Julie Spray
@juliespray.bsky.social
Childhood & medical anthropologist, child health researcher, Lecturer at University of Galway Ireland, Pākehā New Zealander, she/her, never enough cats. I study people because they fascinate & confuse me. Children make most sense though. We like to draw.
“Anyone who’s ever found a blunt “no” scrawled in the margin of an essay knows that universities force humility upon us.… you realise how much of yourself is inherited or assumed and how freeing it is to rebuild that self from first principles.”
thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-1...
thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-1...
We’ve forgotten what universities are for
With New Zealand universities facing not only a funding crisis but a philosophical challenge to their role, the soul of tertiary education is at stake.
thespinoff.co.nz
November 11, 2025 at 7:11 AM
“Anyone who’s ever found a blunt “no” scrawled in the margin of an essay knows that universities force humility upon us.… you realise how much of yourself is inherited or assumed and how freeing it is to rebuild that self from first principles.”
thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-1...
thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-1...
Frustrating example of #epistemicmirecognition: rejection (after 2 rounds of review and reviewers recommending acceptance) from journal editor because this autoethnographic paper sounds like a story retrospectively told from my experiences (and so cannot be "academically rigorous inquiry"). Sigh.
October 23, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Frustrating example of #epistemicmirecognition: rejection (after 2 rounds of review and reviewers recommending acceptance) from journal editor because this autoethnographic paper sounds like a story retrospectively told from my experiences (and so cannot be "academically rigorous inquiry"). Sigh.
“In the Kalahari, one little boy who would almost certainly be diagnosed with autism in an American doctor’s office is highly valued for his abilities… the boy, his father told me, “is great herding goats. He always knows where they are in the day or night.””
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...
Opinion | Autism Has Always Existed. We Haven’t Always Called It Autism.
www.nytimes.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:46 AM
“In the Kalahari, one little boy who would almost certainly be diagnosed with autism in an American doctor’s office is highly valued for his abilities… the boy, his father told me, “is great herding goats. He always knows where they are in the day or night.””
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...
This is a super helpful and interesting window into the editorial process - I learned a lot! I found the explanation of the relationship between editor and reviewer reports in final decision-making especially helpful to understand.
📢📢📢 New Editorial Alert 📢📢📢
American Ethnologist editors lift the lid on the ‘black box’ of journal submission...
An Editorial Insight: Be wary of making ungrounded “what I call” assertions of novelty. A much better strategy is to trace where your ideas have come from.
American Ethnologist editors lift the lid on the ‘black box’ of journal submission...
An Editorial Insight: Be wary of making ungrounded “what I call” assertions of novelty. A much better strategy is to trace where your ideas have come from.
September 12, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This is a super helpful and interesting window into the editorial process - I learned a lot! I found the explanation of the relationship between editor and reviewer reports in final decision-making especially helpful to understand.
I was a grad student when Trump got elected in 2016, and the next day a very senior professor commented: "just goes to show the dangers of an uneducated populace."
I have always remembered that remark over the last few years of social and political regression. Lest we forget what education is for.
I have always remembered that remark over the last few years of social and political regression. Lest we forget what education is for.
August 19, 2025 at 12:29 PM
I was a grad student when Trump got elected in 2016, and the next day a very senior professor commented: "just goes to show the dangers of an uneducated populace."
I have always remembered that remark over the last few years of social and political regression. Lest we forget what education is for.
I have always remembered that remark over the last few years of social and political regression. Lest we forget what education is for.
Reposted by Julie Spray
#AcademicSky #SciPub #PeerReview #PhDSky #OpenScience #AcademicResearch #AcademicWriting #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #AcademicChatter 🧪
August 6, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Julie Spray
A valuable checklist. Thanks Julie. And for those seeking to explore further and challenge adultism in research, can I offer some additional resources from my own back catalogue: www.harryshier.net/docs/Shier-A...
www.harryshier.net/docs/Shier-W...
www.harryshier.net/docs/Shier-W...
July 30, 2025 at 8:59 AM
A valuable checklist. Thanks Julie. And for those seeking to explore further and challenge adultism in research, can I offer some additional resources from my own back catalogue: www.harryshier.net/docs/Shier-A...
www.harryshier.net/docs/Shier-W...
www.harryshier.net/docs/Shier-W...
It's hard to see what we're not seeing when working from the dominant or majority (normative) social position. As researchers, we share a normative but rarely critically considered position as ADULTS.
This means our research has likely been shaped by adult-centrism. I made a resource.
This means our research has likely been shaped by adult-centrism. I made a resource.
July 29, 2025 at 8:57 AM
It's hard to see what we're not seeing when working from the dominant or majority (normative) social position. As researchers, we share a normative but rarely critically considered position as ADULTS.
This means our research has likely been shaped by adult-centrism. I made a resource.
This means our research has likely been shaped by adult-centrism. I made a resource.
Reposted by Julie Spray
Reposted by Julie Spray
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
July 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
Watching the US from afar, you realise the frog did notice the water heating up, it just believed the next midterm would turn off the stove.
July 18, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Watching the US from afar, you realise the frog did notice the water heating up, it just believed the next midterm would turn off the stove.
Reposted by Julie Spray
Ireland has had "sELf iD" for 10 years now and not one single issue that the media, government and anti-trans movement predicted has come to pass. Not one.
