New Leaf on an Old Page (I got a job!)

April 15, 2025

So, first things first - nervously tapping on the mic - is this thing still on…? My use of this blog has been haphazard at best, but if ever there’s a professional update worthy of a longer form overview, it’s got to be this one!

The short version: I have accepted a position as a Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience (equivalent to assistant professor) at the University of Manchester in Manchester, UK!

Every so often I go back to check this document to make sure it’s actually real.

The longer version:

The end of a page, turning the era, and other mixed metaphors

It’s hard to talk about moving to the UK without first mentioning leaving the US, especially in these times. I have been in the USA for 10 years now, after moving here from Canada for grad school. It’s been an interesting (for lack of a better term) time to be in the US. I moved here in September 2014, less than a year before that infamous escalator ride, and suffice to saw I don’t think any of us at that time knew the extent to which that event was a harbinger of a new era. To say that things have changed — materially and also in the feel of the public sphere, what I understand to now be called ‘vibes’ - would be a drastic understatement. What’s happening in the US academia right now, including and in some ways especially at Columbia University is, to put it very mildly and in pre-watershed terms (see, I can do British-isms), a complete mess.

All that said, accepting this new job was not exactly in response to the current state of US academia, at least not entirely. The academic job market moves slowly, and after applying to positions across the Fall of last year, I accepted this new position in mid-January, after the election, but before the inauguration. As much as the incoming administration was a factor in my thinking, and many of the things that have happened were predictable if not pre-announced, the attacks on academia and Columbia specifically are more severe than I anticipated. In hindsight, the timing is rather incredible - accepting a position to leave the US just weeks before the federal government (which funds much of scientific research, including the majority of my work in the US over the last decade) launches a series of attacks on higher education and research is quite the lucky break. I wish I could claim it as more deliberate foresight, but other than the extent I was already unsure about staying in the US and open to jobs elsewhere in my applications, the timing is largely down to luck.

The upshot of this dawn of a new chapter being more of a lucky escape than a diligently planned one is that for all of the fortunate timing I am also excited to have chosen this job primarily for the new adventure it offers rather than as a get-out clause. I thought a lot about the Manchester offer, and everything that comes with an over 5000 kilometer move. Ultimately I decided that job it offered combined with the option to live in an interesting and exciting place was an option I was genuinely excited about and decided to take. I am very excited to be joining the research community at the University of Manchester, and continuing my own work there. Basically everyday since has re-affirmed this decision, as my excitement to move to Manchester and join this storied university is bolstered by the feeling that it is the right time to turn the page, for now at least, in these United (…) States, on my US era.

University of Manchester campus. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s sunny like this all the time - why, what have you heard?

Manchester is also an auspicious destination for me. If you happen to have a copy of my Canadian passport (for example, if you’re a US immigration agent checking my website for illegal words such as ‘diversity’ - don’t worry, I’m leaving anyways, and a two finger salute to you on my way out) you might notice that my place of birth is listed as Manchester, UK. Moving to Manchester is not entirely a fresh start for me, but rather re-opening a door to a chapter it turns out still has more to be written. I was born and lived near Manchester until my family moved to Canada when I was a toddler. I still have a lot of family in the UK, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time visiting, including in and around Manchester, though the city itself is relatively unknown to me.

All this makes for an interesting combination of new and old, as I trade a country I have lived in for a decade and yet in these moments can barely recognize for a country that I feel like I know despite having barely ever lived there. It’s also not lost on me in these fraught times that having been an immigrant of one kind of another for effectively my entire life (and being legally classified as ‘non-resident alien’ in the place I’ve lived for the last decade), I am now migrating again, to a place where I am not in any technical sense be an immigrant but which is in many ways more new and foreign place to live than a lot of my life (call it Schrödinger’s immigration status). Suffice to say, I look forward to answering people’s questions about “where I’m from” with “Here! Just down the street actually”, in whatever accent this is that I have.

Anyways there is of course much more to be said about this move, including the things I’ll miss (NYC), the things I’m excited for (exploring Manchester), and the job itself and what my lab and independent research work will look like (more on all that later)! There will also be a ton to learn as I change job title (and enter into a whole new academic system) - so if anyone has any tips / suggestions etc, please let me know! For now, suffice to say that I am quite excited about this new leaf on an old page.