Karen Benjamin Guzzo
@kbguzzo
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Director, Carolina Population Center, and Professor of Sociology at UNC. Mother. Wife. Dog owner. Stephen King addict. aka LEGO Karen. Tweets are my own.
Chapel Hill, NC
Joined April 2016
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When did academia lose sight of the fact that pursuing grants should happen bc you have a research idea that requires funding to carry out, rather than trying to come up with potentially fundable ideas bc you need to get grants?
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There are good, important ideas that get abandoned bc they don’t seem fundable. There are brilliant scholars who get sidelined for not securing funding. There are grants awarded to people who know how to play the grant game who have no business studying certain topics.
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On FB, I’ll be posting cute family pics from Thanksgiving.
On here, I’ll give you all the truth: my kids fought ruthlessly, my college freshman says she hates coming home, & I ended up crying.
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It’s official! So excited that, nearly 20 years after receiving my PhD from UNC, I will be returning this fall to join the Sociology Department & serve as the next Director of the Carolina Population Center.
We are *thrilled* to announce that
@kbguzzo
has been named the new director of the
@UNCPopCenter
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Reviewer 1: "Your hypotheses were't supported, but you still discussed the null findings of your key variables. Why not focus on something else?"
Us: "Um, b/c post hoc reframing is bad science, & null findings are important when you have a theoretical reason to expect a link."
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Can this be traced back to the defunding of public universities, forcing them to rely more on indirects to fund research endeavors? Seems plausible, but I’m not a higher ed expert.
But many academics feel that pressure, especially when there are soft money academic positions.
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At spouse's work party, folks didn't believe me that teens today are drinking less than when we adults were teens & that drug use isn't crazy growing. B/c no one likes a know-it-all, I'm proving I'm right on Twitter rather than sending them these graphs.
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Mandatory reporting aimed to stop severe child abuse. It punishes poor families instead.
See also
@DorothyERoberts
work on the subject. via
@nbcnews
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Who else immediately updates their CV when getting a manuscript acceptance email? I get such pleasure moving a paper from “works in progress” to “publications.”🎊🎉
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Going into the office to work now just seems like driving 30 minutes to sit at a different computer all day.
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Risky to say as director of a research center that relies on indirects to function, but this is a general observation.
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Reviewing manuscripts with fancy statistical models really demonstrates that one can be good at complex math but bad at basic logic & reasoning. If the sample is weird or your measures poorly constructed, advanced stat methods won’t save the paper.
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Wyoming limiting child marriage sparks Republican outrage
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My kids get endless joy from the fact that my name is middle-aged bossy white lady joke. Glad to see I'm trending!
#AndThenKarenSnapped
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I do love hearing what *marketing* professors have to say about the future of dating and mating. Let’s not waste time interviewing family scholars with expertise. That would just be silly.
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Officially a FULL professor!!! Thanks to my amazing colleagues
@BGSU_Sociology
, coauthors, friends, & family for all the support over the years. This feels good. 🍾 🎉 🎈
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I got a paper accepted at a top journal yesterday, I tried on jeans today & they still fit, & I found a sold out LEGO set online for its original price. My husband’s off all weekend. I’m feeling good!
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Guess what I just got? Official notice that my NICHD R03 has been funded! Woohoo!🍾🎉🪅
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I’m honored to take over the role from
@wmannin
, who’s transitioning to a new role at
@cfdr
. We’ve got exciting new things planned, & we have such a great group of affiliates.
We are pleased to announce that Karen Benjamin Guzzo is officially the new director of the Center for Family & Demographic Research!
@kbguzzo
is a family demographer and fertility scholar - and a huge advocate of population science.
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“Every dollar spent on SNAP turns into $1.73 in economic activity, compared to $1.36 for every dollar spent on federal aid to state governments and $1.29 for every dollar allocated for a payroll tax holiday.”
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When you decide that a cross-country move, a new job, starting a commuter marriage, and sending one kid off to college and another to a new high school all in less than a year isn’t crazy enough, you get a puppy. This little sweetie will be coming home with us in 5 weeks!
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Who's got two thumbs & just got her 50th peer-reviewed manuscript acceptance?
