madandmoonly

Yeah, no.

Rice is also a no-go.

I enrolled in the same joint MA at Brandeis (Eng & WGS; graduated last February) without ever visiting beforehand, so definitely PM me if you want to chat!

Congrats!! Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

Yep, after discussing it over with our advisors. I'm pretty sure I know which classes I need to take, so I've just been waiting for orientation to get that settled. Looking forward to starting next week!

First orientation's in two days, yikes, and then the department orientation is the day after. First day of class likely on the 27th? Haven't technically signed up for classes yet, but I'm pretty sure. Talked to my advisor for a bit yesterday and we're getting along well so far, so that's been really nice and also a relief. Currently working through Derrida's Specters of Marx.

Might want to check out Rice's English department as well. Very interdisciplinary with many people working on non-traditional projects; lots of science.

I also got an apartment close to campus!

I think the main thing I'd be concerned about is the cost of attending the conference. It's not just the plane ticket -- it's food, transportation, sleeping arrangements, and registration fees, usually. Anyway, it's generally a lot of money. Even more so since it's international, I think. Which is why it's nice to do it once you're already in grad school -- usually they provide funding for you to attend these things. If you somehow find some funding / expenses are for whatever reason not an issue -- I see no reason why you shouldn't be excited about going. If the conference accepts work from undergraduates, which you probably made sure of already, then you were accepted because your work is good. So. M2C.

@WildeThing Have you been assigned an advisor to help you figure out courses? That's personally what I'm waiting on b/c I also have a ton of questions but no one to ask them to as yet...

The reading list for the What is the Contemporary? course currently looks like this: Teju Cole, Open City; Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis; Mohsin Hamid, Exit West; Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior; Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy; Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being. I haven't read any of these novels before, so that's exciting! And that it's almost all POC!

English departments actually fully expect your research interests to change and develop. This is the purpose of dedicating the first few years to coursework. Even if you decide to change literary time periods I don't think this would cause much of an issue tbh? I personally wouldn't worry about it. But it would probably be useful to apply to schools that have various areas of interest for you if this is something you're already concerned about.

I think my schedule will probably end up being: Topics in Literary Studies (the required 1st yr class), Ecology and Philosophy (!!!), and What is the Contemporary? ?

It's amusing that some of us are already set up for the fall semester & I just got an email today asking for my official transcripts so I can actually be a real Ph.D student now. lol. (They're busy, I know, it's totally fine. ) I'm thinking about this problem a lot too! Mostly about the pre-1800 and post-1800 reqs (I need two courses in each), coupled with the fact that I plan on pursuing two different certificates which both have different course requirements as well. Along with all of the regular required courses + stuff that just sounds interesting.... Basically I'm gonna need a lot of guidance from whomever my advisor is about which classes to take. ? Me, trying to figure all this out in my brain:

I haven't gotten many new emails since April, so there's not much going on on my end... I have, however, probably memorized their website, graduate student handbook, and all the degree requirements for the next ~5 years, at this point... Yeah, I really need it to be August now.