Visiting scholars in America
Watch what you say
Door Ingrid Ştefan
By Ingrid Ştefan
Ingrid Ştefan
Molecular medicine student Bahar* had long wanted to do research in the US. ‘I wanted to see for myself how things are done at one of the best universities in the world.’
So when she applied for an exchange programme to complete her master thesis project there and got accepted into Duke University in North Carolina, she was beyond thrilled. ‘I knew it was going to be a very cool lab.’
And while that proved to be true, it also gave her a front-row seat to Trump’s backlash against academia.
Funding cut
As Bahar left Groningen for the US, she knew it wasn’t the best place to be. She fully expected the political climate to be tense under the new administration. But she could never have imagined what’s currently happening: ‘The country of freedom has become the country of censorship.’
Some people aren’t even comfortable sharing their opinions
She started in January, before Trump’s inauguration, and people were already speculating about the things he was going to do. ‘But I never truly believed it.’
That changed during one of the first lab meetings, when it was announced Trump had cut funding for the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest biomedical research agency. ‘We were all like: Oh, he can actually do that.’
Even if it didn’t affect her directly, she saw the immediate impact it had on the university. ‘They started cutting the small things, like the cash prize for a poster competition or the catering for scientific talks. It was sad to see that happening.’
Anxious
Bahar isn’t the only one who was caught off guard. When Beer Prakken, a PhD student who has just returned from a few months of doing research at Yale on political humour, saw how easily the Trump administration could revoke international students’ visas, he felt naive about going to the US. ‘I studied Trump a lot, so I knew he could do whatever’, he says. ‘Yet I lied to myself and still went there. I’m happy I did, but I do feel a bit stupid.’
Prakken, too, arrived in January, and by February the university was in turmoil. ‘Everyone became very anxious.’ A lot of people within the university started checking their social media and advising others to do the same. ‘But I had already had research published on Trump and it’s not like I could delete it.’
Still, he went through his social media and even unfollowed some pages, just to be sure. ‘It’s very ironic that in the supposed land of free speech, you have to be wary about what you do’, he says.
Digital surveillance
Bahar feels the same. ‘The US has this promise of freedom, but that feels hypocritical when some people aren’t even comfortable sharing their opinions.’ Like her colleague in the lab, for example, an international PhD student who is too afraid to even mention Trump’s name in a critical context. ‘He says “government” instead and he starts whispering.’
It’s difficult to make sense of how much the government can control
She herself doesn’t have a problem talking about these things, though she is worried about the possibility of digital surveillance. ‘Is it a conspiracy theory, or is this surveillance actually happening? It’s difficult to make sense of how much the government can control’, she says. Either way, it has made her more cautious.
‘I use WhatsApp to talk to everyone, yet sometimes even that can make me too freaked out to discuss Trump and his actions.’ The involvement of Elon Musk in government matters and the lack of data privacy just add to the unease. ‘It really makes you appreciate Europe for how safe your data is.’
Visa problems
In Prakken’s experience, though, such anxieties are short-lived. ‘Weirdly enough, it soon just becomes your new reality.’ For him, it only took a week before it all turned into background noise. ‘I knew that I might run into trouble if I wanted to go back to the Netherlands and then return, for example. But that’s just something everybody has to consider now.’
It’s why many students and scholars decide not to leave at all, like Prakken’s friend, a chemistry researcher who is not even politically involved. Or Bahar’s lab colleague, who’s already heard stories from PhD friends unable to re-enter the country despite holding a valid visa.
Bahar isn’t worried about her own visa, though. ‘Since I’m a visiting scholar, it’s different than for students.’ It also helps that the principal investigator in her lab is very supportive. ‘I saw how much he fought for my PhD colleague when he had some trouble, and it gave me confidence.’
Besides, he made sure to tell her: ‘As long as we have an agreement, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure everything is handled correctly.’
Backup plan
It’s this type of support that makes Mark Trivanovic, a behavioural and cognitive neurosciences student, feel quite relaxed about doing his master thesis research at the University of California. ‘The principal investigator and I put together a backup plan before I arrived. If I wanted to or was forced to leave, he’d continue mentoring me online.’
I feel like I have to justify why I’m in the US
And though he held his breath for a minute when returning to the US after a sudden trip to Croatia, he’s still more worried about going out in the streets of San Francisco than being deported.
He’s an exception, however. ‘I have quite a few European colleagues working in the lab and they’re all shaking in their boots.’ Especially since a Turkish student got her visa revoked in Boston for an opinion piece she wrote. ‘Maybe I’m becoming too relaxed. But what can they really do to me?’ And besides, he says, he’s almost done anyway.
Disneyland
The current political climate may feel like a ‘soap opera’, says Trivanovic, yet he’s happy to have been there. ‘Let me preface this: I don’t think the US is a great country and I never had the “American dream”, but the situation in academia is just better here, especially the link between science and industry.’
Bahar agrees. ‘Academia in the US is like Disneyland for researchers.’ Despite that, she feels a bit ashamed to admit that her time there was so successful professionally, or that she’s accepted the university’s offer to become a research assistant there.
‘I feel guilty about it, like I have to justify why I’m in the US. Because if I don’t complain about what’s happening here, it’s like I’m okay with it.’
At the same time, she is aware that her non-European citizenship would make it difficult for her to find a job elsewhere. ‘Living in the US sucks, but I love the lab. That’s the compromise you make if you’re passionate about something.’
*Bahar is a pseudonym. Her real name is known to the editorial staff.
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