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@cwalterswrite
It wasn’t received poorly! It’s super, duper rare to get an acceptance or even minor revisions on a first submission. In the 50 pubs I have, I think only 1 was a conditional acceptance on a first submission. As a deputy editor, I don’t think I’ve ever given one.
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Academic life in a nutshell: start morning by making list w/ 5-6 tasks for the day. Cross off 2-4 by end of the day. Finish day by copying the unfinished tasks to a new list & adding 2-4 tasks for tomorrow. Sigh deeply over fact that list will NEVER be shorter. Repeat.
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And way sociology has been ignored by economists is mirrored in the way our field is ignored more broadly, in favor of economics, in public conversations. This is to the detriment of social policy and society more broadly.
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With all that's going on in the world & my own life, getting a conditional acceptance from a top journal for a paper that I have been working on for YEARS as a labor of love just made my day a little brighter. Stay tuned!
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Half of working with grad students & junior scholars on their writing is deleting "has been found to affect" and replacing with "affects."
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When I review a paper, I almost always start out thinking "this is going to be great!" and then end up finding some issues or concerns (sometimes major, sometimes minor). But for the first time, I just reviewed a paper where I had absolutely zero suggestions - it was just fab.
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Citation alert: Your paper's been cited!
Me: Cool! Someone's actually reading what I wrote & thinks it's useful!
<checks alert>
Me: Oh. It's me. My new paper cited an old paper. I cited me.🙁
<stares into the void>
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My mom just texted me to ask if the school year was over, and I was done for the summer, and I just don't know how to explain after 25 years that that's just not how my job, or academia in general, work.
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My teen just asked my MD spouse about life expectancy instead of me. I was, like, “Ask ME!!! I’m a demographer. Dad doesn’t know.” And his answer was wrong, & I texted her a screenshot of my class slides to prove I literally teach this in class, & that did not win any respect.
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Just got the all clear to "resume normal activities." Like this wasn't traumatizing and triggering as hell.
My inbox:
12:41 email asking for feedback on how the university handled the shooting on 8/28
12:56 email alert to go into lockdown b/c there's an armed and dangerous person right now.
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Sociology is powerful not because it indoctrinates but because it helps people better understand the worlds in which they live. That is precisely why so many are afraid of Sociology.
Florida Bans DEI and Sociology Class From State Colleges
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LOL, I just got an email from a casting person asking if I’d be interested in competing on Fox’s LEGO Masters show. LEGO Karen is famous!
Much to my kids’ chagrin, though, I declined.
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HOURS of work are behind every footnote and parenthetical that says "Alternative specifications yield substantively similar results." Shout-out to those of us slogging away on models we know no one will ever see or even know about...
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Celebrating submitting my NIH grant proposal today! I can’t control the outcome, but I’m proud of the work I put into it. 🍾🎊
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@familyunequal
has documented the extent to which economists ignore sociologists. It’s not the fault of these two particular authors. It’s endemic in the field. Sociologists cite economists (& others) regularly tho.
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Can we be done with cover letters for journal submissions? In an era of online submissions, they’re pro forma & often not required, but they always make junior folks panic bc they don’t know letters don’t mean anything.
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"That is why the most obvious solution to the ensuing child care crisis is for married parents of non-school-age children to sit down and do the math and decide which one of them will stay home. For most families, that parent will be Mom."
GTFOH. 😡🤬
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If 18 yr old me was a freshman right now, I’m positive I’d go to a party at college, despite the warnings. I was lonely & insecure & desperately wanted to be cool, & I would’ve totally believed people if they said we wouldn’t get caught & it’s no big deal.
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A manuscript acceptance at a top journal for a project I've been working on for 4 years is a really wonderful way to start the day. There were times I *really* hated this project.
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Stay-cations aren’t really fun when you also have stay-workweeks, stay-evenings, stay-weekends, stay-holidays, and stay-birthdays.
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It costs me nothing as a cisgender woman to have other people use the term woman, or use a broader term, like birthing people or chestfeeding. It’s not like I suddenly will have unbirthed or unfed my kids. There’s room for all of us to be mad at the patriarchy.
