From the Blog Team: A Thank You and a Goodbye
By The Neuroethics Blog Team
Over the years, The Neuroethics Blog has been run by neuroethics trainees under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Karen Rommelfanger. At its start, the team consisted of a few editors who meticulously received, copyedited, and prepared each piece for publication. Since then, it has grown to include a robust Copy and Layout team together run by a Managing Editor; this group worked daily behind the scenes to bring you your weekly post.
This week, the members of the team hope to collectively share with you our reflections from our time working with the Blog.
Managing Editor (2018-2021)
Assistant Managing Editor (2016-2018)
I discovered neuroethics the summer of 2016 during a study abroad trip in Paris, France; I started writing for and then managing The Neuroethics Blog soon after. At the time, I was double majoring in Neuroscience and Sociology. I picked these disciplines in hopes of better understanding the human experience, thinking the two would be largely unrelated. But, neuroethics proved to me otherwise. In retrospect, that trip to Paris was monumental for me. I met incredible mentors (who would come to support me through both college and medical school) and started what would become a long, exciting intellectual journey.
The Neuroethics Blog was live for about ten years. In that time, we published 612 pieces and garnered almost 2.5 million views from over 100 countries. Our most-read works covered numerous topics, including free will, bioenhancement, intelligence testing, and predictive neuroimaging. Our writers spanned all levels of training and worked tirelessly to bring to the community the most up-to-date, hot topics in the field. Internally, the shape of the Blog changed constantly as trainees graduated and new ones joined in their places. A Copy Team would read, edit, and revise every piece, and a Layout Team would prepare each one for publication. As Managing Editor, I often played roles on both of these teams. I ran the publication schedule, worked closely with the writers, and authored 14 pieces of my own. Most importantly, I had the pleasure of learning neuroethics through my role and of growing my own proficiency through the works we published.
Closing this chapter is bittersweet for me; in many ways, I grew into who I am alongside the growth of the Blog. That said, I am so thankful for you, our readers, for your support of and commitment to our platform; it has been an honor and a pleasure to be able to curate and bring new content to you over the years. My hope is that our community finds other spaces to create and share novel thoughts -- and to do so in ways that take advantage of our changing technology and changing world. The Blog was that place for me and for so many others. In the meantime, I look forward to where the future will take us and to crossing paths again along the way.
Copy Editor (2020-2021)
Social Media Manager (2019-2021)
As a newly-minted undergraduate at Emory University with my heart set on neuroscience studies, I decided I had the security to enroll in an introductory ethics course. Although its curriculum focused on abstract theory and historical context, it was not long after subscribing to The Neuroethics Blog email list that I realized I had found a forum that married my emerging interest in this ethics to social justice and the more concrete brain sciences. The Neuroethics Blog offered a place for early scholars such as myself to observe and even participate in neuroscience discourse that I felt really mattered, both to the scientific community and to the broader public. The Blog helped bridge these two populations, and also allowed me to view my work as a research assistant in a cognitive neuroscience lab through a critical lens.
I officially joined The Neuroethics Blog team during my sophomore year and began primarily in a social media role, which I continued through early August of this year. This position allowed me to curate and share popular news articles with neuroethics-relevant content to our Twitter and Facebook following, deepening my appreciation for the breadth of the field and the way in which journalists viewed neuroethical issues and communicated them to a general audience. The following year, I joined the Copy Team. Working as a copy-editor gave me exclusive access to blog articles in-the-making and to the revision process in which Sunidhi and Dr. Rommelfanger - both excellent mentors - would thoughtfully guide scholars to consider their work in new ways and from new perspectives.
Having published four of my own articles on the Blog (one co-authored by Dr. Veljko Dubljevic) and edited many more, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for this space. My sincere hope is that we, together, can play a part in crafting the next forum for early-career scholars and others to share ideas, findings, and developments in neuroethics. I am grateful for the role that the Blog has played in shaping my future trajectory as a scientist and a science communicator, and I look forward to what lies ahead.
Senior Layout Editor (2019 – 2021)
Editorial Intern (2011 – 2015, 2017 – 2019)
I have been involved with The Neuroethics Blog for most of its ten years of existence, starting in fall of 2011 (soon after I graduated from Emory with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology).
Being on the blog team has allowed me to be among the first to read the insightful, topical pieces we publish, and has given me valuable experience in creating and managing a website. This blog has also given me a platform to publish my own writing (where I could reach an audience much larger than any I would have otherwise) and to connect with others in the fields of neuroethics and neuroscience.
During my time with The Neuroethics Blog, I have seen it grow to become what it is today, and I am grateful to have had that opportunity. It is sad, in a way, to see it retiring, but this is also a time of transition, where we will be moving on to other things and other ways of being involved in neuroethics.
Social Media Manager (2021)
Layout Editor (2020-2021)
I initially became familiar with The Neuroethics Blog through my friend and mentor, Ankita Moss. As a former member of the team and a regular contributor, Ankita recommended that I take a look at The Blog given my interest in neuroscience and social justice, namely feminist neuroscience, and I cannot thank her enough for the recommendation.
In the time that I’ve assisted with The Blog, Dr. Rommelfanger and the rest of the team have been outstanding mentors and have created a space that allows everyone, no matter their connection with neuroethics, to engage with stimulating content and conversation. As I continue my study of neuroethics in Dr. Gillian Hue’s lecture course this year, I find myself frequently referring back to content on The Blog, and I am grateful to be a part of the team that brings it all to life.
On the Layout Team, I’ve learned a lot about the publishing process, and I want to extend a thank you to Jonah Queen for his guidance this past year. I’ve had the opportunity to publish my own piece, and I truly appreciate the platform that The Blog has provided for people of all ages and backgrounds to engage with neuroethics. Though it is difficult to witness the end, The Neuroethics Blog has fostered a rare community of readers, scholars, and scientists who embrace curiosity for the unknown and seek to challenge the norm. To me, that is quite an impressive legacy.
Want to cite this post?
Ramesh, S., Morrow, E., Queen, J., & Mohsenzadeh, A. (2021). From the Blog Team: A Thank You and a Goodbye. The Neuroethics Blog. Retrieved on , from http://www.theneuroethicsblog.com/2021/09/from-blog-team-thank-you-and-goodbye.html
