dilby

It's because we officially live in THE AFFECTIVE TURN, my friend
dread it, run from it, affect theory still arrives

It's because we officially live in THE AFFECTIVE TURN, my friend
dread it, run from it, affect theory still arrives

i begged my roommate to call the English department and ask about the interview invite lol they have not sent out interview invites yet! they're still reviewing applications. we can continue to collectively hold our breaths ? it's silly to lie about things you can just call to confirm about...

I just went ahead and reported that interview post as spam lmao

In a few weeks, you'll find out where you're accepted, rejected or waitlisted. By now, I'm sure you're experiencing all sorts of highs and lows. This is a very stressful process. Sometimes, all you want is some news because you're starting to feel down about the process.

Big News? You're alive.
-There are currently seven billion people alive today and the Population Reference Bureau estimates that about 107 billion people have ever lived.  -Having just a few coins makes you richer than most people on Earth.
-You are unique and nobody in the entire world is like you are
-The opportunity to attend school is something many people don’t have. (Which makes having a college degree even greater!)
-Most people lack a bed of their own to sleep in
-Many people on earth lack access to clean water.
-Cell phones make talking to loved ones easy.
-You have friends that will always have your back. (And if you don't, message me. Let's talk. And if you do, let's talk anyways)
-You can enjoy pizza. Or Ice Cream.
-There are people in your life who love you more than you could ever know -The Internet, n'uff said?   But in all seriousness, try not to compare yourself to others. We have a tendency to look at how great the lives of other people are going without realizing the stresses they're hiding. No matter where you get in or don't get in, please be proud of yourselves. You've worked incredibly hard to get to where you are. An acceptance doesn't determine who you are and a rejection doesn't make you lesser than. It just means not this year. You might realize that your passions change over the course of a year. And you might discover those new interests are really interesting when you do reapply. You might discover some universities that previously rejected you might accept you the following year and viceversa.   Lastly, a word on rankings:
USNews rankings for English are determined by 14 percent of respondents who were department heads or director of graduate studies. As such, it's hard to take rankings those seriously when a lot of the rankings are based on "name brand". Most departments are only paying attention to a few select schools and placements may vary considerably across specific interests. Follow your heart when making a decision. Happiness is the number one thing that will make you succeed in a program and that happiness will translate to the quality of work you produce.

Good luck all. You're going to do great!

I swear I'm not trying to stir the pot, but according to the 2018 Acceptances thread the first person to receive a notification last year was a SUNY-Buffalo admit exactly one year ago today. So.....it begins I suppose  

FWIW I filtered Chicago on the results page and last year the earliest interviews were Jan 22. So it does seem mighty early for a legit interview offer.

Hello everyone! I graduated in December 2017 with a BA in English. I am currently an AmeriCorps Tutor in Newark, NJ with MMUF, the Leadership Alliance, Sigma Tau Delta, and a variety of professional experiences under my belt. I was also a Semi-Finalist for a Fulbright Taught Masters. This is my first time applying to PhD programs, and it was definitely more intense than I expected - I learned a lot about my organizational skills in the process, and I am happy/proud to have finished everything with a bit of time to spare.
A very brief description of my research aspirations: I hope to center my studies around magical realism and magical feminism in Latin American and Afro-Latinx diasporic fiction, poetry, and performance. I intend to evaluate how textual elements of magical feminism are physically manifested in performances, and how performative spaces foster the creation of writer-activist communities that are continuously in conversation with the original works. 
Regardless of results, everyone should feel accomplished for making it to this point. I hope that the new year motivates us all to stay productive with personal/professional projects in the interim - I know I am devoting some time this month to ground myself by re-establishing some long-term goals that will not be affected by upcoming acceptances and/or rejections. Sending love and best-wishes ?

I swear I'm not trying to stir the pot, but according to the 2018 Acceptances thread the first person to receive a notification last year was a SUNY-Buffalo admit exactly one year ago today. So.....it begins I suppose  

I swear I'm not trying to stir the pot, but according to the 2018 Acceptances thread the first person to receive a notification last year was a SUNY-Buffalo admit exactly one year ago today. So.....it begins I suppose  

@flungoutofspace Ooh, one thing that I find great when I'm short on time is listening to the podcast series by Marshall Poe. They're all called "New Books in [field]." The idea behind them is that someone might not read the actual scholarly work a professor just spent years completing, so the books and ideas are in a podcast format. I listen to some that I find interesting from the little blurbs, and then sometimes I'll also check out the book after. 
Unrelated to the podcast, but I checked out a book called Picturing Identity recently. It's a recent release on contemporary US autobiographies and how they have increasingly used different media than text alone Lots of good stuff out there, and not enough time! 

Isn't it amazing??? It's 100% compassionate, all out Joycean cinema. It's, like, woke Terrence Malick (and I love Terry).
Austin has a very active film society that brings most major foreign releases (and where I interned for a year ), so I was lucky enough to catch it on the big screen. Don't read anything about Burning before you see it!

@Bopie5 your thesis reminds me of HIM from powerpuff girls...the queerest and most brilliant villain out there 
@dilby I saw Madeline's Madeline in September and I really haven't stopped thinking about it since...

REAL.
Tbh, since we've all been spending more time talking on here, I've gotten increasingly invested in all of your decisions as well as mine! I can't wait to see where all of you end up, and it's fun to think that maybe some of us would end up in the same programs!

"Harvard isn't ready for this jelly"

Has anyone seen this thread: Favorite Rejection Quotes from the Results Page
It has made my night.  Treat yourself.

re: advisors trying to talk us all out of going into academia...
I had a really encouraging conversation with a prof of mine about this. I was talking to her about trying to go to grad school (she's a recent-ish (like last ten years) UMich PhD grad), and she basically said "Have you read the "don't go to grad school" literature? Have you read the literature and statistics on the job market? Do you know about the potential psychoemotional drain? Do you know about limited job prospects, especially in academia?" I said yes to all of the above, and she said "And you still want to go?" I said yes, and she said "Then that means you should go. I think you can do it."
It felt really encouraging for her to simultaneously inform me of the realities without ever telling me that I shouldn't go for it. To have her tell me TO try to go, despite everything, felt really good actually.

@sad_diamond welcome, and yes! I did feel some anxiety about splitting the apps across multiple disciplines. but I think in many ways it was an asset because it sort of freed me to start fresh with my profile for each individual program. By necessity, my Duke Literature application has very little crossover with my Chicago Cinema Studies application. Applying to these different kinds of programs forced me to take nothing for granted when asking "What will the adcomm at this department want to see?"

Hey everyone! I thought I’d add myself to the mix while anxiously waiting for results. My focus is the environmental humanities. I’m also currently getting my MA at the University of Mississippi if anyone has any questions about their program. 

Hello all...I've been lurking too long and too obsessively not to post here despite knowing that it would probably be better for my mental health to block this website ? I finished my BA in English in 2017 and now applying to a mix of English, Comp Lit, Media Studies, and (one) WGSS programs. I'm drawn to a lot of different theoretical approaches so the common denominator for the places I applied is interdisciplinarity within the humanities/social sciences but lately I'm feeling worried that by applying to a few different kinds of programs I failed to commit to a specific enough way of packaging myself...anyone else who applied to multiple kinds of programs feeling this? Also RE the psychoanalysis convo, I got a book for Christmas called Self and Emotional Life cowritten by Catherine Malabou and Adrian Johnston about how recent developments in neuroscience force us to change the way we think about psychoanalysis and continental philosophy...I'm very excited to read it! Anyone on here read it/heard about it?