On September 4th, I’ll be starting a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), a wonderful social science research institute at Stanford that’s perched on a hill overlooking Palo Alto and the San Francisco Bay. The fellowship is a one-year gig and I’ll be back in Seattle next June.
A CASBS fellowship is an incredible gift in several senses. In the most basic sense, it will mean time to focus on research and writing. I’ll be using my time there to continuing my research on the social scientific study of peer production and cooperation. More importantly though, the fellowship will give me access to a community of truly incredible social social scientists who be my “fellow fellows” next year.
Finally, being invited for a CASBS fellowship is a huge honor. I’ve been preparing by reading a list of Wikipedia articles I built about the previous occupants of the study that I’ll be working out of next year (the third fellow to work out of my study was Claude Shannon!). It’s rare for junior faculty like myself to be invited and I’m truly humbled.
The only real downside of the fellowship is that it means that I’ll be spending the academic year away from Seattle. I’m going to miss working out of UW, my department, and the Community Data Science Collective lab here enormously.
In a personal sense, it means I’ll be leaving a wonderful community in Seattle in and around my home at Extraordinary Least Squares. I’m going to miss folks deeply and I look forward to returning.
Of course, I’m also pretty excited about moving to Palo Alto. It will be the first time either Mika or I have lived in California and we hope to take advantage of the opportunity.
Please help us do so! If you’re at Stanford, in Silicon Valley, or are anywhere in the Bay Area and want to meet up, please don’t hesitate to get in contact! We’ll be arriving with very little community and I’m really interested in meeting and making friends and taking advantage of my nine-months in the area to make connections!
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