What are we even doing, really? kathetgedacht.com/2025/11/07/t...

"The mistake, however, is to presume – a priori – that animal communication is anything like ours. All too often we try to crowbar animal communication into a human-centric framework..." By Helen Pilcher @theguardian.com, with great examples. #animalcommunication #language #nature #anthropology

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"Het leven is vaak saai. Gelukkig maar!" Interview met Kat Van der Poorten in het septembernummer van Sonar (KU Leuven). Kat is de laureate van het eerste LAVA-scholarship en is tevens bestuurder in onze vzw. @kathetgedacht.bsky.social @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social

We are really grateful to everyone who made it so special. Thank you!! 💫 #ESEB2025

Found in the wild

Next call for our scholarship for openly autistic academics at (post)doctoral level in autumn 2025! We offer a grant that enables participation in an activity of choice relevant to their research. We also enable them to present their research at our symposium.

For the people attending @eseb2025.bsky.social asking about the scholarship for autistic researchers: @lavavzw.bsky.social (Autistic Adults' Reading and Advisory Group) just joined Bluesky!

"sequencing millions year old DNA is hard, but getting a major grant is even harder". Great talk this morning at #eseb2025 from Love Dalén, with a funny- but also important message: whether you are sequencing ancient DNA or applying for major grants, don't give up.

“When I talk about fish on Bluesky, people ask me questions about fish. When I talk about fish on Twitter, people threaten to murder my family because we’re Jewish.”

Global Strike for Gaza tomorrow - x.com/GermanPolygl...

Online now: Disability in ecology and evolution

Sometimes life really is Ghibli

Bonobos may combine words in ways previously thought unique to humans

I am tired of people who value decorum over democracy, politeness over people, & professionalism over integrity.

On International Women's Day, I highlight the need for leadership of women with disabilities in all national and EU policies, strategies and legislation. We need to #EndForcedSterilisation and ensure sexual and reproductive rights. We need rights, not violence as "protection". Nothing without us!

Dear universities, scientists, lawyers, farmers, workers, artists, doctors... Being silent won't protect you.

one curious feature of our particular dismal political era: some people have gotten so addicted to the particular vice signaling around empathy / concern for other people that they seem to see evidence that something will benefit others as evidence that it will harm them

Ik heb een nieuwe held, en ze heet Kat. @kathetgedacht.bsky.social won het allereerste LAVA scholarship voor een openlijk #autistische #onderzoeker. Kat is #pedagoog, #bioloog en #ervaringstaalkundige en wat ze , doet is van wereldniveau. Haar #acceptance #speech was dat ook. shorturl.at/uT78w

Kat Van der Poorten is the laureate of the first-ever Reading and Advisory Group of Autistic Adults scholarship (in Belgium). Read her speech! 💪 "I want to finish with that discomfort. Because true change only begins when we allow ourselves to feel that discomfort." Kat Van der Poorten, 2025

This speech is a rousing and beautiful defence of diversity and inclusion - do take a moment to give it a read!

Thank you all for sharing my speech all over the world! Keep valuing diversity in all its forms 🌺 kathetgedacht.com/2025/02/22/l...

Read Kat's acceptance speech, it was breathtaking.

To all people worried about all things US (and related): open.spotify.com/track/5oAeRf...

Proud to be the laureate of the first ever LAVA Scholarship for autistic researchers! Upon request: a link to the written version of my acceptance speech in Dutch, with English translation. kathetgedacht.com/2025/02/22/l... Thank you! I hope to honour this scholarship and the autistic community.

Today my postdoc presented on his NSF-funded project modeling the evolution of intersectional identity signaling, and my grad students sardonically dubbed it “The Last Hurrah of Quantitative Woke Studies.”

Check out my interview about being an autistic researcher in TREE's disability series: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... If you're a disabled researcher in ecology/evolution and want to share your own experiences, reach out to @aeastephens.bsky.social More voices = more change!

Minder van de pot gerukt dan het lijkt!

PhD position: Wild orangutan grammatical rules and the evolution of language. University of Warwick www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Een kerstverhaal over mijn worsteling met het interpreteren van de neurobiologische literatuur rond sequentiële informatieverwerking waarin ik de verwarring, de metaforen en mijn ongeduld probeer op een rijtje te zetten.