a citizenship question to not tracking race and ethnicity, the administration wants to minimize Black and brown political power.
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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Zero new NSF grants in sociology, anthropology, political science and economics. The agenda of this US govt is to stop documenting the society in which we live while they are destroying it. We will find other ways to track and explain our times and fight to restore our research funding.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This is exactly why I side eyed hard at the emails and meetings encouraging us to continue to apply to federal grants last year. Why??? They are not funding the kind of work I do…
static.klipy.com
My Lord
ALT: My Lord
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Writing is thinking!!!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Just a reminder that part of outward facing contributions is maintaining a website that shares insight into the black box of all things PhD: practicalphd.net
practicalphd.net
practical phd
a transparent source for all things PhD
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
With a semester of sabbatical starting shortly, I’m not thinking about my syllabi right now. I am thinking about what boundaries to set to protect my time and what is a reasonable set of goals for the semester.
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Bex is WEAK on crime @bextraordinary.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I struggle similarly with improving conditions in prisons without undermining the mission of abolition. I understand that renovating prisons or building new ones delays just emptying & closing them, but also hear directly from those inside that they need relief *now*.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I genuinely struggle with this as someone who studies and cares about low-income Black neighborhoods. Investment is necessary, but could also create a space residents can’t live in. The problem is the lack of protections for those long-term residents. I can’t support investment without protection!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
What someone wears to class isn’t going to make or break their grade. Being exposed to the course content is!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
What “summers off” looks like: - 5 comp exams - 1 dissertation defense - biweekly check ins with group of grad students - dept committee meeting - board meetings - prep and organizing for soc conference circuit - writing on 3 articles and a book manuscript - analysis for 2 articles - reading
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 22/07/2026
When power is rooted in disinformation, data become a threat. apnews.com/article/eeoc...
apnews.com
US civil rights agency moves to end demographic data collection after 60 years
The Trump administration is seeking to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment ...
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Just met with a grad student and helped them broaden their research questions. They asked “how do you do that so quickly?!” Practice my friend…just start practicing.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Reflecting on my personal experience and advice I give grad students about the big picture: practicalphd.net/2026/07/15/g...
practicalphd.net
Getting to the Big Picture
One of the hardest things for some researchers (including myself) is getting to the big picture.  This might be an overarching research question for your research, a way of describing the research …
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Lauri Donahue @lauridonahue.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/o...
Large language models are not reasoning machines. They’re plausibility engines. It’s not just that they don’t test their outputs to make sure they’re correct or logical, or that they fail to do so in certain instances. They can’t, and they’ll never be able to on their own. They can only assess which answers are probable, based on the data on which the models have been trained. And that holds true whether they’re trained on the full breadth of human output or only on peer-reviewed scientific articles. It’s baked into the way they operate.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Translating from Stata to R is coming along. Got stuck on a collapse command in my Stata code, but taking some time to read to figure it out.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Committed to recoding a dataset from Stata to R this summer to really learn R. Today’s work started slow and I was stuck quickly, but I figured it out (order matters! Duh!) and made good progress! Slowly but surely!
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Baltimore Beat @baltimorebeat.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
People living in this city are often told who they are, often by people who haven’t bothered to learn anything about them. At Baltimore Beat, we know that our job isn’t just to educate — it’s to listen to and amplify the people who are already here. baltimorebeat.com/2025-impact-...
baltimorebeat.com
2025 Impact Report
People living in this city are often told who they are, often by people who haven’t bothered to learn anything about them. At Baltimore Beat, we know that our job isn’t just to educate — it’s to…
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
It’s easy to create stress in an academic job. Even taking tenure out of the equation, there’s always more to do and it’s easy to feel like it’s all a priority and all should have been done yesterday. Putting that kind of pressure on work that really doesn’t have a deadline is something we can fix.1
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Proud to announce my very first article award!! Honorable mention for the SREM Oliver Cromwell Cox Award!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 This one is for the village that helped me untangle the complex story that became an article about controlling images of neighborhoods. academic.oup.com/socpro/artic...
