announcement

Buchu has already broken the news below in comments, but I have something to announce. Since half the people who read this blog are close friends anyway it's not news to them, but for the rest: I have been offered (and have accepted) a truly fantastic job doing just the kind of work I'd hoped for: internationally-focused policy advocacy for a progressive nonprofit organization. I won't say much about the details yet (if at all) except to say that I'm incredibly excited about the work I'll be doing--it's high-level enough to be challenging and instructive, wide-ranging enough in terms of issues and geographical scope to keep me interested, and--perhaps best of all--in service of an organization whose work I genuinely admire and whose values I can support without reservation. The latter factor in particular is such a blessing, because it hasn't been true of many of the foreign policy jobs I've looked at in the last year, nor probably of most of the others I could hope to come across. And I'm thrilled, because this is a place where I think I can actually achieve what I left grad school to do--not just learn the ropes of the policy/advocacy sector, but actually do real work that will contribute to progressive change on issues that I care about.

Also-- a decent salary! awesome benefits! job-related travel that will take me to cities I love (and people I miss)! woo-hoo. And I get to stay in NY: I was pretty heartbroken when I narrowly lost out on my dream job in June, but the less-than-dreamy aspect was that it was in DC, requiring me to steel myself for the prospect of leaving Brooklyn behind: now, no need. This will be home for a good couple of years, I think.

I'm not sure what exactly this news will mean for Verbal Privilege--for one thing, I might need to put up a disclaimer of some sorts, given that the blog shows up when my full name is googled, and I link here to published work. My new workplace is open-minded and fairly informal, but also has a pretty high profile, which may cause some complications. I might shift back to focusing more on arts & culture content and less on politics, though I have a feeling the politics will tend to sneak in regardless. And I'll have a lot less time for blogging once I start work in September. But I intend to keep this blog going: it's been a source of pleasure and strength throughout a very difficult year. I started it in part to do the kind of writing I hadn't had time for in grad school, and in part to talk about the issues I wanted to work on, while maintaining a connection to the academic world that I'm bound to return to eventually, and to the dear friends who are so scattered about the globe these days. It's served all these purposes and more besides, so I hope y'all will stick around in the future. Because I certainly intend to.