lisajay
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Posts posted by lisajay
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Am I crazy for thinking I can have a baby and still finish in five years? My goal is to wait until I'm done with coursework, plan my pregnancy for the summer, and take advantage of the six weeks of parental leave. I know there are a lot of things that have to go right for my plan to work, but I am going into this thing planning on having ze babies and staying on track.
I'm willing to admit that I am completely delusional, so at least I got that, right?
my plan is nearly identical, except i'm targeting operation get-knocked-up at ~9 months before coursework ends (waddling around campus will do my preggo self some good, i'm sure), then 9 months prepping for quals while only having to be on campus to teach, then a fellowship year for the dissertation where i won't have to be on campus on any kind of regular basis, just for meetings & what not.
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as a 30-year-old, i have a career under my belt—one that effectively uses an english degree without being a teaching position. as such, i'm prepared to actually mentor future students (something i wouldn't feel capable of doing had i never been out of school before), & i'm also well situated to edit &/or launch an academic journal, which makes me more marketable than if i lacked significant editorial experience. so i feel great about my employment prospects, thanks
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thanks for the responses!
i'm graduating this semester, so i'd be out of the program by then. it's a split-level course, though, so that could be problematic. i may just ask him about it in person at the department's graduation banquet, since both of the smaller projects that're relevant to his summer course will be finished by then & i'll have something tangible to run past him should he be interested.
thanks again!
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apologies if this has been covered in the forum elsewhere (i searched but didn't find anything relevant)...
i just noticed that one of the summer courses being offered at my current school has a reading list with quite a bit of overlap into some small projects i'm working on now, as well as my larger phd project. so my question is: what's the etiquette/protocol for guest lecturing? i assume the standard practice is that you'd be invited to speak rather than approaching a professor & volunteering to do so, but curious how common (if at all) it is to go against that norm? anyone have any experience with this?
thanks!!
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Thanks! I was about to go celebrate, but then I heard about this attack in Boston. I am very distraught over it, all of my family is in Boston (my sisters are marathon runners - both ok). The explosions were right near my undergrad institution. Please everyone keep Boston in your thoughts.
yeah, word hit our office around the time i came back from my lunch break. glad to hear that your family's safe & sound, but it definitely changed the mood of april 15th for sure. just awful...
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kudos!! OSU is lucky to have you! now get out there & celebrate!!
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She loves the smell of red wine. Is this normal?
my dog is quite the fan of beer & irish whiskey
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Oh god, I just got into Irvine...
of course you did—well done, you!!
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you can say that again! I'm very glad to not be in those shoes. hang in there!!
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i've got comps on may 3. prepping for a question on the relationship of postmodernism to modernism & another on the role of ecocriticism in 20th century american lit. good times!!
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I hear ya. For me, the issue is that the program I am leaning toward is the one that guarantees funding for the shortest time (4 years guaranteed with 99% students receiving 5th year funding) versus the other two I am considering (if one converts from a wait list) which guarantee funding for 5 years with most students receiving 6th and even 7th year funding (in the case of Irvine).
but bear in mind that the admittedly-not-guaranteed 5th year funding in question is a fellowship. so you're looking at [more likely than not] 5 years of funding in exchange for only 3 years of teaching, right? & if you were to not get a dissertation fellowship, i'm pretty sure they'd extend the TAship a year [at least that's my understanding]
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depends on the length of the presentations. most are 12 to 15 minutes, maybe 20. 1 page double-spaced usually averages to 2 minutes spoken, so you just do the math from there.
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so many awesome posts, so very few upvotes! i shall celebrate in all of your honor by watching evil dead.
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do UC schools tend to favor admitting their own students more than the average bear?
i think i see what you did there, & i like it.
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thanks! open house tomorrow, after which point i hope to pull the trigger
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Plus, I'm doing a lot of digital humanities work now so I would like to showcase it.
FWIW, i included a link to my vimeo profile (which is where my video scholarship lives) in my SOP. i had asked around, & the general consensus seemed to be that it certainly wouldn't hurt.
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on my phone sans full grad cafe functionality, so: +1 sir!!
