~Nuka-Kitty

Hey there fuzzbutts!

I've got a doctoral student doing her dissertation on tabletop roleplaying games (e.g., D&D), and she's looking for participants to do a quick survey about gamers! If you play tabletop RPGs, or if you know someone who plays, or if you're willing to help signal boost her study to other folks (furry or otherwise) who play tabletop RPGs, I know she'd SUPER appreciate it!

https://illinoisstate.az1.qualtrics.....2HlVr5WPae7We2

Thanks so much! =^_^=

- Nuka

Well, it's been a few years in the making, but my colleagues and I at the Furscience team have finished and self-published our book! It's a condensed summary of the work we've done over the past decade on the furry fandom, all in just under 800 pages 😛 It's by far the largest book I've written, clocking in at just under a quarter of a million words!
If you're interested in taking a gander for yourself, you can download it for free here: https://www.researchgate.net/public.....e_Furry_Fandom (just click "More" --> "Download").

If you want a physical version the size of a brick that you can bludgeon someone to death with, you can do so here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Furscience-De...../dp/0997628839 (Please note that the cost on Amazon is only for the print cost - we do not make a cent from sales of this book - we don't profit from this research. So only buy it if you want a physical copy for some reason, not to support our work: You're only paying Amazon for the print cost. We're delighted to have people download it and share it for free, because we believe this information should be free for everyone!)

Hey everyone!

FurScience is at it again with a new study of the furry fandom! Help us learn more about the furry fandom while also earning yourself a chance to win one of several Amazon.com gift cards we're giving out in a draw! It's our way of saying "Thank You!" for helping us do science!

You can take the survey online at:

https://tamuc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe.....PoSfNKEKSnTh1s

The survey will be open until April 30, 2022. Please also consider helping us signal boost this study by sharing this with other furs! The more furries who take it, the better and more representative our data will be!

Thank you! =^_^=

- Nuka

Hey folks!

For those who don't know me, I'm Dr. Courtney Plante (Nuka), and I'm hoping you can help out the FurScience team with a psychology study we're conducting! We're doing an anonymous survey (about 60 minutes) about the furry fandom, including questions about furry and non-furry identities, fursonas, conflict, leisure activities, the function of fandoms, relationships, and demographic information. This survey is being put online and will be available to furries all over the world!

If you're 18 years or older and you self-identify as a furry, you're invited to participate! Participants are eligible to win a $25 Amazon gift card!

You can take the survey online at: https://uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com.....ifqgWHXamzQ3WK

We appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey, and we encourage you to help us signal boost it on social media! :)

Neat! I've been nominated again for the Good Furry Award! I was a runner-up last year, and it's always incredibly flattering just to be nominated! :3

If you want to vote for myself or for another awesome furry to win this award, you can do so here! The deadline is the end of May!

https://www.askpapabear.com/2021-voting.html

Hey all!

Normally I'd be posting about one of FurScience's studies, but I've actually got something different for y'all! Another fellow furry (not affiliated with FurScience) is running a study about furries, and is having a bit of trouble getting participants! If you've got a few minutes and want to help furries study the furry fandom, check out the link below - I'm sure she'd greatly appreciate it! :)

"Hello all! My name is Victoria and I am a furry and an undergrad student from Carroll College working on a Carroll College IRB approved study on gender expression found in fursonas and how that plays a role in identity in the furry community. I would love to hear about your experiences with gender as furries in this survey!"

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1.....rm?usp=sf_link

So I just got an e-mail from my university saying that I've been given tenure at my university!

For those who don't know, this is a big deal - one of the biggest deals a scholar can get! It means that I've got a position for life at my university!

