Alexander Lourenco

Hi all! First off, I'd like to introduce myself, as this is my first post here (besides the Meet & Greet): I am a graduate of Colgate University who has just been accepted to Trinity College Dublin's MPhil in Popular Literature. My life dream has always been to be a university professor and this is really the first time that I'm starting to see that dream actualized (one of my dreams has also always been to go to Europe for school, so- woo! Mission accomplished). I've heard that the job arena is particularly dismal on both sides of the pond, though I want to teach in a European university (I am a dual American / Portuguese citizen, so no problems there). I suppose I wanted to ask if anyone had any advice for being proactive on this front; should I be attending networking things right away? Should I try to TA, or something? I'm kind of new at the whole process, and I don't want to be that pushy postgrad or anything. I'm just nervous and excited, and I don't want to mess up my chances to stand in front of a class of undergrads! Of course, this may all be a moot point once I'm buried under mountains of graduate research Thanks for reading, and thanks again for providing such a great forum!

Hi all! Just writing to say that I was officially accepted into the MPhil in Popular Literature at TCD and will be attending there in the fall- also, congrats to all the other meet and greeters who got in too!