Libby Bishop is currently the manager for Producer Relations, specializing in Research Ethics, at the UK Data Archive, University of Essex, in the United Kingdom. After getting my Ph.D. in Labour Economics at the University of California at Berkeley, I would never have predicted that I would become a manager of anything. In nearly every regard, I am not a typical economist, but I am true to type in my forecasting ability. It was my study of economics made me undyingly sceptical that markets can solve every social and economic problem we face (though I believe they can help in some domains). I have worked in a think tank, a tech company, a community college, and now a university. I write about data, ethics, and research methods. I try to garden, but a better description might be low-yield biological experimentation. I enjoy running, swimming, and dressage. Email: ebishop@essex.ac.uk
by Libby Bishop Amid the latest privacy kerfuffle in which WhatsApp agreed to sell users' data to its parent Facebook, an article published by Jackman and Kanerva in the Washington and Lee Law Review Online that describes new procedures for research review at Facebook could be deemed inconsequential, or at best, ironic. Even readers familiar…
by Libby Bishop Happy Fourth of July. This is the United States holiday that celebrates the American colonies throwing off the shackles of undemocratic rule by a controlling European power and purports to honour freedom. I am an American, living in the now-less-United Kingdom, where, on the 23rd of June, 37% of the electorate voted…
by Libby Bishop “Descending tetrachord?” Neither one of us had a clue. The descending tetrachord is one of many musical mysteries my husband and I have faced as we have listened and watched Professor Craig Wright's course, Listening to Classical Music, on YouTube from Yale University. Professor Wright is a self-described old white guy, talking…
by Libby Bishop In a speech in St Petersburg, Alexander von Humboldt called for the first large-scale research project across Russia to investigate the effects of deforestation on climate. The year was 1829. This project embodied the key features of Humboldt's methods: empirical, comparative and collaborative. He was part of the Republic of Letters, an…