0. introducing tiny driver

A little about the newsletter and what I'm hoping this space can be.

Hi there! Welcome to tiny driver, a newsletter written by me, Ida Yalzadeh. I used to be in graduate school, and now I’m not. In the midst of all that has happened and continues to be happening, I managed to graduate with a PhD and get a job teaching in a program that I feel very lucky to be a part of for the next two years. I decided to start writing this newsletter as a way to process this transition, and how it changes the ways I think about my research, my pedagogy, and how I interact with the world around me. And I want you to talk back to me (if you’d like to, of course).

With each letter, I plan to share something I’ve been thinking about from the realm of what I write, what I teach, and/or what I consume. What I write is meant to be open-ended, eliciting more questions than answers, and I hope that you take it as an invitation to write back if you feel so moved. Really, please write back with anything—a (public or private) response, a video, a resource, a gif, an image, etc. etc. If you’d like it to be something I share in the next newsletter, please let me know that, too.

Aside from that, I also plan to include some items of note from the week (e.g. a great piece on what transformative justice does and does not look like, a very ambitious deer who loves chocolate chip cookies, a free way to watch beautiful plays performed in London on YouTube), as well as a pup-date or two:

In essence, my goal for you, dear reader, is the following:

1. I want this to be an email that you are delighted to receive when you open your inbox. (As most of you currently subscribed are my actual friends, I hope that this will not be an issue.)

2. I want this to be a space of growth, both for me and for those willing to engage with me through this medium. I hope that this space will help me become a better thinker and writer in collaboration with others who are invested in the same futures, in the same movements forward.

So, all of this being said, you may be wondering, “Ida, why ‘tiny driver’?” Well, I was thinking about what I wanted out of this newsletter, and realized that I was invested in gaining momentum to move forward. I wanted to use this as a way to begin writing about questions and observations that would allow me to keep thinking—to drive forward in my work with greater clarity of purpose. And where am I driving? Toward building a more thoughtful world and a better future, hopefully, with all of you. I also wanted to acknowledge that I am but one, tiny person on the road trying to do my part. And I hope to share the road forward.

My inaugural letter will be sent out on Monday, and I plan to send out something either every or every other Monday. I look forward to talking with you all soon!