If you'll permit me to be sappy and sentimental for just a moment... This is a huge deal for me. Like, beyond words. I remember starting out in grad school and going down the path of studying furries... I remember being told repeatedly by folks not to do it - that it was a "career killer", and that I wouldn't be taken seriously. And, sure enough, we've had articles rejected countless times from journals, simply because the subject was too weird or editors thought that it was a joke, that we weren't doing real research. I'm pretty sure that the bizarre nature of my research was at least part of the reason why, over two years, I was rejected for more than 120 different positions that I had applied for.

That's why this tenure feels so amazing to me - it's validation. For nearly a decade I did research that, in my heart of hearts, I truly believed was important and meaningful, and have stood by my guns that fantasy and leisure activities are worth taking seriously. But near the end, before I finally landed my current job, I did start to lose hope. I told myself I was one year away from giving it all up and just leaving academia altogether - one more set of rejections from hanging up the towel and trying something else entirely.

Getting tenure is so validating - for the first time, I finally feel completely sure that I made the right decision - that a journey which started more than 12 years ago has finally come to fruition! I'm where I want to be!

Thank you to everyone who's followed me on this journey. It's 100% true that I would never have had the audacity to keep trying if it weren't for the furry fandom and all the friends I've made along the way. Thank you all - this is just as much your achievement as it is mine! <3

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go cry a bit more while listening to this for the tenth time tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdHm4dXkFNo

Hey fuzzbutts!

I'm running a study of furries with an honours student of mine this semester, and we're looking to get a decent-sized sample of participants this year! The survey covers a number of topics including, among other things, Covid, well-being, relationships, and age / generational differences in the fandom experience! If you've got a bit of time, I'd be super appreciative if you could complete the survey (and/or feel free to help signal boost the study!) :) Thanks!

https://tamuc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe.....9W5XjuQSXtj7PD

Just a reminder to any furries interested in taking FurScience's 2020 fandom study about Covid (and many other topics): Today is the LAST DAY to participate before the survey closes!

Don't miss your chance to participate and be entered for one of several $25 Amazon gift cards!

https://uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com.....TUNDXZ6DtZfahT

Heya furries one and all!

FurScience is at it again! Our 2020 Furry Study is up and running and available to complete from now until the end of September. It includes a ton of new questions, including questions about coping during the current pandemic!

If you've got 45-60 minutes and want to help us out you can click on the link and scroll down to "Study 9" to complete it. We'd also love it if you should share the study with other furries you know to help us recruit as many furries as possible worldwide!

Thanks, and happy science-ing! :3

- Dr. Courtney "Nuka" Plante

http://furscience.com/participant

If anyone's interested: I've been nominated for a "Good Furry" award based on the research I've been doing on the furry fandom for the past decade! :) It's at the voting stage, and if you think the research and advocacy we've been doing for the fandom warrants it, feel free to vote for me (or for any of the other wonderful furs on this list! Truly, it's an honour even to be nominated!)

http://www.askpapabear.com/2020-vote-now.html

I really should get better at promoting my own talks, shouldn't I? =P

At any rate, if you've got nothing to do this morning, at 11:00 EST, FurScience will be giving the talk we were supposed to give this weekend at Furnal Equinox. It'll be livestreamed thanks to the fine folks over at Culturally F'd!

Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn-.....vEwTTPvOxwz7TA

Hey all! Yours truly is going to be representing FurScience on the AwkwardCast this Sunday at 3pm EST! Check it out, and feel free to send them some questions to ask on-air!

https://twitter.com/Ayn_Wye/status/.....03174116216838

Yeah - my colleagues and I sat down and wrote a book based on our brony research, and the darned thing got published, wouldn't ya know?

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/.....t-the-bronies/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476663718

Apologies in advance for the cringe-y title page - it was a battle we weren't going to win with the publisher. As I said to a friend, I suspect it's to try and capitalize on the average person's relative ignorance about the brony fandom. Initially, we had wanted to target the book toward bronies - we wanted to commission a fandom artist to do a kickass cover with our OCs and with a title that was a nod to the show, like "My Little Brony: Psychology is Magic" - but the publisher was afraid of infringing on Hasbro's trademark. Plus, a bunch of nods to the fandom would work great for bronies, but they wanted a broader audience. So they came back to us with this cover. I think it's supposed to lure people in with a "hey, wanna learn a bit more about these weirdos?", only to drop some knowledge bombs on them and have them learn "Actually, they're really not all bad!"

