A Scientist Is Not a Country
Something I’ve noticed that really bothers me is the way researchers are referred to depending on where they’re from. When it’s an American researcher, she’ll call them out by name, mention their university, their position, their lab, etc. You know exactly who the person is and where they work. But when it’s a researcher from another country, suddenly they’re “Brazil,” “Japan,” etc. Their name and institution disappear and they become their country.
The university part is especially strange to me. American universities are often specifically named, but foreign researchers don’t seem to get that same treatment. So you end up with an American professor being identified as an individual researcher from a specific institution, while a Brazilian professor is just “Brazil.” That’s a pretty significant difference in how you’re presenting the people involved.
I don’t know if that’s intentional, but I think it’s worth noticing. A researcher from Brazil isn’t representing “Brazil,” just like a researcher from the US isn’t representing “the United States.” They’re individual scientists who happen to work at a particular university in a particular country.
It might seem like a small thing, but I think it says something about how foreign researchers are being viewed. They’re not “Brazil” or “Japan.” They’re individual scientists with names, careers, universities, and expertise. Why not refer to them that way?