Current grads: what does your workspace look like?

[caffeinated applicant]

Hey-o, first time poster, medium-time lurker (lurked throughout the application cycle, but never posted). This is one of those questions that doesn't strike me as super important to the program-research process, and definitely isn't relevant until I hear answers from programs, but I'm curious: what resources do folks' programs give for lit grad students' workspaces? I'm currently working as an admin at a university in a non-literature department, and the grad students in this department are each issued a desk in a shared office of about six people. I also recall from my alma mater that grad students there only received workspaces during semesters when they taught, but for those semesters, they each got a private office. A friend at another university knows literature students who're only issued a desk in a shared space during teaching semesters. Clearly, there's a lot of variation out there! 

So, current students: Do you have a desk? Shared or private office? Designated corral in the library? Only when teaching or all the time? And if you don't have a university-issued space or choose not to work there, where do you usually get stuff done? 

[arbie]

I personally really love this question because I think it matters, and it was something I asked around about and did factor in a bit when I made a decision. Now that I am attending, I think it still matters. 

Where I attend, we have what we call study cubes--imagine a typical office cubicle that is slightly bigger but is a room with a locking door. The cube has a desk, chair, and built-in, small book shelf. We share it with one other person. I personally use mine consistently, but it's not the only place I work. I am grateful to have a designated area to put my things that has a lock. 

For office hours, we have another shared room that is more traditional cubicle style--the study cube isn't big enough to hold office hours in. I personally don't use this space and hold my office hours elsewhere because it's in the basement and can feel a bit isolated, but it is available, and I know people use it consistently. 

[politics 'n prose]

Agreed--this is a great (and important) question!

At my master's institution (which, caveat, I graduated from in 2018, so things may have since changed), MA, MFA, and PhD students all operated out of shared offices. I think there were between four and six office spaces scattered throughout the building where the English department was housed. Some students were on fellowship during their first year, but they were still assigned offices alongside the TAs, and generally the offices were a good mix of those who were teaching and those who weren't (though obviously the former group spent far more time in the office than the latter).

There were a decent number of desks in each office, but there were still more grad students than desks, so we'd have a share. On busy days, if you got to the office at the wrong time, you wouldn't necessarily have a work space (or there would be way too much commotion and distraction to really get any work done). I personally didn't get a ton of writing or reading done in that space, but I found it conducive enough to grading and lesson planning (and I held office hours there); in fact, having other grad students around was helpful in this respect because I could bounce pedagogy-related questions off my peers as needed.

In terms of my own work, I was fortunate to have a spare room in my apartment that functioned as a home office. There were also plenty of quiet nooks on campus to be staked out, and a handful of coffee shops farther from campus that were generally low-traffic and offered a bit more in the way of ambiance than my dank basement office.