PART 1: THE RESEARCH STATEMENT This is about 'WHAT is it that you want to do, why this PLACE/PI specifically, why are YOU the relevant person to be doing THIS'. Standard structure: There is no one right way to do this, but here is a good breakdown:

Aw man I wish academics had headlines like this. “Stephen Aguilar (existential dread) is not expected to write today, per @mpolikoff.bsky.social”

I keep having this conversation with colleagues. We need to make it obvious to students that revision means success, not failure, as a writer. 1/

If I’m doing the numbers right the programs they are consolidating here (including DRK12 and ECR) had over $100M in combined funding allocated. This anticipates $30M. This isn’t death by a thousand cuts. This is one enormous cut.

🚨 Major shake-up in NSF funding for K-12 STEM ed: Caps proposals at $750K max for 3 years. Prior cap used to be $5M up to 5 years for some programs. Archives several existing programs (DRK-12, AISL, CSforAll, TD, parts of ECR:Core). Combines into broad program with much lower expected # of awards.

🧪 New study: Learning about economic impact of NIH funding motivates action to oppose funding cuts. Evidence from two preregistered, randomized experiments with >5,000 U.S. adults. Similar change for liberals and conservatives. Preprint from @asinclair.bsky.social et al: osf.io/preprints/ps...

So excited to see this work with @jennaalton.bsky.social and @andreicimpian.bsky.social in press!

In a second, we form expectations about the likely traits and behaviors of people we meet. How does this ability develop? How do others’ perceived gender factor into it? I’m thrilled to share a new paper now in press at Cognition with @andreicimpian.bsky.social and‪ @lucaspbutler.bsky.social. 1/6

On why Harvard shouldn't "negotiate" with Trump (by @ryanenos.bsky.social & Levitsky) - www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

NIH BREAKING NEWS NIH BREAKING NEWS Hearing from multiple sources that an email went out late yesterday afternoon Effective immediately: Please do not terminate any additional grant projects. Please pull back all grant projects that are in the cue to be terminated.

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? Learning styles are not a thing.

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All universities need to fight together or someday this could happen to them.

AERA and other scientific societies sent a letter to Congress today expressing concern about imminent threats to NSF’s structure and operations. The letter urges Congress to use its oversight authority to ensure the NSF can carry out its statutory mission. aas.org/sites/defaul...

I spent five weeks talking to federal workers about knowledge loss and brain drain across the federal government, and its implications, both right now and for decades to come. Their stories are frightening, but I think it's important to know what we're facing: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A must read: It's not just higher education, it really is an attack on the predominant ways of learning, knowing, and decision-making that of the last 75+ years.

BREAKING: Judge Burroughs has granted Harvard's restraining order, barring the administration from terminating its foreign student population. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Absolute madness. And yes, the destruction and cruelty are the point. Watch this one closely. If this actually holds (which I keep hoping it couldn’t possibly) it’ll be a model for bringing all of US higher education to its knees.

Here's a useful term to capture today’s global atmosphere: hypernormalization, a Soviet-era concept that describes a reality where everything feels broken yet oddly normal. www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-...

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow. It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America. All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research. NSF Astronomy was cut by 53% Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79% Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO. #GiftLink ⚛️🔭 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Does anyone know if universities are filing lawsuits contesting NSF/NIH grant *terminations* in addition to the indirect cost cuts? The only information I can find is about the latter, but I would think there ought to be at least some standing to challenge terminations of already-awarded grants, no?

Money quote: "To watch these changes unfold without naming them for what they are is to participate in a collective amnesia about how knowledge infrastructures shape power relations." time.com/7285045/resi...

So happy to see the official announcement of this generous gift to support the important work of our Maryland Democracy Initiative @umaryland.edu! Thrilled to continue my small part of this collaborative endeavor! today.umd.edu/a-vote-for-c...

This is just all kinds of awful www.science.org/content/arti...

NEWS: I just led 112 of my colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump Administration on their funding freeze of the National Science Foundation. Cutting off NSF funding threatens vital research, stalls innovation, and risks ceding global scientific leadership to China.

Finally. My fellow Fulbright Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk has been freed. My country jailed her for over a month as—let’s be perfectly frank—a political prisoner. Why? Because she wrote a mild oped that criticised Israel in her student newspaper. I've thought of her every day.

🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants. Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.

Also literal brain drain: I’m way less productive than before and all the stupidity is killing my capacity for deep work (also my soul)

Grateful for the incredible love and support at #SRCD2025 in response to the injustices and tragedies of recent deportations. I hope more conferences continue to stand in solidarity with scholars facing such hardships across the field. #DevPsych #PsychSci #Psysci

Lisa Diamond giving a barnstorming call to action for developmental scientists to rise and meet the moment to support trans youth #SRCD2025

The Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants. www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

For those with despair about today's extreme proposed funding cuts for NIH, NSF, NASA, NOAA, etc... remember: CONGRESS 👏 SETS 👏 BUDGET 👏 LEVELS Today's news is simply just the President's **request**. Tell your elected representatives to REJECT this assault on science and scientific training.

Pause for a minute to appreciate the valiant Program Officers still at NSF, who are doing their utmost to preserve what they can. They’re in the stinking rotting belly of the beast, laboring on our behalf. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to them

Excited to be organizing this symposium with @samuelronfard.bsky.social's support! 😊 Check out our session #SRCD25, Friday, 11.30 am, and hear from Joshua Confer, @anahidmodrek.bsky.social, and @lucaspbutler.bsky.social! @janengelmann.bsky.social

Excellent thread on some of the projects cancelled because of the illegal NSF grant terminations.

Harvard FTW: "The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government."

Disappeared Tufts Human Dev. PhD student Rumesya Ozturk is also a graduate of Teachers College - she’s a dev. psychologist studying children’s media & prosocial development. She also bakes without recipes and binge-watches cartoons. She is our colleague & she was abducted on the street w/ our tax $.

I feel like we need to form a League of Relatively Normal People, and our agenda should be things like: --Canada's cool, leave them be --Lot of smart people at universities, that's a plus --We're scared of getting cancer, so let's research it --Fewer floods and wildfires would be nice

This doesn’t even seem like (much of? any of?) an exaggeration. If they can withhold federal funding unless universities comply with demands I’m not sure where the limit is. It’s bad enough to say “yeah, don’t expect any fed funding on Topic X the next 4 years” but this is way beyond that.

If the government can do this to universities, we don't live in a free society. Five alarm fire.

This is completely fucked up. I know everything is fucked up, but THIS is why universities need to stand up and fight, not cave like Columbia did. NOTHING will satisfy them, and all the capitulation just leads to more demands and humiliation.

Worth a read if you think, like I do, American universities are amazing and a bedrock investment for our future success. But that also means some changes need to take place… apple.news/Ao2mFsxDQTr-...

The platform I run, Children Helping Science, is supported almost entirely by US government science funding, both directly and in collaboration with CHS researchers. Here's the note we sent to users today - we need help gathering your stories and citations! Submit here: forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZ...

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As legal permanent residents, green card holders are protected by the first amendment. Clear and pretty unambiguous precedent: firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/alie...