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Do foundations post statistics anywhere so you can see how many folks have applied in the past? I’m imagining a similar report to what some peer review journals produce with number of submissions, rejections, R&Rs, and acceptances.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
With my book manuscript in, I’ve been taking a much needed break! Today involved doing nothing!! Lounging! It has been fabulous!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Just sent a draft of my BILF (book I’d like to finish) off to the press editor!!! It’s a real thing that’s finally happening!!! 😭🎉😭🎉😭🎉
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I don’t have it all figured out (like how do I get a gray color scheme???), but I am making maps in R!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
A colleague suggested this could be the product of AI use…👀👀👀
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Gotta love when a reviewer (not me) recommends my work to an author! Also does the author think I’m that reviewer and not me? 😂😂😂
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
It’s very interesting to see mischaracterizations of my research pop up in the citations…also how some scholars completely avoid engaging with my methodological contributions…hmmm…
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Y’all!! This book is really coming together!!! I can’t wait for the next phase in the process and being closer to sharing it with the world!
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Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Sociology folks: If you're interested in having a conversation about the @soc4pal.bsky.social boycott, show up tomorrow morning to talk to some of the organizers! Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Sociologist 4 Palestine event flyer "Against Genocide: What Do We Do About It?" May 27 @1130am Eastern https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/353QJA1ORW6i0j5ZqkD8mg#/registration
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Just spent a week serving as a mentor for a group of amazing graduate students studying topics around poverty and policy. It reminded me of a workshop I participated in as a graduate student years ago. Full circle moment!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Grades in!! Happy summer!!!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I only caught one of the witty 2000 hip hop references at graduation, but whoever came up with them deserves a raise!
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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
This year, I’ve made more time for reading. I built it into my teaching, figured out how to prioritize it for the work I’m doing on book (special shout to driving the kiddo places for an easy time to read a book), and tried a new way of notetaking that is working. It’s brought so many new ideas!
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I keep getting suggestions for grad programs like I don’t already have 2 MAs and a PhD…
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Heading to the library to make myself pick up a book in person so I can peruse the section the book is in. Might be leaving with more than just the one.
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit and sunglasses is sitting in front of a bookshelf and says the library is open .
ALT: a man in a suit and sunglasses is sitting in front of a bookshelf and says the library is open .
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 19/04/2026
How We Get Free Join @keeanga.bsky.social for a virtual conversation with Ula Y. Taylor about Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Thursday, April 23rd at 5:00 pm ET RSVP to attend:
events.haymarketbooks.org
Register Now – How We Get Free: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ula Y. Taylor – YouTube
How We Get Free: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ula Y. Taylor – YouTube, Thu Apr 23, 2026 - Join Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Ula Y. Taylor as they celebrate the new edition of How We Get Free: Black Femi...
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
After dragging a bit on revising the intro chapter last week, I had a great writing day that made me feel back to my normal writing self. Onward and upward! Getting closer to a full and complete draft of this book manuscript!
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Making tenure count, for MSNOW I wrote about my employer, The University of Iowa, creating a center for intellectual freedom. It's a reactionary project built on decades of conservative propaganda about higher ed.
ms.now
Opinion | Beware conservatives promoting “intellectual freedom”
Victor Ray: This conservative lie about schools like mine is furthering authoritarianism
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The necessity to rush things out the door that came with being pretenure means I read things now like “damn, I wish I had cited this in that published article”…it is an unfortunate downside of the system.
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Student: I’m having trouble finding this newspaper article from a small local newspaper published in 1916 for the final project. Me:
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit and tie says challenge accepted in a restaurant
ALT: a man in a suit and tie says challenge accepted in a restaurant
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
This semester has been a lot. At first I thought it was the extra independent study I took on (that I an enjoying!). And then I realized it was that and a bunch of little things that had snuck up on me in service work in particular. It makes it harder to isolate and reduce when it’s 10 things, not 1
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
File under most random thing left in my classroom. And also I would have left those too! 😅😅
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Post-tenure I have been prioritizing getting back to the parts of the job that bring me joy: being a lifelong learner, playing in data, and reading broadly. The latter is hard to make time for, but I have opted to build it into my teaching with a discussion based class last semester with a broad 1/
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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Yup. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The ethnic cleansing of the US will destroy it | Heba Gowayed
Trump’s racist remarks on Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants reveal his vision for the US as a white Christian nation
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Tom Booker @tbooker1.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
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Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana @zraresearch.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
I am constantly addressing this issue in feedback on draft articles and in peer review. Your study is a case of some broader phenomenon language is way more stronger than no one has studied x group/place/etc. Tell me why I should care.
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