I’m looking forward to being a zillion years old and still reminding people of what our universities did when challenged by baldly illegal hate-driven garbage dictums because I guarantee that the second trump is out of power they’ll expect everyone to forget and stop talking about it
Posts by Devin Banks
At the end of this summer, the future of U.S. science and research will be decided.
From weather alerts to cancer breakthroughs, science shapes every part of our lives.
We need everyone in this fight.
The Summer Fight for Science starts now. Are you in?
The fight starts here: bit.ly/4ddiuqU
A thousand yeses to this from Cole Arthur Riley.
These people really just say ANYTHING. 🥴
BTW, it’s published as part of our special collection on Community-engaged Harm Reduction Research for Social Justice, which has an extended deadline of June 15! Join us in sharing your transformative and radical work in these bleak times. www.biomedcentral.com/collections/...
Some of you have heard me present about this work in various spaces over the past two years at CPDD, for a DPA roundtable, and other talks. But this is the fuller story, told by my team, including CAB members.
Header of the manuscript entitled “CENTER-ing Black voices: incorporating lived experience across the research process to advance equity in drug treatment and outcomes”
In some good news today, I’m happy to share a newly published Methodology describing some of the most rewarding work of my career so far: working in partnership with a CAB with lived experience to design and execute a research project: harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
A new study models the impact of the implosion of U.S.-funded disease treatment and prevention in the developing world — and suggests that Elon Musk and Marco Rubio will go down as among history’s greatest monsters if funding and effective administration are not restored.
This survey is a vital resource for researchers and the public to track the prevalence and impact of drug use and mental health problems in the US. It's a VITAL database.
And it's just going to be gone. Devastating.
“We preface everything with an admission that our opponents are right and somehow we’re losing the messaging war. We don’t understand why this isn’t working.”
Columbia’s leaders’ capitulation makes it harder for every other scientist in the country to fight grant terminations.
My grants were terminated.
Radiolab! I like it because it’s a bunch of nerds being awestruck by little wonders of science and nature and humanity.
Ryan is 100 percent correct.
@standupforscience.bsky.social , @cdelawalla.bsky.social , @samschuelstein.bsky.social , @mikelaritter.bsky.social , and all the grad students, ECRs, and everyone who organized the rallies today.
You are all amazing and have given us so much hope. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
There is no tinkering of my biosketch that can obfuscate my focus and mission over the past decade. These efforts mean not only to silence us but to erase us. To make it impossible for us to thrive or even survive.
This is extremely bad for science across the board in myriad ways. But most of the discourse seems to ignore that if this is true, it is potentially career-ending for people like me who’ve dedicated their lives to inquiry that represents those oppressed & denied access to health by our society.
NEW: The NIH has begun terminating grants for active projects studying gender identity, DEI, environmental justice, climate change, among other topics.
At least 16 termination letters have already been sent — and hundreds more are coming, people inside NIH tell me.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Sorry to report to all the fuckfaces out there that I spent multiple hours today doing work that I am passionate about and find interesting, reading ideas, thinking about them, and even writing about them
1/8. This week I had a few different conversations with scholars who, in the face of the attacks on science and institutions of learning in the U.S., are wondering what to do. One suggestion I have is: keep doing your work. It matters in and of itself. Why do I say that? A few reasons.
This!!!
Academics and researchers are receiving emails from their higher-ups, explaining that rules are changing and their institutions are carefully monitoring the situation.
Have any university higher-ups sent emails saying "We continue to be unwavering in our support for the rights of all human beings?"
Line chart showing dramatic growth since 2000 in the percentage of Black Americans – especially Black women – with a college degree.
For Black History Month, key facts about the nation's Black population: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
In less than 25 years, the percentage of Black Americans with a college degree has nearly doubled. Black women have seen the fastest gains in educational attainment.
If you are in danger unless you comply with a regime, you are in danger whether you comply or not
For scale, the NIH Diversity Supplement Program is older than me.
Of course, this will hurt and limit opportunity for junior scientists who are Black, Latinx, Native, and from low income backgrounds. But it will also hurt and limit science.
I cannot decide if this is my optimistic or my cynical take, but I have a feeling that incredibly large proportions of NIH funding will continue, with the DEI emphases stripped, and we are going to get to see how many of our institutions and scientists are windsocks.
When I talk to upper administration, they seemed to think that things would never go this far. I guess this puts the issue front and center early. I'm curious how much more bending of the knee we'll see in order to curry favor for things like NIH grants.
Same. I *think* I get the intention from the perspective of global representation but every time I have to this I’m like 😵💫.
Abstract image of the scales of justice adjacent to text: Special Collection Call for Papers on Community-Engaged Harm-Reduction Research for Social Justice in Harm Reduction Journal (edited by: Liliane Cambraia Windsor, Devin Banks, Ellen Benoit, Holly Hagan)
Just 3 months left to submit to our Special Issue! 🗣️
We’re open to approaches ranging from #CBPR to exploring initial collabs with community. Topics include #addictionsci, infectious disease, incarceration & any others where harm reduction may apply. Submit @ www.biomedcentral.com/collections/...