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Sigaba

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Everything posted by Sigaba

  1. Sigaba
    It's a mean time in America and it's going to get worse before it gets better. If you do post detailed information on your department's website, I recommend in the strongest possible terms that you exercise great discipline in maximizing the distance between your personal professional profile and your activity on social media.This exercise includes having zero connection between your professional Twitter account and your personal Twitter account. This exercise includes not using networks at public universities and colleges to express political POVs. The GOP went after William Cronon. Don't think it won't come after you. (Disclosure: I'm a Republican. Some of us are pushing back as hard as we can. Thus far, we're failing to make much of a difference. And we'll keep trying.)
  2. Sigaba
    As a historian, you know that's never the case.
  3. Sigaba
    Down the line, you're going to disagree with the guidance you receive from professors and professors are going to disappoint you. If you stay, you'll have an opportunity on working on how you manage relationships and expectations. You'll also have an opportunity to grind through something when your constellation of motivational factors is being disrupted by someone who has power over you, does not provide the kind of support you want, and who wants you to do something you don't want to do/don't think is necessary. In regards to managing expectations, it can be very easy, especially early on, to conclude that a professor is mostly right/approaching perfection or an incompetent POS who you would watch bleed to death in a gutter. (Did that sound bitter?) But sometimes professors know more than their students and tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. In the event you decide to not complete the MA program that you're in, I recommend that you develop a reason "why" that is authentic and sustainable given your field of study and the kind of second-guessing that may occur, and the possibility that your professors in your new program have positive relationships with your current advisor and that your answer will be discussed. (Because while graduate students gossip, faculty members share information that will inform future decisions.)
  4. Sigaba
    Please keep in mind that @fuzzylogician and @TMP (especially IRT history) consistently offer outstanding guidance--the fact that they agree with the professor in your OP is, IMO, sufficient reason to reread the POI's response to you, and to think it through. Please remember that sometimes (read: often) there's a big difference between what you want to hear and what you need to hear. The professor in the OP strikes me as someone who cares about you--a person whom she's never met--and is doing her level best to put you in a position to succeed, not just in gaining admissions to UC Davis, but to maximizing your potential as a professional academic historian. While you may get more favorable answers from other POIs, they may not necessarily be better answers.
  5. Sigaba
    FWIW, I agree with F_L and take it a bit further. You're likely being told that you specifically will not be offered admission without improving your Arabic. IRT the portion of your OP that I've quoted, I very strongly advise you to avoid the path of finding the weirdness when you're given a point blank answer. Here's why. The students you describe may be the reason for the POI's response or they may be exceptions to the rule or they may be the beneficiaries of the benefit of the doubt. Without specific knowledge about their circumstances, dwelling on the inconsistency isn't the best use of your time and you can develop a reputation for being a barracks lawyer. In the strongest possible terms, I recommend not pursuing this course of action. I recommend that you thank her for her thoughtful reply and that you're going to take her guidance to heart (if you intend to do so). If you're still going to apply, simply thank her for her reply.
  6. Sigaba
    http://socialdifference.columbia.edu/files/socialdiff/projects/Article__Mapping_the_Margins_by_Kimblere_Crenshaw.pdf https://twitter.com/sandylocks?lang=en http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/souls/vol2no4/vol2num4art5.pdf Wills, Jeremiah B., and Barbara J. Risman. "The Visibility of Feminist Thought in Family Studies." Journal of Marriage and Family 68, no. 3 (2006): 690-700. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3838885. Russell, Mary Nomme. "FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK SKILLS." Canadian Social Work Review / Revue Canadienne De Service Social 6, no. 1 (1989): 69-81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41669292.
  7. Sigaba
    To take R_S's guidance a step further, do what you can to tweak your SOP so that it also communicates that you are as great fit for the program as much as the program is a perfect fit for you. If you want something, please go and get it. Those who would belittle you are likely not the ones making the decisions--if they are, your first choice isn't worthy of your time.
  8. Sigaba
    I don't think that making up an excuse or resigning without notice are the way to go if poise is your objective. I think that what may work for you is to let them know with at least two weeks' notice that you're leaving to go to graduate school. In your remaining time at the firm, do what you can to finish up your work and to put your teammates in a position where your departure won't cause them undue stress. Keep in mind that as an at will employee, they may show you the door as soon as you give them notice. If you're counting on that last pay check to help with your trip to Ireland, you will have to find a choice among what's best for your firm, what's best for your wallet, and what's best for your sense of poise. Pie in the sky, your boss and your colleagues are happy for you, you spend your last days at work training your replacement, and you get a thoughtful gift on your last day. But on the down side, some questions. Is it worth feeling like you did the right thing if doing so results in avoidable financial inconvenience? Is having that extra grip when you go to Ireland worth it if it comes at the expense of coworkers who trusted you as a colleague and a boss saying "I'll never hire someone who reminds me of (read: looks like) gangsterlicious_scholar again?"