If it works in Ireland why would it not work here? No one who opposes it can give a good answer, because the real answer is transphobia
If it works in Ireland why would it not work here? No one who opposes it can give a good answer, because the real answer is transphobia
Ten years ago, on this day 15 July, the Irish Oireachtas passed the Gender Recognition Act 2015 (An tAcht um Inscne a Aithint, 2015).
It was a piece of legislation that allowed me to live my life authentically & I'm forever grateful.
Despite what others may have you believe, the sky did not fall in.
It was a piece of legislation that allowed me to live my life authentically & I'm forever grateful.
Despite what others may have you believe, the sky did not fall in.
July 15, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Ireland has had "sELf iD" for 10 years now and not one single issue that the media, government and anti-trans movement predicted has come to pass. Not one.
If it works in Ireland why would it not work here? No one who opposes it can give a good answer, because the real answer is transphobia
If it works in Ireland why would it not work here? No one who opposes it can give a good answer, because the real answer is transphobia
Reposted by Julie Spray
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
July 8, 2025 at 3:31 PM
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
Reposted by Julie Spray
Reposted by Julie Spray
IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza.
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
June 27, 2025 at 12:05 PM
IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza.
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
"What do other disciplines have to say about anthropology?" I asked ChatGPT... how accurate are these vibes?
chatgpt.com/share/68584c...
#epistemicrecognition #interdisciplinarity
#STS #anthropology #academia
chatgpt.com/share/68584c...
#epistemicrecognition #interdisciplinarity
#STS #anthropology #academia
June 22, 2025 at 7:35 PM
"What do other disciplines have to say about anthropology?" I asked ChatGPT... how accurate are these vibes?
chatgpt.com/share/68584c...
#epistemicrecognition #interdisciplinarity
#STS #anthropology #academia
chatgpt.com/share/68584c...
#epistemicrecognition #interdisciplinarity
#STS #anthropology #academia
Welp, humanity, we had a good run
June 22, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Welp, humanity, we had a good run
Reposted by Julie Spray
I’m excited about my latest publication with Sienna Ruiz in Medical Anthropology Theory
Against Image Positivism: the possibilities of play as a mode of health research.
Check it out and then check out the GIFs of images in the pdf (comments below)
www.medanthrotheory.org/mat/article/...
Against Image Positivism: the possibilities of play as a mode of health research.
Check it out and then check out the GIFs of images in the pdf (comments below)
www.medanthrotheory.org/mat/article/...
View of Against Image Positivism: The Potentials for Play as a Mode of Health Research
www.medanthrotheory.org
June 20, 2025 at 2:26 AM
I’m excited about my latest publication with Sienna Ruiz in Medical Anthropology Theory
Against Image Positivism: the possibilities of play as a mode of health research.
Check it out and then check out the GIFs of images in the pdf (comments below)
www.medanthrotheory.org/mat/article/...
Against Image Positivism: the possibilities of play as a mode of health research.
Check it out and then check out the GIFs of images in the pdf (comments below)
www.medanthrotheory.org/mat/article/...
Reposted by Julie Spray
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.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
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.
Reposted by Julie Spray
June 19, 2025 at 9:59 AM
I have to give credit to the algorithms: my Bluesky feed is a beautiful thing
June 17, 2025 at 7:12 PM
I have to give credit to the algorithms: my Bluesky feed is a beautiful thing
Reposted by Julie Spray
Critically important that the voice of early career researchers is heard when discussing how we fund Higher Education. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025.... #edchatie #educationalresearch
We are PhD researchers with advice for US colleagues: don’t come to Ireland
Why would you do your PhD in Ireland when you can get decent pay, working conditions and dignity as a researcher in Germany or Sweden?
www.irishtimes.com
May 29, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Critically important that the voice of early career researchers is heard when discussing how we fund Higher Education. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025.... #edchatie #educationalresearch
Reposted by Julie Spray
The ACYIG is delighted to present our latest Spotlight on Scholarship, featuring Chris Chapman's work on how children make stories and lives in residential care institutions in Japan:
acyig.americananthro.org/spotlight-on...
acyig.americananthro.org/spotlight-on...
May 13, 2025 at 9:24 AM
The ACYIG is delighted to present our latest Spotlight on Scholarship, featuring Chris Chapman's work on how children make stories and lives in residential care institutions in Japan:
acyig.americananthro.org/spotlight-on...
acyig.americananthro.org/spotlight-on...
Reposted by Julie Spray
You know why this is a load of shit? Scrapping DEI requirements isn't about 'merit' vs 'diversity', the key PSC guidance is focused on eliminating bias from recruitment & progression so your hiring is *actually merit-based and not racist*.
#NZpol And there’s also this, shades of the DEI moves in the USA? –
Diversity requirements proposed to be cut in Judith Collins’ Public Service Act overhaul (subscription needed; sharing for the headlined point)
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...
Diversity requirements proposed to be cut in Judith Collins’ Public Service Act overhaul (subscription needed; sharing for the headlined point)
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...
May 13, 2025 at 6:50 AM
You know why this is a load of shit? Scrapping DEI requirements isn't about 'merit' vs 'diversity', the key PSC guidance is focused on eliminating bias from recruitment & progression so your hiring is *actually merit-based and not racist*.
Reposted by Julie Spray
