Bethann Garramon Merkle (@commnatural elsewhere)
@bgmerkle.bsky.social
posts autodelete; posts my own views | she/elle
🎧http://MeteorSciComm.org & Meteor #SciComm podcast
📖Teaching & Mentoring Science Writers coming 2025 from Chicago Press!
✒🎨 https://schoolofgoodtrouble.substack.com
🎓Prof of Practic
🎧http://MeteorSciComm.org & Meteor #SciComm podcast
📖Teaching & Mentoring Science Writers coming 2025 from Chicago Press!
✒🎨 https://schoolofgoodtrouble.substack.com
🎓Prof of Practic
I'm officially on sabbatical*--an extraordinary opportunity, period, and one made more so by the fact that I don't have a tenure-track appointment. This is one point of equity that my institution gets right & we should all be advocating for widely in #HigherEd. 1/
October 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
I'm officially on sabbatical*--an extraordinary opportunity, period, and one made more so by the fact that I don't have a tenure-track appointment. This is one point of equity that my institution gets right & we should all be advocating for widely in #HigherEd. 1/
Collaborators & I scanned 27 career dev, leadership & mentoring progs worldwide. Key insight: mentoring most impactful when ppl are connected to #mentor networks, not lone mentors. More here: buff.ly/VrLj9pn and read the original paper here: buff.ly/GSQJRcN #scicomm #HigherEd 🧪
October 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Collaborators & I scanned 27 career dev, leadership & mentoring progs worldwide. Key insight: mentoring most impactful when ppl are connected to #mentor networks, not lone mentors. More here: buff.ly/VrLj9pn and read the original paper here: buff.ly/GSQJRcN #scicomm #HigherEd 🧪
I've been a big letter writer since I was a little kid. Nothing compares to snail mail with a real postmark and handwriting from someone special. 1/
October 2, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I've been a big letter writer since I was a little kid. Nothing compares to snail mail with a real postmark and handwriting from someone special. 1/
My story is a version of Sophie's story. There is SO MUCH #HiddenCurriculum I am still learning, even after a decade in higher ed. The credentials and background I lack have been frequently used to deny me access, funding, and more. And, the wording always places blame on me. 🧵
![Screenshot of a LinkedIn post:
In August 2024, I became a poster child for social mobility. I was the daughter of a drug addict, the child who grew up on a council estate, the teenager who studied while working two jobs at McDonalds and John Lewis, and then the first person in her school’s history to achieve straight A*s at A level. Weeks later, my mum and stepdad proudly drove me to the University of Bristol. I wore my hair in a bun with a black scrunchie and carried a neon pink bag I’d bought to celebrate my results with my John Lewis staff discount and the money I’d earned working full time over Summer. It was September, but my stepdad, a lorry driver, wore a vest. I didn’t see us as different, until other students laughed and asked who that “bald man wearing the wife beater” was. In my final year, while working as a hotel receptionist, barmaid and tutor, I found a law firm recruitment event that started after my shift ended. I headed to the fancy hotel with the ticket I’d booked weeks ago, and was one of the first in line. But I was asked to stand aside while others were let in. Once the room was full, they told me I could go in, but there was only space to stand at the back. I never got an explanation, but - due to having just come off a shift - I do remember being the only one not in formal wear. [some text cropped out by social media platform due to character limits; follow link for full text of post in screenshot.] Today is Social Mobility Day, and you’ll see lots of posts celebrating the stories of those who’ve “made it.” We hide behind the platitude of imposter syndrome, as if working class people are born feeling inadequate, rather than being made to feel that way. We talk about access, without acknowledging how others still enter through side doors. And we talk about social mobility without admitting that it involved us leaving our communities and sense of identity in ways that can feel devastating.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:22uznocjrwgl6tnzd43p5hgw/bafkreifmmvybxp7x2cul6mcudli6l6kxjbjb4rejcj5edl5lq4meiu3hb4@jpeg)
June 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
My story is a version of Sophie's story. There is SO MUCH #HiddenCurriculum I am still learning, even after a decade in higher ed. The credentials and background I lack have been frequently used to deny me access, funding, and more. And, the wording always places blame on me. 🧵
Critiques of the myth of scientific neutrality have been issued for centuries. But, here we are, still training and evaluating scientists as if our neutrality is going to some how make science (and scientists) relevant, trustworthy, and usable. 1/
(HT @chanda.bsky.social for the evergreen quote)
(HT @chanda.bsky.social for the evergreen quote)
May 18, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Critiques of the myth of scientific neutrality have been issued for centuries. But, here we are, still training and evaluating scientists as if our neutrality is going to some how make science (and scientists) relevant, trustworthy, and usable. 1/
(HT @chanda.bsky.social for the evergreen quote)
(HT @chanda.bsky.social for the evergreen quote)
We do an annual archive of our weekly #scicomm newsletter. You can find the archive (with loads of jobs & resource) and subscribe here: buff.ly/wbu5LMm. Feel free to share widely with folks who can use this support!
April 14, 2025 at 2:55 PM
We do an annual archive of our weekly #scicomm newsletter. You can find the archive (with loads of jobs & resource) and subscribe here: buff.ly/wbu5LMm. Feel free to share widely with folks who can use this support!
Are you or someone you know looking for #SciComm jobs? If so, you might find our free, weekly newsletter helpful. Subscribe here: buff.ly/LuqUSrO & feel free to share widely with folks who can use this support!
April 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Are you or someone you know looking for #SciComm jobs? If so, you might find our free, weekly newsletter helpful. Subscribe here: buff.ly/LuqUSrO & feel free to share widely with folks who can use this support!