  9. Sigaba
    Oddly, the private and public firms posting job openings in the Economist have a different view. @Uzair2 I recommend that you look at the resumes of incumbents who have jobs you would want. See if there are patterns between career paths and the academic training they've received.
  10. Sigaba
    Do the best that you can with all aspects of your applications. Ultimately, you're competing against your own potential as a professional academic historian.
  11. Sigaba
    Again, put down the shovel. Your arguments are being followed just fine. That others of different temperament and backgrounds disagree with you doesn't mean that you're not being understood. Quite the contrary. The pretense of scholarly conversation and pleas for moral conduct fall flat from the weight of your repeated efforts to control a conversation so that it's about you, and from the ineffective aggression you display when you don't get what you want. Just so there is additional confusion on your part, here's a summary. Sexual harassment includes unwanted advances. A person's interpretation of a traumatic experience doesn't need your approval or understanding to be valid. The perception of being harassed is generally enough to initiate a response as laid out by an institution's policies and applicable laws. It's the system's responsibility to provide due process and to protect the rights of the accused, not of the recipient of the unwanted advance. Faculty members hitting on students is unethical because there is an inherent and insurmountable disparity in power. If you ask out a classmate, you put yourself at risk. If you don't want to be at risk, don't ask out your classmates. If you don't like the rules, the appropriate way to voice one's concerns doesn't include an interrogation by you. You are not qualified to lecture people on matters of law and morality. If you were, you'd have cited laws and/or peer reviewed scholarship and/or professional publications to support your points. EOM/NRN
  12. Sigaba
    To an observer, over confidence and under confidence look the same. The hostility you're encountering may be responses to the mistaken perception that you hold your peers in contempt. Give some thought to how you could let your professors and classmates see you in a different light. This process would likely require you to give others a second opportunity to make a different impression as well. There are many different approaches to take ranging from being frank and direct to being very subtle. I recommend that you pick tactics that allow you to take calculated risks outside of your comfort zone while being true to who you are. For example, there could be a group activity that doesn't float your boat -- like binge watching a show on Netflix. Without diving in, you could watch a few episodes so you know why the show is appealing. If the show doesn't work for you, phrase your opinion diplomatically. "I don't get it, help me to understand..." and then listen. Small gestures like these can go a long way to changing relationships for the better. Please keep in mind that the objective is to do things differently not to put yourself or anyone else under the microscope for the purpose of finding flaws. My $0.02.
  13. Sigaba
    @Rin -- you do realize that you're responding in a thread in the Life Sciences fora? You might find more of what you're looking for here. http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/10-humanities/ #HTH.
  14. Sigaba
    Another consideration is the impact of being a part time student while working. If an important project were to come along that could advance your career, would you have the bandwidth to turn heads and maintain your focus on your school work? Would you even be considered for this opportunity or would TPTB assume that it would be too much to put on your plate? Along the same lines, how will being a part time student impact your ability to qualify for performance bonuses? Will your bosses say that the cash they're forking over for your education counts as your bonus? What happens if you figure out that getting a Ph.D. isn't the way you want to go? Will your bosses say "Okay, but where's the money we invested?" Will they conclude, for what ever reason, "He didn't finish what he started...can we will he trust him with very challenging projects?" These are the kinds of questions bosses can ask, even when they like you.
  15. Sigaba
    Communicating with Bell ≠ applying to UNLV. Communicating with Bell is asking for help from a BTDT. IRT to being "impressed" I think you should take a step back from those kinds of judgments. You're stuck on the side of the road with limited resources. Is it prudent evaluate the help being offered by the make and model of the vehicle that pulls over to help? (At the very least, have the good sense to keep those opinions to yourself when you're offering identifying information on a BB where faculty are known to come and lurk. Who knows. Maybe someone at Penn isn't impressed by the schools you've attended.)
  16. Sigaba
    Have you communicated with Andrew Bell in the history department at UNLV? Have you had the opportunity to develop a check list of the requirements at Penn and other schools? Is working on your language skills now a viable option or must you pursue a MA?
  17. Sigaba
    What do you mean when you say "job advancement"? Do you want to be a boss? Do you want to make more money? Do you want to have more say over the type of work you perform (more challenging, more important to the field, and so forth)? The answer doesn't need to be this or that. But if you figured out your priorities there may be other options than getting a doctorate to get you where you want to go. For example, would working as a project manager allow you to check off enough boxes on your list to make a doctorate unnecessary?
  18. Sigaba
    @Rin I may have missed the answers in your OP as well as your posts in other threads. I apologize if my questions fall into the "asked and answered" category. In what field do you want to earn a Ph.D.? Where do you want to study? What do you want to do for a living after you've earned your doctorate?
  19. Sigaba

