Bopie5

@kendalldinniene Right? I also am switching climates so I literally have no idea what even to buy. Just starting to bleed out all my cash now lol

Recently my excitement and nervousness about my MA program has displaced itself onto irrational anxiety that I don’t have the right clothes for grad school ? Like what do people wear to class? I’m 100% overthinking it but that doesn’t mean I’m not resorting to retail therapy.

Exit West is SO good! I enjoyed it extremely and am reading Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist now. I read Exit West for a course in my undergrad on 21st Century Literatures of Displacement and Refugees and it was one of my favorite texts on the syllabus.

my undergrad messed up sending my official transcripts on my first try. they FINALLY fixed it and now i can officially register!!!

Right!? It's such a fascinating way to approach a poetry course, and I'm sure it's going to push me a lot as both a scholar of and writer of poetry! I LOVE this idea. If it's allowed, we should definitely look into it. And if explicit notes sharing isn't allowed, I'm sure it would be beneficial even to have each other's Required Texts lists?

RIGHT! I'm soooo excited about that one. Here's a bit of the course description from the Graduate program blog page: "“I, too, dislike it.” That is how Marianne Moore begins “Poetry,” a poem that then attempts to define the thing it claims to dislike—a distaste that it assumes (“I, too, dislike it”) you share. This course will, in some sense, follow Moore’s strategy: We’ll begin by confronting our resistance to poetry head-on, asking where such a distaste comes from, and then teasing out the implicit understandings (of poetry, language, our selves) that activate these forms of skepticism. Is there something called “poetic language” that is fundamentally different from “ordinary language”? Where does the idea that poetry, more than any other form of literature, is centrally concerned with (and representative of) consciousness come from? What kinds of poetry does such an idea allow, and what kinds of poetry does it marginalize or obscure? These are some of the questions that will animate our discussions." It's interesting because I have zero distaste for poetry, but I'm soooo intrigued by the idea of teasing out the implicit assumptions we have about poetry. And Claudia Rankine is on the syllabus!!!

I'm taking Intro to Theory Across the Discipline of English, US Empire and Contemporary American Lit, and What Is Poetry. So excited about all of them honestly.

@jadeisokay Wow I'm so excited for you too! Chicago is truly such a great city. Good luck on your interview today--let us know how it goes!

Anyone else kinda going crazy with anticipation for the fall? I have a ton I still have to do, and I'm grateful to have the summer to decompress, save money, do research, etc. But also there's a part of me that just wants to be there already.

I second @merry night wanderer's approach! I also think that another thing that can be helpful is to try to get access to the programs of major conferences for your particular field. I find that this gives a wide sense of what different people are writing about right now, and a bit more of a sense of where the field might be going. Obviously, attending such conferences would be helpful as well!

Lmao anyone else just get an email referring them to apply to Columbia’s HILI program

My work is primarily 20th/21st century American cultures, currently thinking a lot about cultural productions and reproductions of whiteness. Right now, I'm working on a few different projects. Working with a prof on creating a panel on short fiction engaging race in the "post-bellum pre-Harlem" window. Working on refining/clarifying/revising a paper I have a draft of on Aladdin and Pocahontas as case studies for the reproduction of whiteness, Western values, and Western cultural power (hoping to present it at MAPACA in November, but we'll see). Tentatively, my next research project/summer work will either be an investigation into the spiritualization and racialization what I'm currently calling "kooky sacred grandmothers" in children's animated films, or an exploration of how racial stereotypes operate in American reality TV competitions. I'll be presenting a Kristevan reading of Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev focusing on maternity, suffering, and discourse at SCMLA in Little Rock this October. Also will be presenting a Susan Stryker-driven reading of gender roles in Frankenstein at the IGA conference at Lewis University this July!

Hi all! Figured I would just go ahead and make the collaboration thread talked about in a few other threads. This is a space where we can share information/CFPs, reach out for collaboration on papers or projects or panels, share opportunities, etc etc etc. As @kd1990 suggested, this can also be a place where applicants can reach out to current grad students and learn a bit about departments and research. To kick us off, @Warelin, @kendalldinniene, and I are working on a spreadsheet of creative writing journals! If you're interested in helping out or have info to share, lmk.

Just updated the stats for Villanova!

No it's open access! I'll PM you a link.

The journal that accepted my paper on white racial anxiety in Kate Chopin's short fiction went live this week! Yay for my first academic publication!

This is so smart! Like not only can we collab across programs and after, but we can also be a clear resource for those who are just starting their process! And it'd be like a lower-stakes way for applicants to get in touch w current grad students.

I wonder what this would look like on the tangible level. What kind of opportunities? How does the interface/collaboration occur? Etc? It's exciting to think about. Maybe we should make a GCers "Potential Collaborations" thread.

This just made my heart feel so full! I hope we all keep each other updated on conferences and publications--I wanna follow all of your work into the future.

I'm currently one month out from graduating from my undergrad, and I applied to 7 PhD programs and 1 MA this cycle. Personally, I would suggest waiting. Trying to balance apps with schoolwork, multiple jobs, social life, and extracurricular commitments was a lot to juggle all at once. And, I think that I probably got shut out from the PhD programs because I didn't have a defined enough idea of a potential project--I didn't have the time or course space to develop that in my undergrad. HOWEVER, this has been one of the best learning experiences of my life, both about myself as an academic and myself as a person more generally. I don't know if I would recommend doing what I did, but if I could do it over, I would do it again. If you feel like you have a strong sense of your potential project, and if you have academic, psychoemotional, financial, and interpersonal structures available to support you in the applying season, go for it! Admissions is SUCH a crapshoot. Like everyone else has named, there are pros and cons to waiting, and there are pros and cons to applying. You can't really make a "wrong" choice. If you wanna talk more about my specific experience, feel free to message me!

Omg!!! I'm presenting on the Gender and Race in 20th Century Literature panel!

Are any of y'all going to SCMLA this October?

I second @illcounsel; if you're willing to elaborate, I would like to know more. One of my advisors has said a few things alluding to similar dynamics.

Thank you! I just confirmed my intent to enroll; it really is such good news, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity, and so excited for this fall!

Just got an email that I got the tuition waiver + the stipend at Villanova! Will be confirming my acceptance of the offer tonight!