LadyeBird Posted January 30, 2015 Author Posted January 30, 2015 Bacchanalia, I'd keep my eyes peeled for signs of issues similar to problems you've had at other institutions. Like your second question about PaR, I'm assuming you want PaR to be part of your methodology. If they've got lots of good rehearsal space, a good system to book rooms, and lots of student and faculty led projects going on. I'm sure you've notified the department you're coming for a visit. Sitting in on classes and getting to talk to current students will be on the top of my list once I get admitted somewhere. I have a few pages full of questions I asked UT before applying based on the shortfalls of the department where I did my MFA. I know what I don't want (emphasis on undergrads' praxis; no departmental support for extra grad projects) and focused on finding out if the department I'm applying to (or choosing to go to in your case) has those issues or not. I hope that helps. During my phone interview Dr Rossen told me its 80 down in Austin. That sure forced Northwestern down to the bottom of my wish list!!
Bacchanalia Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 During my phone interview Dr Rossen told me its 80 down in Austin. That sure forced Northwestern down to the bottom of my wish list!! Yeah, the winter is pretty sweet. It makes up for summer heat that can melt a cell phone if its left in your car. But Austin is pretty awesome all around. I have a friend who is ABD in the Comp. Lit. department there and he has loved it all the way through. Lots of great teaching experience and a really cool campus. I know it's not quite the same, but I have only heard great things.
MintBrad Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 Well, just got my Berkeley rejection email-- Ladyebird hope you get better news! A bit bummed, but hoping that not hearing yet from Stanford is a good sign--- fingers still crossed
LadyeBird Posted January 31, 2015 Author Posted January 31, 2015 I got my rejection from Berkeley earlier today as well. Fingers crossed for you on Stanford MintBrad!
chottosassy Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 Hey all - joining in on this thread. I applied to a mixture of PhD and MA programs. So far - rejected from UC Berkeley (PhD), Interview with Queen Mary U of London (MA). That's it... waiting on Northwestern, Columbia, Brown, CUNY (PhD) and Concordia, Lesley, and NYU (MA).
LadyeBird Posted January 31, 2015 Author Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) Welcome to the thread chottosassy! Good luck with your QMUL interview. I have two masters from the UK and would be happy to answer any questions about the differences in pedagogy or UKBA visa processes. I applied to Brown last year and heard back (rejection) the first week of February (the 4th to be precise). Good luck!! Edited January 31, 2015 by LadyeBird
Bacchanalia Posted February 1, 2015 Posted February 1, 2015 Welcome Chottosassy! Sounds like you were busy during application season! Sorry to hear about the Berkeley news. Just curious, what are all of you interested in working on? More theatre or more PS? More NYU or Northwestern style PS? More theory or history or cultural studies focused? It's such a diverse field of study, I'm always amazed to hear what everyone is doing!
MintBrad Posted February 1, 2015 Posted February 1, 2015 Welcome Chottosassy-- sorry to hear about Berkeley, seems like we collectively were clobbered on that one! Bacchanalia, I'm glad you asked that, I was getting curious as well! I have to admit that I am coming to performance studies somewhat circuitously, in that my undergrad (Sarah Lawrence) didn't force us to have majors, so I 'concentrated' in Political Science, Theatre, and Film (production and history). After a couple years working in the film industry (and paying the bills as a private tutor) I realized that I wanted to teach, and got my M.A. at NYU in Educational Theatre and Educational Social Studies. The last couple of years I've been teaching Theatre, History, and English courses and getting a bit back into acting and directing. Suffice it to say, I've never been completely satisfied choosing between the arts and social sciences, and after a bit of research I came upon Performance Studies as a natural hybrid for my interdisciplinary yearnings. That's basically a longwinded way of saying, I honestly have no idea what the distinction between NYU and Northwestern styles of PS is. I know, from my time at NYU, that the NYU program is generally more geared towards practice than academia, and I definitely want to ultimately teach. My intended dissertation would be on the ways in which mass performance (journalism, film, theatre, campaign commercials, and political spectacle in general) has influenced the US cultural divide since 2000. Ideally, I'd like to use Verbatim theatre and documentary film as my models of research and performance on a piece that explores the creation of 'red' and 'blue' as cultural distinctions. There's a bit of identity theory and political science sprinkled in, but to be completely honest, I'm curious to see how my academic history affects my applications. I don't have intensive research since undergrad (which was in the mid 2000's), but hopefully make up for it with extensive teaching history, and a moderate amount of professional theatre and film experience. So we'll see! Eager to hear about everyone's goals and background!
