Roquentin

Yeah, I've done this too (shared a room with my supervisor at a conference). The only tricky thing was that I wanted to fine tune my paper a bit before giving it, and I didn't want him to know that I wasn't 100% ready to go. Other than that, it went fine - not a big deal at all.

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you! (I'd never heard of CGU before this thread, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the $32k/year fee. That's more than the tuition fees for my entire 6 year doctorate!)

(my apologies in advance for going a bit off topic) Canadian here. I have to ask. This $200k being tossed around - is this a realistic sum? When the thread first began, I assumed that this was a rhetorical figure. Would this actually be a reasonable assessment of the average cost of an unfunded PhD in English in the U.S. (recognizing of course that funding usually covers tuition, that different schools charge different fees, that few people, if any, I hope, will take on this much debt for their degree, and etc.)?

Too funny. Reminds me of this classic CHE thread: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,32865.0.html

Does anyone know if the Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society is defunct? They've always had an annual conference in the fall (mid October, usually), but this year they didn't put out a cfp. Their website has been dead since last year. Very strange.

I'm mainly familiar with the larger external grants available to Canadian students (and I don't know if you're Canadian. If you were, you'd probably already know about these grants - our departments tend to push them pretty hard). Smaller international, short-term research grants are widely advertised (and highly competitive). Many (most? all?) are offered by field of study. So you might find a grant available to cover research in your particular field. Also, many research libraries offer grants for visiting scholars. If your work is the least bit archival, if specific libraries have collections that interest you, and (this is the big "if") if you're inclined to travel to conduct research, then you might apply for the funding that those libraries offer. I've seen lots of grants that simply have a "grad student" category for applicants (i.e. technically, you need not be a PhD student to apply). Good luck!

What kind of grants are you interested in, specifically? Would short-term research grants fit the bill, or are you looking for multi-year grants (i.e. external funding to support the completion of a degree)?

Which Renaissance? Carolingian?

Different programs have different residency requirements. In my department, for example, I believe that the minimum residency period is two years. I'd recommend that you look into the requirements set by the programs that interest you. Also consider that there are drawbacks involved in living away from one's home institution.

While I vaguely recall a few bits of decent, long-buried commentary/advice in this thread, overall it reads as a heated contest to have the last word without saying anything new. It’s just a really fantastic snapshot of grad student/academic futility. Kudos, all!

To reiterate with an example, I’ll be presenting a paper this summer in London at the International Conference of Historical Geographers. It’s in July, and CFPs for it started to come out about a year prior to that. I submitted an abstract to the organizers of a panel in late August. They accepted my paper and, in turn, proposed their panel, which was itself accepted in late November. That kind of timeline isn’t out of the ordinary (e.g. MLA 2016 CFPs have already been circulating for a few months), so I’d suggest that your best bet for the time being would be to consider conferences that will take place next fall or winter. Smaller, earlier local talks might be an option too, but, in general, things like that wind down in the spring and pick up again in the fall. It’s the fabled summertime lull!

Ha, great gif! I enjoyed the first season of Broad City when it was shiny and new, but this last season . . . skewed a bit young and safe for my tastes. Reminds me too much of Workaholics. Too hammy, too little substance. Not funny. Not memorable. Girls can be even more insufferable and pretentious, but I always thought it had more potential. But this last season . . . there's not much growth there either.

Is anyone else interested in HBO's Girls? I'm just finishing the most recent season. Hannah's grad school sojourn was far too brief, I thought. Overall, I haven't cared much for the season and might not stick around for the next one. The show's become a bit too Broad City-ish for me, if that makes sense.

Do your own homework.

One approach is to start with the top ranked journal and then work your way down the list (note: can be very time consuming). Different journals will have different specifications about what they require beyond your paper itself. If by cover note you mean your initial correspondence with the journal's editor, then I'd recommend keeping things short and simple. It's usually enough to say "Please find attached an article submission, (title), for (journal title). Thank you for your consideration." If the journal asks for other stuff (abstract, keywords, bio, etc.), I'll send that in another attachment.