CulturalCriminal

Thanks! It is! I emailed back my acceptance today, so I guess I’m going to be a Red Raider. Looking forward to working with folks like Kendall Gerdes!

Update: I'm in at Texas Tech! 99% sure I'm going to say yes!

Got into Texas Tech's Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD! Pretty stoked and will likely say yes!

I’ve been pretty silent this year, but can’t help joining on the convo. I did apply to Texas Tech’s distance-based TCR PhD (haven’t heard anything). It’ll be interesting to see, as I kinda redefined my self as a multimodal and visual rhetoric person this year, after some time in my current position (Lecturer & Writing Center coordinator).

After a few months of lecturer life following the completion of my MA, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I can’t afford to go back to a grad assistant pay scale. I’m pushing back my plans on going to a full time PhD program, instead focusing on my teaching for the next 2 1/2 years and hopefully snagging a Senior Lecturer position (there are two nearby flexible PhDs I’d be happy to settle for if I have the security of a senior lecturer position). This is an important space, one that helped me greatly over the last year. Good luck to all of you, but remember: don’t go into more debt (or let your debt grow) for a PhD.

Are you just tired? Or is the material not having as much importance to you as you thought? if it is that you are just tired, I’m afraid that being tired is pretty normal throughout grad school. if it is the material, then you need to figure out if there is something else that will hold higher importance to you. While I was in my MA, I had a moment where I heavily questioned if getting an MA in Lit was actually something I should have been doing. I kept looking around at the world around me and seeing it getting worse, all while I was reading and writing on stuff far removed from the current socio-political context. Ultimately, I had to come to a decision: I was either going to step away from Lit or reorient my focus and goals in Lit. For me, the later has worked and I am now grateful that I held fast; becoming an educator was 100% the right move for me as I can get at teaching critical thinking through my lecturer duties. While I do still have multiple questions in regards to my next step (am I applying for PhDs this year, am I holding off to get in a better financial situation, should I focus on getting a Senior Lecturer position and only then get my PhD somewhere flexible, should I take a break from scholarship and flex my creative impulses), the fact remains that I have greater clarity and self determination because I looked hard at if I should or shouldn’t stick to what I was doing, or even stay in my MA program. in other words, I think you have a lot more to think about then just whether you should take a break.

It’s not fully funded and my understanding is that it doesn’t fare well when it comes to Uni budgets. The program is attractive though...

I can’t imagine that you’ll be too out of place with what you describe as a sample. It might be good to zero in on programs that are theory based or have faculty interested in your methodologies. That said, most programs are going to make you have specific period or cultural categorized courses for the majority of your studies. For example, I had to take the following in addition to electives of my choosing: a medieval, a Brit early modern, three post early modern (one Brit, one American, one open), and a crit theory survey course. I’ve heard of other MAs being more structured and other MAs being less structured. This is to say, that chances are any MA program in the states will likely only give 2-5 courses you can freely choose beyond the MA thesis or exams. BTW, where I got my MA (Texas State U) has McCarthy’s papers and there are a few McCarthy scholars here, in addition to us having a Center for the Study of the Southwest.

Pretty much every program on my apply list

I know this is an older thread, but it seemed relevant to my own question: Do low-res MFA grads get jobs teaching? I already have an MA in Lit and am currently lucky enough to have a full load as a lecturer, but I like the idea of getting an MFA so I can sharpen my creative writing skills and get to work with certain faculty (low-res). However, I also feel that getting another degree needs to eventually help me at least get the bump to Senior Lecturer. So, would adding a lowres MFA actually help at all with the details we all wish we could not deal with—getting better job stability and pay?

I have friends with similar backgrounds who likewise want to be lecturers and got their MA's at programs where they were able to teach first-year writing for a year (after assisting large classes their first year). Even with their backgrounds and that one year of teaching university, they still are having trouble landing full-time lecturer positions. I likewise have a friend that has a similar background as you and didn't get to teach their own courses while in MA. She is in an even worse spot. Hell, she even got laughed at in an interview for trying to sell her K-12 teaching experience as applicable to uni. If you are strictly interested in teaching at community colleges, you really need to go to an MA where you will be able to get some experience teaching. Most community colleges expect prior experience teaching at the university/college level. Likewise, you might really consider the fact that my experience with CC's in popular areas (i.e. Austin, CA Bay Area) was marked by a rather high number of folks with PhDs there. I imagine LA is much the same, as there is likely a high number of folks that finish their PhD in the LA area and decide they'd rather stay in LA working at a CC as a Senior Lecturer than be a Prof out in the boonies.

To be honest, it sounds like applying to any of the programs I'm interested in would be a good bet. Minnesota's CSDS (or simply other PhDs at Minn w/ the grad minor in CSDS) might also be a good bet, especially since it housed with comp lit but allows better flexibility. There is also Northeastern, which is where Hillary Chute is. Just as with CSDS, you might look at programs that focus more on studying methodology and theory. These programs may not necessarily have faculty working on graphic narrative/comics, but do grant you the freedom to look at a broad spectrum of "texts". Then again, funding and cohorts are less stable/large in such programs and you would need to be REALLY interested in critical theory.

I’d say neither. If you want to teach CC, you need to go somewhere where you can get at least a year teaching experience, which online programs seldom offer. This is especially true if you want to become a lecturer.

I would say you should also look at American Studies PhD programs, as well as delve deep into faculty to get a better idea of programs that may not be on your radar.

Be a veteran and find somewhere that needs a veteran to run their veteran tutoring program ?. The position is a 75/25, lecturer/administrator, position that the department had to fill (with a vet) or they loose grant money.