    GRE Date

    Sigaba replied to hungrybear's topic in History

    Yeah, that should have been caught in the editing.
  20. Sigaba

    GRE Date

    Sigaba replied to hungrybear's topic in History

    Given your specific concerns and your flexible schedule, I recommend that you increase your prep tempo now so that you can take the exam sooner. If you're not satisfied with the score you receive, you will have enough time to rest (a bit), regroup, refocus, and study more. Notwithstanding your concerns about sending a red flag, please don't let the GRE distract you from other elements of your applications, especially your SOP and your relationships with POIs writing LORs.
  21. Sigaba
    If you earn a master's degree in the same field you want to earn a doctorate, your bachelors in journalism should not be a hindrance. (If you're very concerned, you could look at departments where you imagine teaching down the line. What percentage of newer professors have three degrees in literature?) Insofar as developing your language skills, I think I understand how the structure of an undergraduate major could be appealing. However,is taking a step backwards (turning down an offer of admission to earn another b.a.) the best path forward for you personally? Does the program at UCL have requirements or offer opportunities to develop language skills while earning your master's degree? If you were to apply yourself as a graduate student, could you get to where you want to be with your language skills in a timely manner? (Keep in mind that your degree in journalism may give you a leg up in your writing skills--can you spend less time writing in English in favor of working in French or Spanish?) Whatever you decide, please do come back and let everyone know what path you picked and why. That information may be helpful to others down the line.
  22. Sigaba
    @rphilos put down the shovel. The first sentence is the OP is the one that mattered. No additional details were needed for anyone who has had any training in how sexual harassment is defined or on how to conduct oneself professionally in the work place. You have attempted to hijack the thread by going on and on and on and on about "morality" and the law, uniformed statements about legal "semantics," hypotheticals about unattractive men getting turned down for a date (a revealing example), and comments about autism. Women don't need the permission of or validation from men to feel the way they feel about their own experiences or if they want to take action. If men don't want to be accused of improper conduct, they should do some soul searching, learn the relevant policies, get some training on how to act appropriately, dial up their situational awareness, stop thinking with their Johnsons, and govern themselves accordingly. In regards to soul searching, you should look in the mirror. To repeat--the OP provided all (read: all) of the information needed. A faculty member propositioned a graduate student for sex and the student took umbrage. Your demand for additional information and ongoing attempts to shift the conversation indicate that your first, second, and third thoughts are that it is okay for someone to exploit a position of power for sex.
  23. Sigaba
    The ones you should ask this question are the members of your committee. Listen to the answer very carefully. A classmate and erstwhile friend raced through the program while developing a "you can't tell me shit about history" attitude. He blew off multiple recommendations that he take a semester or two to revise his dissertation. He scoffed, ranted and raved. He did not relent. He did not revise. He got a PNG along with a Ph.D.
  24. Sigaba
    @TakeruK and @rphilos what are the two of you trying to accomplish with your back and forth in this particular thread?
  25. Sigaba
    Keep in mind that many history departments value publishing over teaching. If educating undergraduates is your primary objective, give some thought to keeping that under your hat. Don't deliberately deceive anyone but don't belabor the point either. If you're committed to teaching history, an alternate path may center around additional degrees in education--being an effective teacher and being a knowledgeable historian are not the same thing. This route may not lead you to a college or university, but it could get you to a prep school or a high school with a great department.
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