GuateAmfeminist

Lindt Milk Chocolate Truffles. So delicious

UT is very well-funded for its grad students (6 years guaranteed) but the size and focus of the English department (plus the requirement of a particular college comp class by every student in the unversity) requires more teaching from grad students. Since I love teaching and the opportunities to design my own courses, I actually quite like it. But I see the benefits of a teaching-free year and private colleges do tend to have those more often.

I am an AI (came in with M.Ed) - PM me if you want more detail about the AI portion in general and my experience in particular.

I am happy to share my experience.

I second everything Fiona Thunderpaws said.

FYI, this really terrible on-line behavior did not happen this time last year (I can think of one guy who was a bit annoying, but nothing like this). I am not sure why it is 'threatening' to let one know that the internet isn't and shouldn't be a place where one can act like a jackass with impunity. I think I'm going to take your guys' advice and not come here anymore. Adios.

I ran out of up votes for the day, but this is wonderful. Thanks Phil Sparrow!

love the Abed reference

Maybe people are getting a little too frantic and stressed before apps are due. There are a lot of threads which are talking about things which hardly seem like they matter. I didn't even consider that Works Cited counted in my page count and a typo won't kill your chances. I'm sure if you focus on the overall quality of your submission, you can rest semi-easy. You ladies and gents seem very smart but you only have so much that can be controlled in this process. Submit your best work and, by all means, be anxious, anticipating, and excited, but don't get hung up on little things like double- or single-spacing or how much scrutiny your WC page will get. Good luck all, I know that you will all be contenders!

I know that this is not literature and this is a very new field - but new documents found in American and (more recently) through the Guatemalan National Police Archive show that the American (and Guatemalan) government conducted an unethical syphilis study between 1946 and 1948. This may be useful to compare to your Tuskegee Study (Susan Reverby also made this discovery).

I don't know about not being able to read for pleasure - someone in my department started a contemporary book club and that has been a great way to read books I've wanted to read anyway and take a break from studies. You can do it, you just need to make time for it.

Rick Riordan books - either the Percy Jackson series or the newer Heroes of Olympus series. He also has a popular series based on Egyptian mythology (I believe it's the Kane Chronicles) but I haven't read them yet.

So what is considered "theory" theory and what isn't? Is feminist theory not "theory" while deconstruction is? I am confused as to how "theory" people are defining the term. I am also baffled by the idea that culture and theory are not inextricably tied. People from cultures (generally European/Western) made many theories and I think it's easy to see where that cultural background seeps into their theories.

It's hard for me to believe that there won't be any more marginalized groups in 20 years and/or will have studied all that is to be offered from theories who work through issues surrounding marginalization and oppression. The fact that we could speak about these theories as "giving margnialized and suppressed voice [sic] their place" or "[having] no one else to stick up for," to me, shows that we are far from a place where we are thinking about entrenched power structures and oppression in a wide-spread and meaningful way. Why would we run out of materials in feminist theory? For goodness sake, we still study Shakespeare and there are several works and authors which scholars of feminism, postcolonial studies, ethnic and 3rd world lit, and queer studies (to barely scratch the service) have rediscovered and fought for who have just as much to offer in terms of scholarship. This makes it sound like "theory" people are just waiting for the canon to come back into vogue as if literary studies has been derailed. I just don't see what "theory" has to be in opposition to, what I consider to be, other theories. Edit: fixed a few typos and a weird transition

For my recommenders, I bought gift cards from the book store in town. They delivered the gift cards to the porfessors, so that it was simple. I went to a liberal arts college in a small town though, so it made it easier. You could also get your professors' addresses and buy something (including gift cards) on-line and have them mailed directly to the professors, then there will be no need to worry about the overseas thing.

I wonder though - it seems more like they question the concept of progress less. Science and technology in particular seem to have this deterministic view that "advancements" are inevitable and something we must live with. I don't think that just because we think long and hard about what "progress" means that other disciplines have a better grasp. They may not be reflecting on it as much as our discpline does (which may be to our detriment or theirs). Just my initial thought.

if you want me to PM you examples from my successful SOP's, I can

I am happy to.

haha, I love this. I can't even imagine what life would have been like if I weren't here at UT! Too many awesome people here.

I can see what you're saying [full disclosure, I'm a PhD student at UT] but there also aren't tons of "required" courses (only 2, one on theory/methodology and one on pedagogy) which do not relate to your areas of interest. You have a lot of say in what you want to take and plenty of opportunity to study across disciplines. I think if you wanted to be more specialized, you could, but you could also decide to be more generalist during your coursework years. That's just my own thoughts. So you're not forced either way.

do you have any good professor friends from your last institution that you've kept in touch with? If you have a good relationship, they may let you use their account (I know I had a professor who offered to, in case I needed it). Just a suggestion.

I'm not sure if this will help, but here is a list of journals that are good in different areas (by no means extensive) of English: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/english/graduate/profskills/Recommended-Journals.php However, I didn't see a lot about Philosophy connections. I did a search on MLA Directory of Perioficals and here were some suggestions (all peer-reviewed) based on the key words you used: Journal of the Kafka Society of America (6-8 per year out of 20, so not super difficult), Poetics Today, and Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts (45-50 submissions, 22-25 accepted). Those are just a few suggestions, but this isn't my area, so hope I at least vaguely helped.

I'm living around the Far West area (a little northwest of it). Unfortunately, not enough places or money to live in the few places that were left in places like Hyde Park.

Super excited! I cannot wait to sign up for my classes... there are too many amazing ones to choose from! I am also excited to set up my new place. Though I'll miss my memories here, I am eager to join the Austin and UT community and hopefully make some friends! (to hide the fact that I am like a middle schooler who is afraid I won't make friends). 12 days to Austin!

I would be happy to help - of course, I did not get into all of my applied schools (1 straight acceptance, 1 waitlist turned acceptance to a top 20 school), but I do feel like I learned from the process. I would assume that my edits would be taken as just a small addition to the other professors and such who would also be offering comments.