Heya everyone!

I'll be with the FurScience team managing our table at Eurofurence! If you see us, drop by and say hi and let me throw some science your way! :3 It's my first time across the pond, and my first time at a furry con outside of North America!

Heya fuzzbutts one and all! Interested in helping FurScience with another one of our furry surveys? The more participants we get, the better our data will be! You must be 18 for this one! And please help us spread the word of this one - it's one of our most important studies to date, and we're going to need a REALLY large sample for this one!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/furs.....19aTdc6mODDNTE

Check it out below! And also, for the record: While I've been nominated for this reward (and I'm very flattered to be nominated), I'm not at all suggesting that you vote for me! In fact, full disclosure, I voted for DogBomb, who I consider to be far more deserving of this award than myself! :)

http://www.askpapabear.com/vote-now.....AHxkEzzI3A2Xo0

Hey folks! My colleagues and I are putting the finishing touches on a book about the psychology of bronies (based on the past few years of research we've been conducting).

At any rate, we need your help coming up with a clever / interesting title for the book! At the moment, "The Psychology of the Brony" isn't a terribly interesting title. We'd like something more clever, catchy, or interesting.

If you've got any suggestions for a title that might appeal to bronies, fire away in the comments below!

So far, the winning title (the title to beat) is: "Research is Magic: The Psychology of the Brony Fandom"

w00t! A bunch of our research (and an interview with me) got used in an excellent piece CNN is putting together on furries! :D

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/us/f.....ure/index.html

Greetings furries (and science aficionados!)

Are you a vegetarian, or is someone you know, a vegetarian?

My colleagues and I are running a study about vegetarians. If you're 18 or older AND a vegetarian, you can check out the link below to take it (it takes about 20 minutes, and you'll be entered in a draw for one of several $50 Amazon gift cards).

If you know of anyone who is a vegetarian, please feel free to forward this link to them and/or help me signal boost this study - I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

- Nuka

Survey Link: https://tamuc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe.....nYet2okoD8e3mB

Heya everyone! If you've got some time and you're interested in helping out with furry science, come take our newest, international FurScience survey! We've been doing these for years now, and we use the data to help the fandom and those outside the fandom learn more about furries! :) And feel free to spread the word about it to other furries you know - we're trying to make this our biggest and best sample ever!

https://psychologyuwaterloo.qualtri.....9LTMxBo27VJMl7

Yeah, it's about what I figured it'd be...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet.....y-reveals.html

Surprisingly, they did a good job cut pasting the actual numbers into the article (though they apparently got tables from someone else, erroneously attributing them to us, though they are nice infographics that may well use our data). However, they get a million little details wrong - and some not so little details. Like calling our project "Pleasures of the Fur"... you know, the VANITY FAIR article about furries a decade ago. But, you know, it's cool that you labeled our research with the same name of the tabloid trash article we were trying to disprove. While you're at it, why not have a look at the Catholic Church's new book, "The God Delusion"?

w00t! This just seems to be our month for good articles using our research! An article about furries in Vice referenced a bunch of our work! :)

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/.....pace-for-youth

Yet another article based on the Psychology Today post. That said, this one is surprisingly good - one of the fairest representations of our research I've seen :3

http://www.kansascity.com/news/nati.....164016862.html

Oh boy, the ride never ends =P Looks like the Daily Mail of all places picked up the Psychology Today piece on furries I wrote a few days ago. Comments on the piece are... well, about what you'd expect to find from a Daily Mail article.

Also, I can't help but feel like the author of this article wanted to put giant air quotes around the word "expert" every time they referred to me. =P

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet.....y-furries.html