MA in Sociology, Research, and Practice

I caught myself rewriting my student's entire introduction last year. Again. For the third time that month. That's when it hit me: The skills that made me productive are now making me a bottleneck. Here's the mid-career trap nobody warns you about:

I'm obsessed with cognitive biases. A "cognitive bias" is a systematic error in thinking that destroys decision-making. 11 most powerful (and dangerous) cognitive biases I've found: 🧵 1. Survivorship Bias:

Most PhDs write thesis first, then extract papers. That's backwards. I finished PhD with 250-page thesis and zero publications. Then my mentor shared the 2+2 Publication Strategy:

There are largely two types of academics: A and B. Their worlds are so different, so insular they don't even know the other type exists. Type A: > Comes from a middle, upper-middle class family > Well-educated parents (with advanced degrees including PhDs) > Parents map out their kid's career trajectory > Parents teach academia's hidden curriculum: applications, admission essays, extracurriculars, and so on. > Send the kid to a "good" school (private or private tutoring) > Kid gets good grades > Goes to Ivy League or Oxbridge or a similar top school for undergrad > Decides to do a PhD > Gets into another top program in a top school because of top undergrad school, duh > Gets a well-connected supervisor during PhD > Gets a tenure-track job offer from another top university in the final year of PhD even before graduation because of the supervisor, duh > Fully understands the tenure clock > Publishes papers, monographs on time > Gets tenure > Thinks PhD is easy, tenure is easy, academia is easy > Marries a colleague in the same university > Has kids > The cycle repeats Type B: > Comes from a dysfunctional, working-class family > Parents who barely graduate high school > Parents with no idea what kind of education their kids need > Goes to a no-name shit school with underqualified teachers > Then goes to a community college or some such institution if lucky, joins the military if unlucky (KIA.exe) > Reads a lot, become autodidact, becomes a half-decent writer > Someone suggests, do a PhD, become a professor > Likes the idea of academic life, starts applying to PhD programs > Gets rejected from top programs because don't have good recommendation letters or connections > Goes to a third tier PhD program in a university located in the middle of nowhere > PhD stipend is not enough, has to work part-time to make ends meet > Lives in a shitty apartment, sometimes eats at the soup kitchen > Still works hard and publishes a bunch of papers > Thinks I'll write my way out of poverty > Sees a bunch of Type A PhDs in conferences, tries to "network" with them, Type A folks recognize Type B PhDs and stay away from them. > Defends PhD where the committee says this is excellent work and imminently publishable > Applies to tenure-track jobs left, right, and center. Gets rejected from everywhere > Idea of being unemployed with a PhD causes desperation > Gets a temporary teaching job, gets paid per course basis with no health benefits > Spends a few years as adjunct with semester to semester renewal of job contract > Barely survives, has to take up part-time jobs > Get a one-year postdoc, decides to turn PhD dissertation into a monograph in the hopes it will get tenure-track job > Postdoc ends, back to temporary adjunct jobs > Monograph stays incompelete, no time to work on it > Tries moving out of academia, is considered over-qualified > Reads social media posts by Type A academics saying PhD is easy, academia is easy > Thinks, what could I have done better?

100 Rules for Successful Completion of PhD. Here are the 100 essential rules that can make the difference. 1. Enjoy your doctoral studies 2. Open your mind 3. Develop your critical thinking skills 4. Have confidence 5. Be determined, dogged, and persistent 6. Be resilient 7. Manage the highs and lows 8. Focus 9. Be disciplined 10. Be methodological 11. Understand your philosophy 12. Don’t do too much teaching or grading 13. Look for help 14. Learn the literature 15. Take responsibility for your research 16. Talk to other doctoral students in your university 17. Find a study buddy 18. Learn from others 19. Understand the importance of finishing 22. Pick a research-active supervisor 23. Choose a supervisor who shares your research interests 24. Choose a supervisor you will get on with 25. Work with your supervisor for a time before registering 26. Maintain a good relationship with your supervisor 27. Check whether your supervisor is likely to stay in your university 28. Check out your supervisor 29. Understand the role of supervisor 30. Find a topic/research question that interests you 31. Avoid fad-du-jour topics 33. Put three bricks on the wall of knowledge 35. Choose a topic in an area you are likely to teach 36. Write a dissertation proposal 37. Write ten dissertation proposals 38. Summarise ten articles 39. Avoid the flounder factor 40. Have regular meetings with your supervisor 42. Take notes of your supervisor’s advice 43. Play tennis with your supervisor 44. Listen and respond to your supervisor’s advice 45. Have a doctoral-completion plan 46. Make sure your plan is comprehensive 47. Meet your own deadlines 48. Identify key milestones in your plan 49. Complete your course work as fast as possible 50. Become a world expert on your theory 52. Be familiar with your university’s policies on research 53. Find opportunities to present your work 54. Find opportunities to get feedback 56. Attend departmental seminars 58. Learn to write 59. Know how to make an argument 62. Start your dissertation with a table of contents 63. Look at Brennan’s (1998) template to begin your table of contents 65. Prepare a dissertation master document 66. Keep backup copies of your dissertation 67. Read a bit, write a bit; Write a bit, read a bit 68. Read other dissertations 69. Write (almost) every day 70. Choose a great title 72. Write a great abstract 73. Provide lots of signposts for your readers 76. Pay special attention to the first and last chapters 78. Complete a literature review 79. Judge what to put into appendices 80. Write to tell a story 82. Copy edit and proofread your dissertation 85. Your PhD examiner can help you to get published 87. Know your audience 88. Understand the purpose of a viva voce 90. Do a mock viva voce 91. Take notes of the questions 92. Be confident and authoritative 93. Defend but don’t be defensive 95. Publish your doctoral research 96. Play snakes and ladders 97. Enjoy your doctoral studies #phdlife #phdtips

