David Rypel

I absolutely agree with this in that - if you're thinking about doing a PhD, you need to be okay with that even if it's just the PhD. The odds are, there will not be an academic job at the end.

However, we also need to be very clear on the realities of the PhD. It is not a good early graduate job.

On a more personal note, this will likely be my last conference for a while. I haven't had access to conference funding in the past two years, which means I've self-funded most of the expenses. As rewarding as it has been, it isn't a "hobby" one can easily sustain.

I’m looking forward to presenting my work (a book pitch??) this Saturday at the CEEShub 2026 conference in Tallinn. Reach out if you're around!

In case you're attending, I’ll be part of Panel M-134 from 11:30–13:00.

securityhub.ee/conference-p...

I'm presenting my paper on how queers in Georgia (Sakartvelo) navigate and survive the enforcement of cisheteronormativity at the panel 3A-9 (9 am).

Stop by if you're around! #Aleksanteri2025

As thousands have gathered in central Tbilisi, the main pro-government TV channel, Imedi is downplaying the scale of the protests with drone footage showing empty streets.

⭕ Georgia Live Updates: oc-media.org/live-updates...

This is crazy news, and I hope it's not the end. Back in 2016, GIP was the only CEE think tank that replied to my cold call for an internship—this pretty much set me on the path of engaging with Georgia.

Festival of Radical Politics ! Save the Date ! Festival of Radical Politics WHEN: 28 September 2025 | 15:00 – 20:00 WHERE: Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London, E1 5QJ How do we build transnational sol...

Join us next Sunday (28/9) for an afternoon of political co-learning, community building, and creative resistance, with a focus on counter-narratives from diverse communities in the face of growing far-right ideologies.

Please RSVP to receive updates.
actionnetwork.org/events/festi...

"we thought only the poor people would suffer"

🇬🇪Dear friends, due to the recently adopted Russian-style oppressive laws in Georgia, NGOs and activist groups are no longer able to receive grants or any form of institutional financial support. | Ma... 🇬🇪Dear friends, due to the recently adopted Russian-style oppressive laws in Georgia, NGOs and activist groups are no longer able to receive grants or any form of institutional financial support. Desp...

Due to oppressive legislative changes, LGBTQI+ and other activist groups in Georgia (Sakartvelo) are no longer able to receive institutional financial support. Support them directly:

www.linkedin.com/posts/activi...

17.

There are two wolves inside the person who decided that these two round tables would take place at the same time. #iccees2025

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

I'll be talking about the movement away from/towards regimes of belonging as an everyday security practice tomorrow at #iccees2025. Come say hi if you're around!
www.myeventflo.com/event-lectur...

Chleba se da jist tzv. ke vsemu. Kdyz jsme jeli na vylet, vlozil se rizek mezi dva krajice chleba. Polivkam nerozumim—kdyz mam zizen, napiju se napr. vody.

A screenshot from learning materials on differentiation. There's a photo of a person explaining something to a dog.

I've spent the past ten minutes staring at the picture trying to decide whether it's meant to be a (bad) joke or I'm just reading too much into it. I still don't know.

Bahruz Samadov, @unikarlova.cuni.cz PhD student, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his research. What action are the university, Czech MFA and @digitalnicesko.bsky.social taking?

Doted lidem vypravim treba o tom, jak oficialni facebookovy ucet FSS KPOL oznamil novou studijni kombinaci bezpecnostnich a genderovych studii jako aprilovy zert:)

Haha ten pribeh by vydal na roman:)

I'm happy to share that I relaunched my ✨ personal website ✨ www.davidrypel.com

(I may start blogging there too, if I ever find the confidence to share my hot takes outside my instagram)

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Víc než 1 z 10 Čechů se často nebo skoro nikdy nedokáže dopravit za základními službami a činnostmi tak, jak potřebuje. Vyplývá to z výzkumu Institutu2050.

Mezi nejohroženější patří nízkopříjmoví z odlehlých obcí do 5000 obyvatel. Jde hlavně o lidi mladší nebo ve středním věku. irozhl.as/vSd

Georgia’s Parliament has undertaken such a vast legislative agenda in recent years that it can be hard to keep track of what laws have been passed.

▶️ Here are 16 legislative changes that have shaped Georgia’s authoritarian slide: oc-media.org/explainer-th...

"Most of the areas overtaken by Molinia [...] would favour temperate rainforest: a vanishingly rare, rich + complex habitat."

This single species of grass now artificially dominates probably many 1,000s of km2 in Ireland, creating vast deadzones.

Yet here too, it's scarcely mentioned.

Might you or someone you know be interested in joining our team of volunteers, helping us with organizing the 🔥 RUTA conference in the Carpathian Mountains (June 26-29), check out our call. Proficiency in Ukrainian is key. Travel and accommodation covered ruta-association.org/news/call-fo...

The prominence of topics is a very good point, thank you!

(Context: I don't have research/conference funding, so I have to pay everything out of pocket)

ECR question: How do you decide which academic association(s) to join, within your discipline/field and across, if you do interdisciplinary work? Does it depend on the conferences you attend or something else too? Do you prioritise national or international associations? Etc.

#academicsky

Koofr with Zotero via WebDAV Are you using Zotero with Box and don’t know what to do when Box support for WebDAV eventually runs out? Are you searching for Zotero with Box alternative? Don’t fret, Koofr is here for you. Read abou...

I don't know who needs to know this, but I found an *extremely easy* way to sync annotated Zotero pdf files across devices + what seems a secure cloud provider today. Didn't expect my post-PhD to be this exciting.
koofr.eu/blog/posts/k...

Protecting “The People:” How Anti-LGBTQ+ Ideas Help the Georgian Dream Consolidate Power | Feminism and Gender Democracy Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has been a central element of the Georgian Dream’s anti-democratic turn towards the far right. How do anti-LGBTQ+ statements and policies help GD expand its grip on power, and why...

Nice piece from @tamtagelashvili.bsky.social on Georgian Dream's use of political queerphobia. I'd just add that the (hetero)sexualisation of nation is not limited to the far-right; this is the cornerstone of nationalism (personification of nations as women etc.)
feminism-boell.org/en/2025/04/1...

Working seven days a week does not sound like... great planning?