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Soc peeps: we often proxy SES by using education, but I want to argue that educational attainment is tapping into other things (social capital, social norms, etc.). Who should I be citing? It's been a while since I read this lit.
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Most of the long-term problems associated with being a child of divorce are instead related to sexism, racism, homophobia, shoddy recordkeeping, and insufficient government support. via
@slate
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I wish we could rename the lit review “your argument and the research that informs it.”
quick tip to anyone working on their first peer-reviewed article: the literature review is still part of the argument, not an autonomous part of the paper. Every sentence in the lit review needs to be a nod, acknowledgement, or very brief summary that builds *your* argument.
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Births are down, & midlife deaths are up. These things aren't disconnected. They're signs of a structural, systemic crisis in which wide swaths of the U.S. population are stymied in reaching their own goals & living healthy, meaningful, & productive lives.
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I found a professional and even-keeled way to say "stop blaming low fertility on 'selfish' women" in a paper today, and I'm quite proud of it.
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My teen is in tears bc even tho school is remote here due to rising positivity rates, all her friends are apparently hanging out during the school day & “doing school together,” which we won’t let her do. To a teen who misses her friends, we’re the bad guys for following rules.
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Promised myself I could go to the movies if I just finished that R&R that had been sitting on my desk for a couple months. So here I am!
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"I am pleased to accept your manuscript for publication."
One of the most beautiful phrases in all of academia.
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I just got the mail. It's got at least 3 photo Christmas cards in it. Are we doing those this year? Really? Ours will feature me wearing old sweatpants & having unbrushed hair, the kids staring at their phones, & my husband wearing an N95 mask.
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My inbox:
12:41 email asking for feedback on how the university handled the shooting on 8/28
12:56 email alert to go into lockdown b/c there's an armed and dangerous person right now.
There's another lockdown related to an armed and dangerous person at UNC. It's too much.
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Folx trying to basically ban sociology in Ohio with HB 327.
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@WeedenKim
That’s just it - what happened to so many of us in high school & college was so fricking pervasive that we didn’t register it as harassment or assault. It was the norm, so common. Creepy teachers, flashers, & “being taken advantage of” were just things you lived with as a female.
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My sister gave me the perfect present for my birthday!
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I may not be the world’s best parent, but last night at dinner, one of my teens said that if a teacher asks a question & no one talks, she’ll go ahead & raise her hand to give an answer even if she don’t really know so the teacher doesn’t feel bad.
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My teen was slightly embarrassed that I wore feminist T-shirts last night & this morning when all her friends were over for a sleepover.
“Mom, you’re such a dork! No one cares about feminism.”
I sent her this after we watched the World Cup.
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At least one other female colleague got this message (to their name). I guess this means a data breach somewhere... Definitely going to report this.
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Don’t panic over declining fertility rates — and don’t let anyone guilt you, write Leslie Root,
@KBGuzzo
and
@AlisonGemmill
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It’s 💯 okay to cry in front of faculty sometimes. We get it. I’ve got tissues, Hershey’s kisses, & hugs for such occasions.
PS. Faculty cry sometimes too. Academia can be overwhelming. We just usually have a private office to hide in when we do it.
PhD milestone achieved today:
✅ Cry in front of advisor
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ITS says it's not likely a data breach b/c it's easy to find cell phone numbers. I tried to report it to our Title IX office and/or HR, but both websites to do so have broken links.
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Social infertility - not having children because the circumstances in which you’d be willing to have children didn’t materialize - is just as important as biological infertility.
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Shut up, Ross. We’re not the ones angry at librarians, policing bathrooms & locker rooms, or scolding people for not marrying.
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I miss in-person seminars & workshops. Virtual ones just aren't the same.
So LEGO Karen is having a flashback to our pop center speaker series! It's a packed house because everyone wants to hear about this topic: "Demography is Awesome!"
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It’s interesting how we have sympathy & understanding for our own stress-induced behaviors during COVID but seldom do the same for the behaviors of those for whom stress is constant & chronic. Instead, we judge, chastise, & police the less fortunate.
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Social science folks, including PhD students & junior faculty, consider applying for these small grants ($7,500). Pretty simple application.
