Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD
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elizabethbitmeehan.com
Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD
@elizabethbitmeehan.com
Transparency, regulation, business & interest group politics, and polisci metascience. Run @apsa.bsky.social DDRIG. Go 'Cats. Always a Midwest Princess 👑
Pinned
​(preliminary) comparison of the May-December #polisky eJobs listings for 2024 versus 2025:

May-December 2024: 772 total (458 assistant TT)

May-December 2025: 601 total (326 assistant TT)

22.2% overall decline; down from 59.3% to 54.2% of those jobs listed are assistant TT positions.
Final #polisky eJobs update of the year (12/1-12/31)

Confirms the approximately 30% drop overall in the number of positions and tenure-track positions

December 2024: 52 total positions (13 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 53 total positions (19 open to assistant TT)
quickly coming up on the end of the year, so here's the early December #polisky eJobs update (12/1-12/15):

December 2024: 35 total positions (8 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 29 total positions (9 open to assistant TT)
omg the original post, not as the printout version (for ease of reading)
January 20, 2026 at 6:13 PM
you know shit's going down because @professormusgrave.bsky.social is back
January 20, 2026 at 5:46 PM
may start a new series called "there's a Jesus Christ Superstar song for that"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1J...
January 20, 2026 at 3:44 PM
I am re-listening to this album this morning, and I am blown away yet again at the musicality of it all. Truly a man with a vision, a tale, and the pipes to back it up.
Paolo Nutini - Last Night In The Bittersweet (2022) #vinyl #np
Don’t play this enough. It’s an eclectic listen from someone who is clearly happy to follow his muse and stick two fingers up to pursing a career chasing sales
January 20, 2026 at 3:26 PM
if you are not following the NYC-DC bus saga of musicology duck, holy shit
January 20, 2026 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD
@benbraun.bsky.social with his usual excellent analysis. One note of caution about UK, IRL, LUX, BEL holdings: the 200 largest US firms collectively hold ≈ $1tr in corporate and Treasury bonds & most of that is held offshore - so US debt to “Europe” (and the Caymans) is likely overestimated.
Financial war in response to trade war and territorial threats? More and more people appear to be calling for it. So I updated my post on U.S. Treasuries holdings—now with the latest data.
benjaminbraun.org/posts/treasu...
January 20, 2026 at 12:55 AM
if this snowstorm forecast holds DC is absolutely Not Prepared to handle it
January 19, 2026 at 9:59 PM
remindere #polisky that @apsa.bsky.social awards submissions are due by February 11: apsanet.org/PROGRAMS/APS...

The SECTION AWARDS are separate - links to each of those are found here: apsanet.org/membership/o...

Nominate yourself for stuff - can't win if you don't submit!
APSA Awards - American Political Science Association (APSA)
APSA Awards Program: Recognizing the Merit of our Peers Now Open! Submit Your Nominations for 2026 APSA Awards One of the many important roles of the
apsanet.org
January 19, 2026 at 4:15 PM
free.99 for my DC folks:

- Happy Daze swap bimonthly at either Malcolm X Park & Union Market: www.instagram.com/happydazeswa...

- SwapDC bimonthly events: swapdc.com/events

- MLK Library swap quarterly (check website)

- Right Proper brewing ~ quarterly: www.rightproperbrewing.com/our-events
January 19, 2026 at 3:09 PM
if anything: the Chicago Bears finally have a QB

We’ve been waiting for one for so, so long
January 19, 2026 at 3:07 AM
I think about the orange buttermilk fritters from En Passant in Chicago on a monthly basis.

We saw two tables order them before us, have an audible mouth-gasm, then order another round.

restaurantguru.com/En-Passant-C...
January 19, 2026 at 2:11 AM
this reason more than any other is why the secondhand clothing market is booming, from free swaps to eBay to clothing rental services to Goodwill to consignment stores to dedicated clothing resale platforms. people are sick of buying crap when they could get an old, well-made piece for cheap
I was on TikTok and got served this viral video of a woman showing an inexpensive coat she bought from the Gap in 2006 and then walking through all the stitching, buttons, lining, fabric, and overall construction that was just baseline then and impossible to get at a fair pricepoint now.
January 17, 2026 at 8:12 PM
the thing I've been saying to all who will listen:
The AI bubble has fundamentally worse unit economics than anything of the Dot Com bubble era, with no signs of improvement. GPUs quickly depreciate, have limited use cases, and have incredible capex and opex. There is no "dark fiber" use case for them.

www.wheresyoured.at/dot-com-bubble/
January 16, 2026 at 5:52 PM
back at it again with the early January eJobs comparison for #polisky:

January 2025: 22 total (6 open to assistant TT)

January 2026: 25 total (7 open to assistant TT)
​(preliminary) comparison of the May-December #polisky eJobs listings for 2024 versus 2025:

May-December 2024: 772 total (458 assistant TT)

May-December 2025: 601 total (326 assistant TT)

22.2% overall decline; down from 59.3% to 54.2% of those jobs listed are assistant TT positions.
Final #polisky eJobs update of the year (12/1-12/31)

Confirms the approximately 30% drop overall in the number of positions and tenure-track positions

December 2024: 52 total positions (13 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 53 total positions (19 open to assistant TT)
January 15, 2026 at 6:35 PM
get your submissions in #polisky so I can hide in a hole with a massive spreadsheet and start crunching the allocation numbers - the more submissions a division gets, the more panels they get
The proposal submission deadline is soon for the 2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition. Join scholars to explore the latest scholarship in political science around the 2026 conference theme, “Democracy Under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild.”

