mxaveryeverhart

i found out about it because of McKittrick and Morgensen (and when I met with McKittrick she mentioned that I was hers and Morgensen's top choice...which was NUTS to hear from someone you idolize). So I wasn't really going out of my way to like find a particular program or to go to Canada but I knew that both of them taught there and I could not pass up a program with that combination of brilliance. Another of the candidates went there for her undergrad as well but she's probably coming back to do the MA. I'll be hella far from home/where I did my undergrad although I thought about sticking around for our MA as well...

I've still not heard anything from Riverside...has anyone else that's waiting heard anything?! This is becoming burdensome. I don't feel right accepting a good offer I've got until I have heard from them.

yeah i didn't know what those negative signs mean. but apparently people keep voting my shit down? sorry that like i don't want to my being white to continue the insidious project of whiteness in ascension...i'm fine with other white people (and even apologist poc) voting me down for pointing out what i pointed out. also if you come for me on grammar and rhetoric then i'm immediately going to be on the defensive and expect that you don't have ANY valid points. because coming for grammar just means you didn't attend first and foremost to content rather than form. and we just clearly have different priorities.

thanks for the update! i'm not really holding my breath or anything, but maybe that will speed the process up for those of us still waiting to hear something . best of luck!

Hi. So...I graduate with my BA's in May. I did disciplinary honors in religious studies and women's & gender studies and used samples from my religion thesis to apply to ethnic studies and american studies programs, and used my WGS sample to apply to gender studies and media/cultural studies programs. I'm 95% certain I'll be attending a Canadian university for an MA in gender studies. But I'm already thinking ahead. I can't really untether the two in my mind, though my degrees will all say something about gender studies (I did an African-American studies and Sociology minors as well and both overlapped a lot with gender studies). So I'm wondering if, after this master's program, I will actually have a snowball's chance in hell in applying to ethnic studies PhD programs? I wouldn't necessarily mind being in women's and gender studies still, but I just would like some realistic perspective on whether or not I'd have a chance applying to PhD programs that weren't gender studies after completing an MA in the "field". I thought it might be a bit different because these are interdisciplinary and ever-changing and all that. So any advice y'all could offer me would be hella appreciated. And if research interests (As they are now) would help or anything just ask! Hope everyone's doing well. And if you're making tough choices, good luck! Remember it's a good position to be in to have programs competing for you! And if you didn't get into your top choices, chin up, they don't know what they're missing -Avery

yeah it's definitely late in the game. i hope i hear back today that'd be nice. i would imagine at this point i'm just waiting on the rejection letter...my nyu one finally came last week. ugh.

I didn't know we were going to resort to a purely rhetorical analysis. I said we because I'm white and have therefore been coddled and catered to. I wasn't using we to imply I knew anything about your race. Also what you've called implications are probably more so inferences. You read what you wanted out of what I said. I didn't say not everyone deserves respect. I said that there are lots of people who don't get it. I misunderstood and thought you meant that there was no difference between perjorative language directed at different groups. Since we agree there is, we perhaps merely disagree on the proper response to them. I really just don't care at all when people make derogatory statements about white people or whiteness. It makes sense. Whiteness as a project in America is insidious and often invisible and incredibly dangerous to a lot of people. I disagree the most with your last bullet point (which by the way the bullet points were so incredibly condescending that it was immediately apparent you had no intention of entertaining my point of view...which is what you've accused me of). There is no way to reach this goal of equality (which what does that look to you? or is it just a buzz word that you're using to mean everyone should be treated with dignity and respect? because dignity and respect via cultural change does not change systemic racism, the crushing nature of capitalism or the material affects of ciscentric heteropatriarchy...) without the destruction of whiteness. Not the destruction of all white people, but the obliteration of the grab bag of privileges and life chances that we (and by we I mean ME and white folks generally) get just for a lower melanin content in our skin. I appreciate the well wishes. I do wish the same to you. I apologize if my rhetoric took the form of rambling and ranting and it wasn't to your liking. That form of communication has gotten me published twice before the age of 21 and got me presentation spots at national and regional conferences before I've even completed my undergraduate degree. But I can see how someone in English would feel the need to point out my rhetorical flaws.

There are so many subtle and overt things in what you said that just don't sit well with me. First off, touting one's education isn't useful to ending "discrimination" and it especially isn't useful to ending class-based oppression (which is always already complicated along racialized and gendered lines). Secondly, if you cannot recognize the very real material differences between a black person being called the n-word and a white person being called a cracker, then we will just have to stop the discussion now because I cannot abide that. Thirdly, I do not want to be part of your solution if it is characterized by a praxis of supposedly equity in which everyone always already deserves respect. Do people of color, queer folks, trans people, disabled folks, the poor and the ill get respect already? I am just not here for anyone centering white people's feelings or coddling us in order to talk about respect, or about ending discrimination, or anything at all really. We've always been coddled, why would it be useful to continue to do so if we were trying to imagine a world in which everyone is ~*equal*~?

still haven't heard anything back. application still says being processed...like...wtf. i've basically already committed elsewhere. i feel like this is just not kosher to have us waiting this long for ANY word.