Last month a PhD student of a colleague of mine almost got expelled for using AI. A reviewer flagged her literature review for AI detection. Journal editor threatened rejection and report. She didn't know which AI tools were safe. Neither did he. So I tested 12 literature review AI tools.

I keep this on my desktop: “Words are innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across the incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they’re no good anymore. “I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you’re dead.” Tom Stoppard

A student recently asked me for academic job market advice and I pulled up a slideshow from a few years ago. I don't think I've shared it, but it might be broadly useful. I think the advice almost entirely holds up. First part is about my time on the job market 1/3

Most academics stare at blank pages for hours. They wait for clarity before writing. They check email first. They convince themselves they need more research. All wrong. Writing creates clarity. Not the other way around. Here's the 20-minute routine that fixes this...

"Reunited: Family Separation and Central American Youth Migration" is available in English from the Russell Sage Foundation, available in Spanish on paperback, hardcover and kindle on Amazon, and also available as an audiobook in Spanish wherever you get your audiobooks.

Key stats about six major academic publishers Elsevier Founded:1880 Headquarters: Amsterdam Annual Revenue: $3.9 billion Publishes 2,900 journals a year Springer Nature Springer founded: 1842 in Berlin Nature founded: 1869 in London Merger: 2015 Headquarters: London, Berlin Annual Revenue: $2 billion Publishes 3,000 journals a year Taylor & Francis Founded: 1852 Headquarters: Abingdon, England Annual Revenue: 800 million Publishes 2,700 journals a year Wiley Founded: 1807 Headquarters: New York Annual Revenue: $1.8 billion Publishes 1,600 journals a year Wolters Kluwer Wolters founded in 1836 Mereger: 1987 Annual Revenue: $1.6 billion Headquarters: Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands Publishes 300 journals a year Sage Founded: 1965 Headquarters: New York Annual Revenue: $500 million Publishes 1,000 journals a year

This is bad news. This is very bad news. The US government has stopped the funding of PubMed, the most comprehensive database of biomedical literature. Why would you do this? This database it literally a matter of life and death.

Presentation of "Reunidos: Separación Familiar y Migración de Menores" en la Feria Universitaria del Libro 2025, Mexico, you can listen live here: youtube.com/watch?v=O6XzYn…

English version here: a.co/d/1ZlMsll

“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” ― Octavia E. Butler #AcWri #GetYourManuscriptOut #AmWriting

Fleeing hunger, corruption, and violence, Venezuelans seek safety—only to face new barriers in the U.S. Firsthand accounts from D.C.-area migrants reveal how U.S. immigration policy continues to fail those most in need. Read more here: aulablog.net/2025/07/31/fle…

"Migration and Migration Status: Key Determinants of Health and Well-Being." NEW Special Issue edited by Dr. Maria de Jesus and Dr. Ernesto Castañeda. Free e-book here: f.mtr.cool/asksdfgzws

"Migration and Migration Status: Key Determinants of Health and Well-Being." NEW Special Issue edited by Dr. Maria de Jesus and Dr. Ernesto Castañeda. Free e-book here: f.mtr.cool/lbpuiwhegm

Panel on immigration policies and their effects on communities and the economy. Thanks to all the panelists and co-sponsors. You can register here: f.mtr.cool/eoksplvnnh

ICYMI: @DrErnestoCast, @AmericanU @sociology_u prof. & director of the @AU_CLALS, co-authored an article for @ConversationUS about the U.S. immigration process. bit.ly/42xltHy @aumedia