Our portal is open for applications! We look forward to seeing your work:
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It’s Friday & it’s my birthday! That means after work, LEGO Karen will meet up with her crew for drinks, a nice dinner out, and then hit the clubs to dance into the wee hours of the morning.
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LEGO Karen knows some very important people! Great talk tonight by Bob Hummer.
(He doesn’t know about LEGO Karen’s awesomeness, but he did consent to this picture.)
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That the time spent on data cleaning/file creation far exceeds the time spent on actual statistical modeling for projects using survey data never ceases to amaze me.
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Psst, I know the secret.
It’s money & privilege. Outsourcing household tasks, living close enough to work to limit commuting, living in a safe enough environment to jog or being able to afford home gym equipment, managing own work schedule & being able to set boundaries.
Still have no idea how people can…
✅ work a full-time job
✅ cook dinner often
✅ exercise regularly
✅ enjoy weekends
✅ keep the apartment clean
Seems basic, but I can’t consistently do it.
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Also, if you've ever pondered "why don't young women have children?", this is one of the reasons why. If we reduce women to their childbearing capacities & mothers to their childrearing capacities, fewer women will become mothers.
Blinding rage right now.
"That is why the most obvious solution to the ensuing child care crisis is for married parents of non-school-age children to sit down and do the math and decide which one of them will stay home. For most families, that parent will be Mom."
GTFOH. 😡🤬
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My husband just asked me a question about age differences in certain attitudes, & I got to talk about age-period-cohort effects, & my little nerdy demographer heart is bursting.
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I don't know if this is true in other jobs, but being good at things academia values (teaching and/or research) often results in being assigned tasks that are not those things to the point where you don't actually get to do the things you're good at.
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I don’t brag often about my kids, but my oldest just found out she got into her top choice school! She was accepted into her 2nd choice a few weeks ago but was rejected/waitlisted at basically all her other top choices.
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@JessGrose
I've decided this new baby was like an impulse buy near the register. She needed a pick me up b/c she's bummed that she's not Latina & people are being mean to her.
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One of the skills I'm most proud of as a writer is a ruthless ability to cut text to meet word counts. I actually really enjoy it.
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LEGO Karen, trying to figure out a conceptual model & how relevant but parallel literatures fit together. 🧐
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Census data is affected by social norms: "When wives earn more than their husbands do, a puzzling thing can happen: Husbands say they earn more than they are and wives underreport their income."
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In case anyone needs permission, I threw myself a huge tenure party in 2014. So if you got a job, or tenure, or a promotion, or some other achievement during a pandemic, you can throw yourself a big ol’ party, take an awesome trip, or buy yourself something cool. You deserve it!
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I have exactly one week to relocate my LEGO town so we can have our once-yearly meal in the dining room (tho I guess we’ll be eating Christmas dinner there, too). 😳
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Detour from ASA packing to share my newest article in Population & Development Review, which uses
@Add_Health
data to follow the fertility goals & behaviors of a cohort of women in the decade following the Great Recession.
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Wow. That's one way to gut Sociology programs, since so few students know what Sociology is until they take an Intro course and realize that it's pretty relevant for basically every facet of life.
I am told by a colleague that the Florida board of governors has voted this morning to remove Intro to Sociology as a class that fulfills the Gen Ed social science requirement in Florida public universities. Surprise move. 😳
@insidehighered
@chronicle
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My dog was really nervous over the past few weeks as we packed up the house. But when we packed our suitcases, that’s when he started crying. And when we loaded up the car, he ran out the door & climbed in the back so we wouldn’t leave w/o him.
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Okay, I'm going to be honest: I know students need a lot of support & patience right now, but my compassion tank is running pretty dry.
I'm tired. I'm behind on everything. I've got my own family's well-being to support.
Don't worry - I'll still be kind, but it'll cost me.
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I didn't do ANY work over Thanksgiving break, and now apparently I have to do work again.
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Saw this MS newspaper front page on FB. Just going to leave this here...it's dated 6/17/20.
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My husband just texted me this pic, with the caption “ummm.” He’s an ER doc.
But I’m a demographer, and I called foul. I found the original study, and it is the worst example of calculating life expectancy I have ever seen. Study link in next post.
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