📄 Submit proposals here: buff.ly/Ys5JPh6
January 12, 2026 at 9:30 PM
​(preliminary) comparison of the May-December #polisky eJobs listings for 2024 versus 2025:

May-December 2024: 772 total (458 assistant TT)

May-December 2025: 601 total (326 assistant TT)

22.2% overall decline; down from 59.3% to 54.2% of those jobs listed are assistant TT positions.
Final #polisky eJobs update of the year (12/1-12/31)

Confirms the approximately 30% drop overall in the number of positions and tenure-track positions

December 2024: 52 total positions (13 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 53 total positions (19 open to assistant TT)
quickly coming up on the end of the year, so here's the early December #polisky eJobs update (12/1-12/15):

December 2024: 35 total positions (8 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 29 total positions (9 open to assistant TT)
January 2, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Final #polisky eJobs update of the year (12/1-12/31)

Confirms the approximately 30% drop overall in the number of positions and tenure-track positions

December 2024: 52 total positions (13 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 53 total positions (19 open to assistant TT)
quickly coming up on the end of the year, so here's the early December #polisky eJobs update (12/1-12/15):

December 2024: 35 total positions (8 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 29 total positions (9 open to assistant TT)
Alright alright alright post-Thanksgiving full November #polisky eJobs update (11/1-11/30):

November 2024: 99 total positions (50 open to assistant TT)

November 2025: 69 total positions (22 open to assistant TT)
December 31, 2025 at 10:08 PM
the analogy I use with friends and family all the time is the jump from collegiate to professional sports. as soon as I explain it that way, it clicks in their brains what the academic job market is like.
THERE ARE NO JOBS IN ACADEMIA! NO JOBS! DOZENS OF HYPER QUALIFIED APPLICANTS PER JOB!
December 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM
quickly coming up on the end of the year, so here's the early December #polisky eJobs update (12/1-12/15):

December 2024: 35 total positions (8 open to assistant TT)

December 2025: 29 total positions (9 open to assistant TT)
Alright alright alright post-Thanksgiving full November #polisky eJobs update (11/1-11/30):

November 2024: 99 total positions (50 open to assistant TT)

November 2025: 69 total positions (22 open to assistant TT)
Back again for the mid-November #polisky eJobs update (11/1-11/15):

November 2024: 60 total positions (31 open to assistant TT)

November 2025: 36 total positions (12 open to assistant TT)
December 16, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Alright alright alright post-Thanksgiving full November #polisky eJobs update (11/1-11/30):

November 2024: 99 total positions (50 open to assistant TT)

November 2025: 69 total positions (22 open to assistant TT)
Back again for the mid-November #polisky eJobs update (11/1-11/15):

November 2024: 60 total positions (31 open to assistant TT)

November 2025: 36 total positions (12 open to assistant TT)
BOO it's Halloween and the end of October monthly #polisky eJobs update (10/1-10/31):

October 2024: 135 total positions (71 open to assistant TT)

October 2025: 108 total positions (59 open to assistant TT) *

* possible miscount because multiple listings have 2+ positions included
December 1, 2025 at 2:51 PM
FYI: law and science, political science, and sociology all still have DDRIG programs run outside of the NSF but funded by NSF. The rest of these programs unfortunately do not.

I run the political science DDRIG.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Back again for the mid-November #polisky eJobs update (11/1-11/15):

November 2024: 60 total positions (31 open to assistant TT)

November 2025: 36 total positions (12 open to assistant TT)
BOO it's Halloween and the end of October monthly #polisky eJobs update (10/1-10/31):

October 2024: 135 total positions (71 open to assistant TT)

October 2025: 108 total positions (59 open to assistant TT) *

* possible miscount because multiple listings have 2+ positions included
scary spooky times for the mid-month #polisky eJobs update (10/1-10/15):

October 2024: 74 total positions (40 open to assistant TT)

October 2025: 58 total positions (34 open to assistant TT)
November 17, 2025 at 3:11 PM
BOO it's Halloween and the end of October monthly #polisky eJobs update (10/1-10/31):

October 2024: 135 total positions (71 open to assistant TT)

October 2025: 108 total positions (59 open to assistant TT) *

* possible miscount because multiple listings have 2+ positions included
scary spooky times for the mid-month #polisky eJobs update (10/1-10/15):

October 2024: 74 total positions (40 open to assistant TT)

October 2025: 58 total positions (34 open to assistant TT)
5 more came in this afternoon:

September 2024: 167 total positions (105 open to assistant TT)

September 2025: 143 total positions (86 open to assistant TT)
October 31, 2025 at 6:29 PM