LadyeBird Posted February 1, 2015 Author Posted February 1, 2015 MintBrad, your research interests sound so interesting! I'm also interested in mass performance and culture, specifically performance and activism. The research I've proposed this round of PhD applications is focused on performance and performativity within the current feminist movement to end sexual assault and domestic violence. I want to look at the intersection of cyber/digital/online performance (i.e. hashtag feminism, blogging, YouTube, Facebook) and RL performance (anything ranging from protests to traditional theatre performances like the V-Day campaign). Right now I'm working on a paper (titled "Hashtag Feminism and the Fight to End Violence") for a conference in Utrecht in April. My background is in Staging Shakespeare (in a feminist or queer way) and my experience with Performance Studies and PaR is UK-based as my two masters are from schools in England. I've got an MFA in Theatre Practice from the University of Exeter which was very practice-based and an MA in Performance Research from the University of Bristol which covered all manner of theatre and performance studies research. There I focused mainly on theatre historiography, which I still see as an important part of my research methodologies even when focusing on performance studies. I find it important to place my research in a historical context before being able to move forward. So I'm not sure if my approach is more Northwestern PS or NYU PS. Good question Bacchanalia, can't wait to hear more about everyone's interests!
Bacchanalia Posted February 1, 2015 Posted February 1, 2015 (edited) Your projects sound AMAZING! This is why this is such an fascinating field of study! LadyeBird, my wife works in a domestic violence shelter and works with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence every day. I told her about your project and she thinks it is amazing. Keep up the good work! Sorry if that was unclear, but from my experience PS is pretty divided along lines of the two scholars who "created" the field, Richard Schechner and Victor Turner. Schechner went on to start the department at NYU, and had a background as an avant garde director, so NYU is traditionally more based in there/dance, though recently its moved more towards performance art and performance of everyday life (this shift is usually largely contributed to Peggy Phalen who was chair at NYU until she went to Stanford). Turner's field was Anthropology and he went to Northwestern, where the projects (as far as I can tell) are more oriented towards ritual and anthropology. MintBrad, I'm interested to hear your take on the practice aspect. I don't know if I had ever thought of it in those terms. The dept does offer some opportunities fro practice, but I would say first and foremost is the HEAVY emphasis on high theory and scholarly writing. Practice was always around, but never emphasized at NYU. I have my undergrad in Theatre (acting) and English (literature) and then I did my M.A. in Performance Studies, my M.A. thesis was about racism, stupidity and the abjection of the American South. For my PhD I'm trying to bridge the gap between Performance Studies and Theatre Studies, hopefully working with new Theatre/Performance groups like The TEAM, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, Elevator Repair Service, etc. I am working on imaginiation and theories of spectatorship mainly with the idea that spectators are not passive, but active members of the creation of the performance. Edited February 1, 2015 by Bacchanalia
MorneQuelquun Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Hello All. I might as well add myself into this group, I'm also applying to PhD programs in Performance Studies. I also got my rejection from Berkeley on the 30th. So, hello to all, I'm happy to collectivize my nerves with you all. Its nice to see some support out there. My research is in the medical history of dance and pathologization of the body. And this application process is making me feel pathological. We are all, are we not, sweating on Stanford right now.
Bacchanalia Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 Welcome Morne! I think I'm the only one who has heard back from Stanford, and it was not good news, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for everyone else!
Bacchanalia Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 Just a heads up to the CUNY people. I just emailed to ask for a timeline (because UCSD wants an answer by the 15th GULP) and they said to expect a response in the next 10 days. They also said to contact them if I haven't heard anything in that time frame. Now I can be a total psycho about checking my email for the next 10 days...hooray.
MorneQuelquun Posted February 7, 2015 Posted February 7, 2015 Thanks Bacchanalia for the update. I've been wondering about them... this gives a timeframe, that can be good. I might have been checking my email for months otherwise. As for me, I had an interview with a European program today, and I think the interview went well. I have another interview tomorrow with Temple University for their dance PhD, but it isn't like other interviews for PhDs, it is required of all their applicants, and the process begins at 8:45 tomorrow morning and continues until 3pm in Philadelphia, I am prepared for a very long day tomorrow. (And wow! This city is weird! Its like NYC junior, and I don't mean less population, I mean that the streets and buildings in the center are literally miniature versions of what one would find in NYC.) Its so amazing, I guess, when you're first looking at programs and you just think to yourself (didn't you) "oh it would be so nice to go there and learn with those people at that place!" and then, after doing the application, it occurs to you that there is a scarcity, the sheer/near/seeming/weighty impossibility of acceptance that then plagues you. I now know what LadyeBird was talking about when she was describing going through what she said in the interview over and over. The question becomes "How could I have framed that more eloquently? How could I have communicated that big thing in the matter of minutes? Because the sheer/near/seemingly/weighty impossibility depends on it to not be impossible!" Applications, it seems to me, are like cliff notes. And some books just don't translate well into abridged versions, you know??? But for me, I was going through my interview over and over, and wondering all the same, "Did I say that? Or do I just think I said that?" All the way, on the bus to Philly. Anyway, good luck to you all. It is much nicer to feel somehow in cahoots with you here, rather than at odds with who-knows, out there, in the ether, wondering if who-knows will get something and not me. I root for each of you. Go get 'em. ~Morne.
