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GuateAmfeminist

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Everything posted by GuateAmfeminist

  1. Children's Lit Studies/YA Studies/the like are definitely growing. I know that one person in my cohort here at University of Texas at Austin has that as her main focus and I know plenty of other people who have taught classes on video games. I'm not sure if that helps, but maybe it adds one more place you could look into.
  2. At UT, we have James Cox but also just a very strong Ethnic and Third World Lit program, in addition to a Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) portfolio program that allows you to meet a lot of other professors in other departments.
  3. Anecdotally, I got into UT with an M.Ed in secondary English and a BA in English and Sociology/Anthropology. For me, it was actually even more helpful as it opened the door to more challenging (and better paying) teaching positions. Certification varies from state to state so unless you intend to stay in the same state no matter what, you may need to reapply anyway. Having the M.Ed. or M.A.T. is very helpful in fulfilling the certificantion everywhere, as far as I know though.
  4. Hey, sorry I actually haven't been on here for months. It's actually easier if you PM me first rather than posting it here since I only check a handful of threads when I do come over here and this usually isn't one of them. So, in sum, still happy to help but PM me rather than posting in this thread.
  5. I just want to say that I love being in grad school at UT. I am currently sitting in a house in Antigua, Guatemala, with my airfare, lodging, and transportation paid for by the university for a week. I saw a historic genocide trial, foresnic evidence that made me cry, and documents that few, if any people have seen. Where else could you make something like this happen in less than a month? I am not one to gush about much, but I don't believe that I could be happier doing anything else right now.
  6. Congratulations to all of you who got off the wait list! Wait-listers hold a special place in my heart I remember that feeling last year... You will all be amazing. And don't give up yet, those of you still waiting. I found out 2 days before the deadline, so there is still hope!
  7. It was great meeting the few of you I did. Buena suerte in making final decisions, though I do hope to see you all in Austin :-)
  8. I am not into the idea of game theory entering English. The shift to quantative as the end-all-be-all of "true knowledge" has hurt enough fields already (Politics, for one, my husband the political philosophy person would say; and I would agree). Why can't we recognize that the qualitative is just as valuable? Aren't we supposed to protect that? I don't want the future of our discipline to be works like What Pronouns Say About You, where ridiculousconcluions are made based off counting words (which I know is some DH as well, though I think DH can hopefully be more than that).
  9. I am not trying to just sell you on UT (though of course, my first year here at UT has been amazing!) but I live in North Austin (there's a bus line direct to campus, with a 2 minute walk to Parlin, though I don't take this option as often) and I take the park and ride, which is free and take the limited-stop bus so that I don't have to buy a campus parking pass. I can think of one time where I waited about 25 minutes for the 101 (which I prefer to the 1L/1M since they stop more frequently) but otherwise, I would wholeheartedly consider the bus service reliable. And my rent is in the 700's. It takes more time but if you fly in for 2 or 3 days, you can look at several places and decide (you're lucky, we had to wait until June to look for a place, when it's much harder to find affordable apts). I know a few grad students moving out to my area because there are better prices, it's less undergrad-y/noisy and there are some really great restaurants, shopping, and an Alamo Drafthouse up here. Just my two cents.
  10. Quote: I guess what I'm saying is that we shouldn't just read art as a cipher of latent political or cultural content--i.e., ideology critique--but rather that aesthetics itself has its own political/cultural/economic ramifications, and that we should pay attention to these. This is EXACTLY the issue I have with those who talk about aesthetics. I have seen so many job talks and projects that think of aesthetics as beyond the political/cultural and come to plain dangerous conclusions because they refuse to accept responsibility for the politics/ramifications surrounding certain aesthetics. I think what you're saying here seems to recognize that need for responsibility better than most others I have heard discuss aesthetics and literature.
  11. Agreed; different programs do it different ways and the way the schools you applied to do it may be the most common. I just know that UT does only accept the number they can fund. ETA: sorry, this was in response to the earlier convo on waitlist structures at different unis.
  12. This is one way of going about it, but another is the way smellybug says it. For example, I was on the waitlist for Ethnic and Third World Lit. When the one person they wanted for their cohort that year declined, I got the spot because it kept the balance of areas they wanted. If a Medeval lit person had declined, I would have been no closer to getting in. So, it depends on how your school wants to build a cohort.
  13. I don't understand the 3rd option - who would pick a canon that excludes in order to displace a canon that excludes? I just have a hard time with the idea of "canon" - so much is lost in one overarching canon of "literature" (which often includes philosophy and other "non-literary" works). Also, any large field (like Chican@ literature, Reniassance literature, modernism, etc.) all have their own canon as well. So, I guess I would say the idea is just unstable and untenable.
  14. You could also look into FLAS - which is a wonderful fellowship available in many universities to help increase langauge study. http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsflasf/index.html
  15. Barbara Harlowe and Joseph Slaughter pop into my mind when it comes to this; also UT has the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, so probably going to their site would be a good idea. We just had an incredible conference with some big names in the area of Human Rights from all over the world about impunity and its centrality to the current human rights movement. ETA: some silly spelling errors
  16. Funding is indeed equal, though there are other fellowships and opportunities that can be taken advantage of (FLAS for foreign language study for example).
  17. I am confused, why do you think they were comparing disabilities and fatness/weight issues as essentially the same? I haven't gotten that from anybody. They were just saying that disability studies has a place in the humanities and so can fat studies. I think there is a fair argument as to the difference in permenancy but there are disabilities that aren't permenant just as there as genetic disorders which make some people obese from childhood. I know far too little about the ideas and rationale behind fat studies, so I would want to know more before making a judgement. Edit: this was in response to pepperthedog
  18. I think you would be burning bridges not to go then. and if you get nothing else, it can't help to network. Are you really in a rush to decide after your first visit, though? You have this nice opportunity to compare 2 programs (the second one might be better than the first, as you point out).
  19. is the department you're not so excited about paying for this visit? i.e. is a ticket already purchased?
  20. I wouldn't say it's a lot different (you still have take care of the needs of 2 people). It would be like having a roommate since you are sharing the rent (some couples choose to live in 2 bedroom apartments for more space, so they pay more in rent overall than 1 person in a studio). I just wanted to offer a perspective that is different than one that you all are positing: that all UT students live off of loans or their family. Of course, some do, but others don't. Cost of living here is going up but honestly, it's much lower than other places I've lived. I think they should definitely pay us more, but you do have to remember that this is Texas and they hate taxes and the word "public" (not Austin, but Texas legislators). And why would a couple being living off one stipend (as a choice), other than maybe feeling like one person has to care for a child (which doesn't seem viable)? Without a choice, unemployment obviously but Austin has a lot lower unemployment than most of the country. At the very least, they could get a job that pays as much as the TA or AI stipend.
  21. My husband and I both live off of UT stipends and are able to save money every month and don't have to (and won't ever need, unless some catastrophe happens) take out loans or have secondary employment. What we save over the 9 months would pay for our summer even if we both had absolutely no funding from the uni or another job. It is helpful that if we needed it, we have a good chunk of savings from our three years of teaching. Our parents don't and couldn't help us financially if we needed it. And I can still have Starbucks coffee and little luxuries. It's just common sense budgeting. But that's just my experience and perspective to share with you all. Things would be different if we had a child; I don't think you could live successfully off of this funding in that case without outside help.
  22. Scrubs may well be my favorite TV show ever. Though if Community had 8 seasons, I might have to change my mind...
  23. just wanted to put out there that I am happy to share details about UT, especially to those who are coming in with a degree beyond BA. Just PM me.
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