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for me personally, my outcome this season was perfect so i wouldn't change a thing, subjectively speaking.
that being said, here's what I've realized objectively & in hindsight that could be helpful for future applicants:
Don't submit the same writing sample with all of your apps. I submitted what I felt (knew) was my strongest, most polished, most interesting, most enjoyable to read, & sexiest piece of writing, which also happens to be the most closely related to what I'd like my dissertation to be (I basically see it as a working chapter at this point). Yet when I compiled my list of programs where I planned to apply, I knew damned good & well that this particular piece of writing was only likely to appeal to one program in particular. So in hindsight, I more or less shot myself in the foot (had I failed to get in to the program I had my heart set on), which is something I have a proclivity for doing. Case in point: I only applied to two undergrad programs—the one I wanted, & the one that promised me a full ride if I applied by a set deadline... which I missed. Coincidence? Of course not. Do not follow my example. Pick your writing sample based on EACH program to which you apply.
Piggybacking on that: tailor each SOP to fit the writing sample you picked for each target; don't just adjust your fit paragraph.
Don't procrastinate. Have your SOP & CV nailed down at least a month before your first app deadlines so that you can provide your recommenders with copies to help them help you. This also will give you an ample cushion to incorporate any feedback they may have.
Last but certainly not least: Don't limit yourself geographically. I'm 30, getting hitched in the fall, & both my partner & I are well established in California. All of my family & the vast majority of his live here. I've lived outside of the state as well as outside of the country, & I'm confident that this is the place for me. My partner & I discussed the application process at length before I even commited to applying, & we mutually decided I should stick with California programs this round, & expand my reach to programs out of state if I were shut out (obviously only fully funded programs were under consideration regardless of location). My partner is incredibly supportive & realizes we may well have to move out of state once I hit the job market, but until then, he needs to be in a location where his industry (video games) have an established presence, which considerably limits us in terms of metro areas. I got in to my top choice, but I also realize that if I had extended my reach to include great fits out of state, I would have saved myself considerable stress. So yeah: cast a wider net than I did, & your sanity will thank you for it.
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^ Edited at 11:48. You posted at 11:48. Or should I say 9:48. It was fate.
now that's just spooky o.0
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14:44 = 2:44 pm
i can say this cos i am fluent in military time.
...& yes, i'm just joshing you
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Again, popularity doesn't validate or invalidate great literature. I'm not one of those people.
i didn't say you were one of *those* people. i said shakespeare was, & he wrote most of his "great literature" despite himself.
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There's a bizarre idea in this thread that popular culture has no aesthetic value...or that people, academics included, get no aesthetic pleasure from reading popular fiction, for example.
thank you.
after all, if pop had no aesthetic value, then the canon would only include shakespeare's sonnets, since that was the "art" he was banking on to save his reputation in the history books. the plays were "just" pop to pay the bills.
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too much to respond to most anything here individually, but i will say i'm in the anti-canon camp, with the caveat that i am pro-required survey courses, which are obviously going to be at least somewhat canon-based. so basically, an emphatic 'yes' to what fishbucket has said, while acknowledging that the canon is elitest & largely irrelevant to me as a scholar (though marginally important to me as a future teacher).
case in point: i've never read paradise lost, but i know enough to understand how it matters & why it matters in the grand scheme of things, & i can spot a milton reference. but it really boils down to intertextuality (i.e. frankenstein is better if you've got a grip on paradise lost, regardless of whether or not you actually read it, but you can still read it & appreciate it & analyze it without ever having heard of milton (both of which are canonical texts, but the same logic holds true with stuff outside the canon as well (i.e. gun, with occasional music is better if you're at least aware of pulp detective novels, but you can still get it even if you've got no idea who chandler is), & it works across canonical distinctions (stephen king's dark tower series draws on browning, eliot, spaghetti westerns, the sex pistols, the wizard of oz, king's own body of work, & on & on & on))).
& re: this talk of a nihilist abyss & science & truth claims &c, being anti-canon is basically just being a positive nihilist. which privileges subjective over "objective" truth any day of the week. which is largely why we positive nihilists are anti-canon in the first place.
I'm older and okay with that.
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
*applause!!*