MintBrad Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 Just checked the results page and it looks like people are getting good news from CUNY and interviews from brown and northwestern-- anyone on this board? Those three aren't on my list, so I'm rooting extra hard for you guys!
MorneQuelquun Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 The board also shows that somebody got an interview with Columbia on February 5th.
Mocha Earl Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 Thank you MintBrad! I got an invitation to in-person interview to Northwestern! It seems like someone got a exceptionally good offer from CUNY! Hope it's from this thread! Whoever that is, congratulations!
asco Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Hihi, I've been stalking this thread a bit and figured I should do more than just take haha MochaEarl, I'm interviewing at Northwestern too! Super pumped to visit Chicago; I've never been! Other schools: Brown - interviewed (& waiting to hear back ); Berkeley - waitlisted; NYU (MA) - nothing yet Good luck/stay strong, everyone! Edited February 10, 2015 by asco
Bacchanalia Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 Wow! Congrats asco and Mint Brad! That is all great news! And congrats to the people that have gotten acceptances, the results page seems to have some new ones every day. I haven't heard anything from CUNY yet, the status of my application hasn't even switched to "under review," it still just says submitted. So, I'm guessing that is not good news
MintBrad Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Just got the dreaded letter from Stanford-- fingers crossed for the rest of you!
DoctorTheatre2015 Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 So just got a rejection letter from University of Wisconsin-Madison yesterday. Today I got an email from the application review committee from Texas Tech University asking me to elaborate on my interests and why I have so many W's on my undergrad transcript. It was all from health reasons and most likely immaturity. I did a post-BA education program with a 3.6 GPA and finished my masters with a 3.6. My undergrad was a 2.7...I want to say that my most recent grades are a better indicator of my success and contributation to the program than my undergrad years, but I'm not sure how to put it. Advice?
ThatGuyNoThatOne Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 (edited) DocTheatre--similar situation with my undergrad transcript--I've handled it this way where appropriate: "A look at my undergraduate transcript might give one pause. In general, I think it simply demonstrates where I was sixteen years ago: working full-time throughout college and very much undergoing a slow road to authentic self-awareness and maturity. This process involved more than the average college shenanigans, and attendance policies often got the better of me. I usually thrived in courses that actually captivated my mind, and flailed through topics I deemed less interesting. Also, let’s be honest: classes that began before 10 AM could solely explain my lower grades." Hope this helps. Edited February 13, 2015 by ThatGuyNoThatOne
MorneQuelquun Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 Hi DoctorTheater- I also had problems on my application (an unfinished MFA)- I think the point is to articulate the poor GPA from undergrad as a learning experience that was (1) valuable to you and (2) not necessary to repeat. You could write that you faced hardship because of your health problems but didn't have the maturity at the time to negotiate doing well at school while struggling with life, but since that time, you've learned that being and school and living life are always a negotiation, and that there is always a way to focus on your studies even in the hardest of times. It has worked for me to be honest about my educational struggles in the past, and to articulate how I learned from them. I've got two great, fully-funded offers for Fall 2015, and in both the Personal Statements for those schools I wrote about my struggles as an MFA student. It is really heartening to know that you can bounce back after a fall.
ThatGuyNoThatOne Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 Has anyone received word from CUNY on this board?
Bacchanalia Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 ThatGuy, I have not heard yet and it's driving me crazy! I got an email on the 6th that said they are notifying in the next 10 days... so I would say contact them on Monday if you still haven't heard. I've been working under the assumption that they will probably send out a lot of emails as they are closing the office today, to avoid a lot of angry/confused phone calls. That's only my guess after working in admissions throughout my undergrad, but CUNY might be different? I've seen at least 4 people post acceptances on the results board, so my hopes are pretty low at this point. DoctorTheatre, I would say that it's good news they are asking for more info! Just make sure you frame your response in a positive, "I've grown since then" mentality. Its all about selling your strengths while minimizing weaknesses. Think like a politician and use a question about a potential weakness to talk about a strength.
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