also the entire conversation that came up about whether or not slang terms with derogatory connotations count as slurs against white folks is further evidence that women's studies is STILL dominated by anglo-feminist ideals...which means that women's studies has such an overarching tendency to serve the needs of the project that is whiteness more than it really serves the needs of those who would consider themselves involved in a social, political struggle connected to feminism. basically...to me and in my experience...women's studies can get hella white washed hella quick and it just makes me so nervous when white cis het men are in women's studies classrooms, but aren't reading works by women of color, or queer and trans people of color, or you know aren't even interacting with actuall WoC and QTPoC ya know in like...real life. </rant>

yeah so like...there are indeed already white heterosexual men in women's studies. and half the time the ones that are "accepted" so to speak in my experience are trans guys who ID as straight. And like...I have a LOT of feelings about trans men in women's studies spaces (just like I have a lot of feels about cis straight white men in women's studies spaces). But honestly like this should be a non-issue. I think that the gender studies, the women's studies, the feminist studies, the whatever the hell studies should operate under the assumption that anyone who enrolls in the class is 1) interested and 2) willing to learn and 3) willing to UNLEARN (just as important). If anyone, regardless of who the person is via identity politics, does not do one or more of those three things...why are they there? also i really need all my wonderbread cousins in here to stop getting so riled up about ~*slurs*~ like whitey and cracker. you're aware that whitey was created in direct response to terms like darkie and that cracker LITERALLY means the one who cracks the whip...a reference to being the MASTER in the context of chattel slavery...so...even if it is insulting what it calls you out on is your white guilt, not whatever parallel negative presuppositions there might be about BEING white. just saying y'all. just sayin. so calm it down.

I haven't gotten a response. :/

So I figured, hey with an acceptance under my belt and a small amount of my former self-esteem back, why not email Riverside to check up on your application. So I did that. Haven't heard anything yet. It's been the weekend and yesterday, so we'll see. Oh well. I'll post back here what I find out (if anything).

Anyone on this thread also apply to Queen's University's MA up in Ontario, Canada? Long shot, but I'm trying to put out feelers to see if there's anyone on gradcafe who might have been accepted there as well. I'm planning a visit up there to meet other candidates, but it's always nice to know what you're getting into first! Let me know. Hope everyone is doing well and hanging in there if you're waiting on more notifications. Good luck!

The word on the "streets" is that funding is getting SLASHED for interdisciplinary programs and esp. ones like women's and gender studies, as well as african-american studies, ethinc studies and the like. so all these rejections are discouraging but not a reflection of us as scholars/people. anwyays good luck on those waiting to hear back! in non-American grad program news I got an informal offer today from a Canadian program's Gender Studies MA. Whoo! I was contacted directly by one of my academic crushes who said she was working on securing more funding before an official offer since I'm an international student. Whoo! Gender Studies. Whoo.

good luck to y'all waiting on Harvard! That's some intense stuff. I'm meeting with a prof/friend today who is still in contact with her mentors/colleagues/friends at nyu in Tisch and the AmSt program so I'm gonna see if she has heard anything about NYU (I refuse to give up hope until someone proves to me I should). Unrelated to AmSt but I got an informal acceptance this morning so I'm feeling optimistic! Whoo! good luck all. and i recommend ben & jerrys red velvet cake ice cream by the way. it's decadent and hard to be sad while eating it.

Agreed. I felt like my interests lined up really well too. Things just seem really up in the air in academia this year! Good luck to you as well.

I don't think that the phrase itself means rejection. I just meant that looking at their current grad student profiles there's only about 15-18 students which means their cohorts are probably around 3-4 students per year and since three acceptances got posted and no one has reported being wait listed, it seems likely that they're done offering acceptances. Also apparently this is the worst year for funding and resources in the humanities and graduate schools generally in a long time. So that makes me feel a bit better I suppose...but still. It's also my first time applying. Don't feel bad. I don't know what the hell is going on half the time. I just kind of make educated guesses or straight up assumptions. So far I've been right.

i guess there's still no word on NYU then? anyone got any info?

naw I didn't get an acceptance. I signed into the grad app website and it said "being processed" which I'm assuming translates into a rejection. Stoked for you and the other two candidates who got acceptances yesterday!

sorry to hear that :'( buck up though. There's still riverside! And you've got a couple of acceptances under your belt

I'm hoping thats the case! I've looked back at past years for their acceptances and they seem to come out later than a lot of phd decisions do anyways so maybe thats just the norm for them. *fingers crossed*

agreeeed. i am so here for this new wave (lol @ word choice) of feminism. so here for it.

omgee yes! i got like at least 5 or 6 email notifications to finish my application after i'd submitted it and paid for it...I also had e-mailed the folks in the department about my application because I'm going through a name change and didn't get a response from them until like...three weeks ago. Same with the graduate division e-mail. Idk what that was about. But yes positive thoughts! positive thoughts! it'll be great

agreeeed. super duper duper fond of her work. and her spoken word stuff. i'm way into this new sort of genre of political and social analysis through personal experiences of trans folks (e.g. Janet Mock's book and my new obsession Redefining Realness UGHHHH dying). anyways yeah. Guess I should've applied to Arizona instead of Rutgers...saw somewhere else on here that they got funding to hire four tenure track faculty in trans studies. #dead